


Same Difference

by Sunnylighter



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: But will they stay human?, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, How Do I Tag, Human AU, Multi, Mutants, Mutation, NOT a high school au, Sibling Love, Sibling Rivalry, Tag As I Go, by cross-posted I mean already posted there, some body horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-04-18 08:36:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 61
Words: 503,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14209308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunnylighter/pseuds/Sunnylighter
Summary: There are many what ifs. What if Tang Shen had lived? What if Miwa had never become Karai? What if the turtles were born as Hamato Yoshi's actual sons, rather than a mutagenic accident? One thing is for sure, no matter how the Hamato family got their start, with these teens, there's always going to be some crazy adventures involved.





	1. How it All Began

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A single change can effect so many lives.

Before now, Hamato Yoshi had never known that life could change so drastically so fast.

A year ago, his life had been the happiest he'd ever known. He'd married the woman of his dreams, and together they'd had a beautiful daughter named Miwa. He was also the head of his family's ninja clan, and was considered a master in the art of Ninjutsu, one of the greatest in a century.

Life was as close to perfect as it could get. There was only one dark spot in his otherwise happy life, and it was named Oroku Saki.

Saki used to be Yoshi's best friend. The Hamato family had adopted him when he was an infant, and the two had grown up as close as brothers.

But then Saki and Yoshi had both fallen in love with the lovely Tang Shen, and their rivalry for her affections drove a wedge between their bonds of friendship. The bond was further damaged when Tang Shen chose Yoshi over Saki, and the latter's jealousy drove him to horrendous acts of rage.

The final straw that severed their ties completely came when Saki had discovered the truth of his origin. That he was the heir to the bloodthirsty Foot Clan, and had been taken in by the Hamatos after an attack on his clan's home base many years ago.

Enraged by all this, Saki had forsaken Yoshi, and the entire Hamato Clan, swearing vengeance upon them all before leaving, never to return.

Or so they had thought.

Yoshi had mourned the loss of his friend, but he had never expected to see him again, much less in the way that he had. But their inevitable reunion was the catalyst of the rapid changes in Yoshi's life.

It had started with various members of the Hamato Clan being picked off one by one. The murders were cleverly disguised as various unrelated crimes. Tragic accidents, a robberies gone wrong, a Yakuza drive by shooting, maybe even a suicide none saw coming. But as it continued it quickly became clear that these deaths were no coincidence. Someone was targeting the Hamato Clan, and they were slowly but surely being killed off.

In an attempt to protect his clan, Yoshi ordered them closer together for safety in numbers. Those who lived alone would go to an extended visit to others, families scheduled spontaneous and lengthy reunions, and none were to go out alone or unarmed.

But far from creating safety for his clan, the precautions only caused the perpetrator to drop all pretences and speed up his work. Reports soon came in of more murders. Whole families were being wiped out, and none, man, woman, or children were being spared. And still there were no clues as to who was responsible, and seemingly no way to stop the deaths from happening.

In desperation, Yoshi ordered all of his clan to flee. To go into hiding far away where not even he could find them, and remain there in secret until the killer was stopped for good.

And so like the ninja they were, the Hamato Clan vanished without a trace. It's members scattered themselves across Japan, and even into other countries using false names, and keeping their skills secret.

Yoshi knew it was only a matter of time before his family was targeted as well, so he made plans for them to vanish too. He secretly bought tickets to North America on a boat that was owned by a trusted friend, and he warned his wife to pack only their essentials, as they would need to leave quickly.

But the night before they could flee, everything went up in smoke.

Yoshi had been standing guard that night, and was startled when he heard one of the alarms he'd set within his house go off, alerting him that someone had broken in.

The sound also awoke Tang Shen, who scooped up Miwa, and held their daughter closely to her chest, looking around in alarm.

Yoshi wasted no time arming himself with shuko spikes, and moving to stand protectively in front of his wife and child.

The intruder knew that stealth was no longer an option, so the Hamatos could hear him as he rushed closer to their location.

Suddenly, the door to their room was kicked in, and before them stood Oroku Saki with a murderous expression on his face.

"Saki!?" Tang Shen breathed in disbelief, not wanting to believe that their old friend was the one responsible for this.

"What are you  _doing?!"_  Yoshi demanded, enraged at this betrayal.

Saki moved forward, ready to strike at any instant, and in the candlelight Yoshi could see he was wearing the Foot Clan crest on his clothes, and was armed with a pair of razor sharp gauntlets. "I am taking back what is  ** _MINE!"_**  Saki snarled, and he lept forward to attack.

Yoshi was able to block the attack, and the two began to fight fiercely.

Having grown up together, each knew the other's fighting style almost as well as their own. But this was no longer a spar for fun and bragging rights, this was a duel to the death where only one would walk away alive.

As they fought, Yoshi saw Tang Shen rush Miwa to safety out of the corner of his eye. It was just as well, as their fight had knocked several of the lit candles to tip over, causing the room to go up in flames.

Suddenly, Saki used a new move that Yoshi had never seen before. A spinning kick that ended with a sweep of the leg. Before he knew it, Saki had kicked Yoshi's feet out from under him, sending the man sprawling onto the floor and leaving him vulnerable to any coming attack.

Saki sneered down at him, and raised his gauntlet.

Yoshi knew he wouldn't be able to dodge any blow Saki dealt from this position. Hoping he could reach the person who had once been his brother, Yoshi shouted, "Saki, please don't do this!"

Saki only smirked, believing his rival was begging at his feet where he belonged. "This is for stealing the woman I love," he said darkly as he positioned himself to strike.

He brought the blades down in a blow that would undoubtedly end Yoshi's life, when suddenly a figure jumped between them.

Both Yoshi and Saki both cried out in alarm as they realized that the figure was none other than Tang Shen, rushing to protect her husband from the killing blow.

Though Saki tried to pull back from the strike, it still hit, and the woman they both desired fell slumped onto Yoshi, blood pouring from the long gashes on her back.

Yoshi dropped his shuko spikes, and cradled his wife in his arms, searching her face desperately for any sign of life. "Tang Shen," he begged. "My love, please…"

But though Yoshi could still feel her pulse, Tang Shen lay still and silent, her eyes closed as if in sleep. She still lived, but she looked like death.

Saki, realizing what he had just done, backed away from them both, looking at Tang Shen in horror. "No," Yoshi heard him whisper in a lost sounding voice.

Before either man could do anything more, the fire caused the roof to collapse between them, cutting Saki off from Yoshi and Tang Shen.

Yoshi heard Saki cry out in pain and rage as the flames burned the skin on his face. He then heard him crash around in the room, before fleeing from the house.

Knowing he himself had only minutes, Yoshi scooped Tang Shen into his arms and rushed them both out of the house as their home burned down around them. He stopped only long enough to collect a crying Miwa from her hiding place as he went.

Once he was clear of the building, Yoshi looked down at the slashes upon his wife's back.

They were deep and bloody, but would be nonfatal if treated properly in time. Time that he feared Tang Shen did not have. Yoshi knew that there was no way he could get her to a doctor before the worst happened. If he didn't act now, Tang Shen would bleed out and die.

Gently laying his wife face down on the ground, Yoshi grabbed a stick of wood made his way back to the burning building. Using the fabric from his sleeve, he made the stick into a torch, and walked back towards his wife.

"Forgive me, my love," he whispered, before using the torch to cauterize the wounds shut. In her unconscious state, Tang Shen let out a hiss of pain, but mercifully did not awaken.

Once he was done, Yoshi bandaged her wound with more strips from his clothes. Her back could be forever scared from this night, but she would live, and that was all Yoshi could want.

Once he was done, Yoshi knew it was no longer safe for his family here. So once again he gathered them both up, and ran with them to safety.

_________

The next day, after having Tang Shen be treated by a trusted doctor, the Hamato family boarded their boat to America. Fortunately, they had stowed their meager luggage on board the day before. Thanks to that the fire did not destroy it, and they could leave for their new life like they'd planned.

And so after a long voyage their new life in the United States began. They decided to settle in New York City for their new start, as it was so full of people already, no one would notice one more Japanese immigrant family, and that suited the Hamatos just fine. Tang Shen had always dreamed of living there, though she wished her dream had not come at such a price.

Their new apartment was nowhere near as nice as their old house in Japan, and the only job Yoshi managed to get only paid minimum wage, but they got by. They were together and content if nothing else, and that was more than they almost would have had if Oroku Saki had had his way.

At least until a few months after their arrival in the new country, when Tang Shen went to her husband and told Yoshi that she was pregnant once again.

And so, now Hamato Yoshi was in a hospital waiting room with his toddler daughter, awaiting the next big change in his life as his wife gave birth to the newest addition to his family.

It had been a rather difficult pregnancy. Tang Shen had seemed to grow even larger than she had been when pregnant with Miwa, and the baby (they had decided to wait until birth to find out the gender) was far more active than she had been as well. All of the extra weight had been putting a lot of strain on her body, especially on her still recovering back.

Agitated about having to wait for news, Yoshi gave into the urge to pace up and down the waiting room, while little Miwa sat watching him from one of the uncomfortable chairs.

_Finally_ , the doctor walked in and called his name.

Yoshi immediately picked Miwa up, and walked over to the doctor, eager to hear the news.

"My wife, is she-" he started to ask, but the doctor just held up a hand and smiled.

"Your wife is fine, Mr. Hamato, as are your sons. Would you like to come meet them?" asked the doctor kindly.

Feeling like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, Yoshi gave a great sigh of relief.

But then he froze as he realized what he had just heard. English was not his first language, so he must have misheard.

"Son ** _s_** _?_ " he asked, putting emphasis on the plural. Surely he had heard that wrong.

The doctor gave him an amused smile. "Yes, Mr. Hamato,  _sons_ , four of them in fact. Congratulations, you are now the proud father of quadruplets."

Yoshi knew he was gaping at the doctor in a very undignified manner, but he was so flummoxed by this news that he couldn't bring himself to care. He barely even heard himself say he wanted to go see them.

_Sons…_   ** _Four_**  sons… Along with Miwa that meant he and Tang Shen now had five children…

He pulled himself out of his daze just as he entered his wife's hospital room. At the sight of her mother, Miwa started squirming to be put down. When he obliged, she immediately toddled over and jumped up on her mother's bed and hugged her, accidentally jostling the four blanket-wrapped bundles that were also on the bed.

Upset at being moved, the four immediately started to wail, making Miwa stare at them with wide eyes.

Tang Shen laughed at the expressions on their faces, and picked up one of the newborns and began rocking him back into slumber.

Yoshi hurried to help do the same with one of the other three.

As they coaxed their sons back to sleep, Yoshi took the time to really look at the four of them.

It was clear that none of them would be identical, something Yoshi was extremely grateful for (it would be a nightmare to keep who was who straight otherwise). Still they were all small and dark haired, they would need to grow more before most of their distinguishing features became prominent.

The most obvious differences between the four of them were the colors of their eyes, dark blue, vivid green, reddish-brown, and baby blue eyes all stared back at him as he worked to calm his new sons down. There were other minor differences between them as well, such as the one with baby blue eyes had freckles, and unlike any of his brothers.

"What will we name them, Shen?" Yoshi asked softly once they and Miwa (who had nodded off as well) were all asleep. "We only picked out two names, and I doubt any of them would thank us for naming them Catherine."

The two of them had decided not to give their new child a Japanese name, but instead chose to give them names from Renaissance history, which Tang Shen was an avid fan of. The names they'd chosen were Leonardo for a boy, and Catherine for a girl.

Tang Shen smiled up at him, "Then we will just have to give them other names that fit." She gently placed her hand on the head of the baby with dark blue eyes (not that they could be seen with his eyes closed in sleep). "This little one was first," she said softly. "So he will get the name Leonardo."

As she said that, the doctor, who had been hanging back during the reunion, pulled out a pad and began writing the name down.

The Hamatos paid him no mind, and Tang Shen moved her hand to the green-eyed baby. "He was second, and I believe the name Raphael would be fitting for him."

The newly named Raphael squirmed in his sleep, as if acknowledging the name.

Yoshi gently stroked the dark head of the brown-eyed boy. "What of this one?"

"He was third," she said with a smile, "and I believe Donatello would be a good name for him."

Yoshi smiled, then turned his attention to the last, who was sucking his thumb with a content smile on his freckled face. "And the youngest?"

"Michelangelo," said Tang Shen immediately, and with great fondness.

The couple basked in the happiness of the moment, simply content to be in each other's presence while their little ones slept.

But eventually they had to come back down to earth, and Yoshi said to Tang Shen. "We are going to need a bigger house."

Tang Shen laughed in delight, unfortunately startling the children awake again.

___________

Humorous statement or not, Yoshi was correct. Their small apartment may have been a cozy home for a small family of three, and may have been a tight fit for four, but it would definitely not hold a family of seven, especially once their children grew bigger.

Knowing this, as soon as Tang Shen was out of the hospital Yoshi went to convince the bank to give him a loan. With the loan he bought an undeveloped lot, and built his own dojo on it. He'd had it constructed so that the upper floor and basement could be used as a living space, and he would teach martial arts classes on the main floor.

And so the Renaissance Dojo came to be.

Once it opened, the dojo quickly became a success. With the variety of classes it offered, from basic self-defense, to kendo, to ninjutsu, the dojo quickly became popular, and was a good source of income for their family.

Yoshi was always very careful to not let the dojo broadcast his name, so as not to draw Oroku Saki to his doorstep a second time. In an attempt to counter this he had filed for the dojo under a false name (one that if ever caught by authorities could easily be passed off as a simple mistake of an immigrant new to the country), and he allowed his students to call him by his old nickname, Master Splinter, rather than his real one. He also grew a beard in hopes of disguising his features. Thankfully, it seemed to have worked, and they heard nothing from their old life in Japan.

Thanks to all this, the Hamato family had a nice home with enough room for five children to grow up in. It also was the perfect size to have enough secret rooms, hidden exits, and hideaways that you would never find them all unless you knew where they were.

In short, it was the perfect home for a human ninja family with its share of secrets. Within it, Miwa, Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo grew up happy and safe, and Yoshi passed down to them all that he knew of ninjutsu, and the ways of their clan.

And so the Hamato Clan lived happily for years. At least until the night of the boys' fifteenth birthday, when everything changed...


	2. One Heck of a Birthday Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While out on a birthday run through the city, the five Hamato siblings spot an abduction in action, and the night only gets stranger from there.

It was the night of the Hamato quadruplets' fifteenth birthday, and the four boys had begged their parents to let them and their sister stay out late in order to play ninja tag on the rooftops. Their parents had agreed on the condition that the teens conceal their faces with masks (it would not do for their identities to be broadcast all over New York), and that they all be home before midnight.

 

And so, if one looked up on that particular night, as New Yorkers so rarely do, there was a chance they would see five teens in dark clothing and various brightly colored masks leaping from building to building.

 

The five ninja teens had been having the time of their lives up on the rooftops. Already they'd each had a chance to be it, and Raphael managed to spook a pizza boy into dropping his delivery, meaning free pizza for them (much to Mikey's delight).

 

But what started as a fun and peaceful night changed abruptly when Donatello suddenly skidded to a stop on one of the rooftops.

 

"Hey guys, look at that!" he said pointing to the street below.

 

His four siblings gathered at the edge to see what had him so excited.

 

Below them, a pretty red haired girl in a yellow t-shirt was walking along with an older, balding, but equally red haired man, who was no doubt her father.

 

Raph turned to his brother with a smirk on his face. "Isn't that that April girl from school that you have a crush on, Donnie?"

 

"The one who has no idea you even exist?" added Michelangelo with a teasing grin.

 

Miwa looked down and examined the girl. "For good reason," she teased. "April O'Neil is  _way_  out of your league, little brother."

 

Donnie, who had been gazing at April dreamily, snapped out of his daze and began stammering excuses (though he didn't deny his crush on her).

 

Mikey, Raph, and Miwa exchanged glances at the sight, and burst out snickering, causing Donnie's blush to deepen.

 

Leonardo rolled his eyes behind his blue mask at his siblings' antics and looked back down towards Donnie's crush. His eyes widened as he saw a van drive up, and several men get out of it and surround the two on the street in a way that did not look friendly.

 

"Uh, guys," Leo called, drawing their attention back to the scene.

 

As they watched, Mr. O'Neil tried to defend his daughter, only for one of the men to knock him out with a solid punch.

 

April shrieked in fear at the sight.

 

Miwa punched Donnie on the shoulder. "You want April to notice you, saving her would be a good start," she said.

 

"Hold on, guys," said Leo cautiously, stopping them from jumping straight off the building. "Father said we shouldn't let people see us."

 

"No, he said not to let people identify us," Raph said back sarcastically. "That's what the masks are for, genius."

 

"Well I'm going," said Donnie with conviction, before leaping from the roof.

 

His siblings exchanged a quick look, before following after him.

 

____________

 

April wondered how such a nice night could go so wrong.

 

She and her father had just gone out for an ice cream run at the parlor a few blocks away. But on their way home four creepy weirdoes in suits, and one unwashed and shifty looking man decided to show up and attack them.

 

Her father had shoved her behind him, and demanded they tell him what they wanted. But they remained silent, and one of the suited men hit her father so hard he was knocked unconscious.

 

April screamed at the sight, and hoped that someone would hear it and call the cops.

 

But that hope seemed in vain, as another of the suits and the unwashed creep grabbed her arms and began dragging her towards the van.

 

The one that had had knocked her father out, reached down and carelessly threw him into the back of the van. His body hit the metal inside with a painful sounding ‘thunk’.

 

Realizing that these people weren't just mugging them, they were planning to kidnap them (and were succeeding so far), April began struggling furiously and crying for help at the top of her lungs.

 

As uncaring as people in New York tended to be, there had to be someone out there that would hear her and help.

 

"Hey!" came a shout.

 

April looked up just in time to see one of the suits get knocked back from a strong hit.

 

Apparently someone in New York  _did_  care.

 

Multiple some ones it seems, as April became aware of the sound of fighting was coming from all around her now. But before she could get a good look at her rescuers, the suit that had been holding her arm swung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and again began carrying her towards the van. The unwashed man ran ahead to start the van for a quick get-away.

 

"Let me  _GO!_ " April screeched, as she beat her fists against the back of the man carrying her, regardless of how it felt like she was beating against a brick wall.

 

But the man didn't appear to feel a thing, and he just kept walking her towards the van that held her father.

 

April couldn't help but think that if he got her in that van, there would be no saving for the either of them.

 

Suddenly, something seemed to fly towards them and knock the suit off balance. And as he went flying forward, she got tossed into the air before gravity started to take effect and brought her down.

 

April only had time to let out a scream as she fell, and she braced herself for impact on the hard concrete.

 

But the impact never came, and she found herself getting caught in midair by a pair of strong arms.

 

"You okay?" asked whoever had caught her in a semi-familiar voice.

 

April looked up at who caught her, and once again let out a yelp of fear.

 

She had been expecting some good Samaritans had stepped in to help her and her father. But good Samaritans typically didn't wear dark, hooded, ninja clothes and purple masks over their eyes. This guy looked like he was on his way to rob a bank.

 

At her yelp, the masked person dropped her in surprise.

 

From her new (painful) seat on the ground, April got a better look at her rescuer. She realized that he couldn't be any older than her, and despite the ninja bank robber clothes, he didn't look all that threatening.

 

Recovering from his surprise, the robber kid waved his hands and said in a reassuring, if slightly panicked voice, "No, no, no! Don't worry, we're the good guys!"

 

He then held out his hand to her, and smiled warmly. Waiting for her to make the first move.

 

April took his hand without hesitation, and allowed him to pull her to her feet. Even if this kid was a bank robber, he at least seemed better than getting kidnapped by the suits. Getting robbed was something she could handle, kidnapping was not.

 

The robber kid beamed at her, revealing a gap-toothed smile that was also strangely familiar.

 

But before she could comment on it, another, shorter kid also dressed in a black ninja outfit and mask (though his was orange) jumped beside Robber Kid, and accidentally smacked him on the head with his weapon.

 

When he did so, Robber Kid's hood fell off and he glared at the other teen, who quickly said, "Whoops, sorry."

 

But now that he was left with just the purple eye mask on, as the shadows hiding his face and hair were gone, revealing an Asian kid with floppy black hair and an oval face. That was when it suddenly clicked where April had seen him before.

 

" _Donnie Hamato_  from Advanced Chem. class?!" she asked in shock, recognizing the boy from her school.

 

Donnie flinched at the sound of his name, all but confirming his identity. "Um, no…" he said too quickly to be honest.

 

"Watch Out!" shouted the other hooded teen in orange (who was no doubt one of Donnie's brothers, probably the youngest judging by his short height, freckles, and the black curls that were poking out of his hood).

 

They turned to see another of the suits coming towards them, only to be kicked away by the only female of the masked group.

 

' _Miwa,'_ April thought, recalling the girl with cropped and dyed hair, and multiple ear piercings,  _'Donnie's older sister, it had to be.'_

 

The girl glared at them, and April saw that instead of an eye mask, she wore a green scarf that covered her nose and mouth with her sleeveless, hooded ninja garb, and her eyes had heavy makeup on them.

 

"We're not here to socialize!" she snapped at the other two. "Get her out of here! And watch your backs!"

 

With that said, she darted back into the fight, swinging her short sword at her enemies.

 

"R-right," said Donnie, who grabbed April's wrist, and pulled her towards a nearby alley. Once there he motioned for her to hide behind a dumpster. "Stay here," he whispered, "We'll go get your father. I promise."

 

With that he pulled his hood back over his head, and hurried back to join the fight, leaving April to huddle in the alley and wonder when her world had gone completely crazy.

 

____________

 

The fight was not going well.

 

Mikey had thought it wouldn't be too hard. Do the good deed, and get out of there.

 

Maybe April would come to school next Monday talking about how masked superheroes had saved her, but that was the end of it.

 

He had not been expecting the men in suits to be so strong, nor had he known how hard it would be to get them to take a hit.

 

Raph had started off by punching one of the suits with all his strength. The fact that the guy hadn't been knocked flat should have been warning enough that this fight wouldn't be as easy as he'd first predicted. Mikey couldn't remember the last time someone was still standing after one of Raph's power punches.

 

But even with how tough the guys in suits were, that wasn't the worst part of how the fight was going.

 

No, the worst part was the fact that none of them seemed able to make a move without tripping over each other. It was so bad that at one point, Leo had nearly accidentally stabbed Raph in the back with his swords, causing the hothead to glare at him furiously, and not notice his real opponent till he'd been sucker punched down the street.

 

To say nothing of the fact that his own nunchuck had clocked Donnie over the head while he was saving his crush. That was embarrassing, and it may have completely blown their cover.

 

At least Donnie had managed to get April out of there, and he could focus more on finishing the fight (hopefully without any of his siblings accidentally killing each other).

 

He got distracted for a second when he saw Donnie rejoin the fight, and as such didn't see when one of the suits grabbed him, and threw him into his genius brother. They both landed in a heap in a pile of trash.

 

Suddenly, the sound of screeching tires made Mikey look up in alarm.

 

Donnie shoved his little brother off, and rushed after the van, which was now speeding down the street. "They're getting away, they've got her Dad!" Donnie yelled, prompting Miwa, Leo, and Raph to run after it with him (Raph berating Leo for nearly stabbing him as they ran).

 

Mikey climbed to his feet, and dusted himself off.  _'That could have gone better,_ ' he thought to himself.

 

He started to go after his brothers and sister, when he noticed one of the suits was still there, staring at him with an expressionless face.

 

Mikey quickly pulled out his nunchaku, and glared at the man.  **"** You think you're  **Tough! _Huh_?!"**  he demanded.  **"** You think you're tough enough to stand up to my  ** _HOT NUNCHUCK FURY!"_**

 

Spinning his nunchucks expertly, Mikey swung and hit the man in the suit several times, but the guy didn't even flinch from the blows. When Mikey tried for a blow to the head, the man caught his weapon in midair, yanked it away from him, and tossed it aside.

 

"I see," said Mikey in a tiny voice. "Well then-" he let out a scream, and bolted away from the man.

 

Looking back he could see the suited man following him, his face still expressionless as he ran. The sight only made Mikey run faster, but he couldn't shake the guy.

 

Trying to lose him, Mikey ducked into an alley. But then to his horror, he realized the alley he'd run into was a dead end.

 

Turning, Mikey saw the man was still there and getting closer by the second.

With a whimper, Mikey pulled out his second nunchuck, and converted it into a kusarigama.

 

He swung the sickle end at the man as a warning, but it did nothing to stop the man from advancing.

 

In a panic, Mikey threw all his strength into one final slash of weapon with a yell of " **STAY _BACK!_ "**

 

His heart nearly stopped when he felt the sickle connect, and cut through the man's face. The man reached up and clutched at his eyes, before stumbling away and collapsing on the ground in a boneless heap.

 

The sound of a feminine shriek to his left had him whipping around, and drawing his attention away from the man.

 

Hiding behind the dumpster in the alley was a pale and horrified looking April. It was then Mikey realized that this is where Donnie had taken her to hide.

 

He'd nearly just led her kidnappers back to her…

 

But Mikey had more important things to worry about, as he turned his gaze back to the man he'd just sliced.

 

"Oh man," he said in a panicked voice. "Did I kill him?  _PLEASE_ tell me I didn't kill him! I didn't mean it! I  ** _really_**  didn't mean it!"

 

April slowly crawled out of her hiding place, and approached him nervously, though still maintaining a safe distance. "It-it was self-defense," she said in an equally freaked out voice. "It wasn't your fault, uh, Mickey, right?"

 

"Mikey," he corrected, remembering too late that they weren't supposed to give out their identities. But to his defense, he was close to hyperventilating over the fact  _he may have just freakin' **KILLED SOMEONE!**_  He had bigger things to worry about than his secret identity.

 

"May-maybe he's not dead," said April desperately as she started digging in her pocket for a cell phone. "W-we can call an ambulance…"

 

Desperately hoping that she was right (he  ** _really_**  didn't want to be responsible for murder), Mikey crouched down next to the man, and carefully rolled him over onto his back.

 

" _What The-!"_ he gasped as he got a look at the man's face. He quickly scrambled away on all fours, trying to put as much distance from him and the body as he could, stopping only when his back hit a wall.

 

April looked up from her phone search, and gaped at the sight as well, before letting out a frightened squeak and quickly joining the ninja at the dead end of the alley.

 

Instead of any blood or other gross stuff one would expect to see from a man who's face had been slashed open, the teens instead were staring at a blue robotic face with glowing pink eyes peeking out from where Mikey had cut him.

 

"That is all kinds of wrong!" Mikey declared, shrinking as far back against the wall as he could.

 

April wordlessly nodded in agreement.

 

The robotic face gave off some sparks before the glow in the eyes died, and the robot man's chest opened beneath his suit.

 

Out of his chest popped a pink, brain-like creature with yellow and green eyes, tentacles, and a mouth full of fangs.

 

The creature turned and snarled at the two of them, and they screamed back as they clutched each other in terror.

 

Before either of them could react, the creature darted forward and launched itself at Mikey's face, and his screaming became muffled as the creature hugged his head in a death grip.

 

After several minutes of fruitless tugging, April and Mikey were finally able to fling the brain creature off of Mikey. It hit the alley wall with a disgusting splat, before picking itself up and scuttling away, squealing as it went.

 

Mikey and April sat panting for a minute, before they exchanged a wide-eyed look and got the heck out of there.

 

They exited the alley just in time to see Mikey's siblings coming back after failing to catch up to the van.

 

"Guys! Guys! You're never going to believe this!" Mikey gasped breathlessly as he and April reached them. "That dude- he-he  _had a BRAIN!_ "

 

"We all have brains, Mi-my little brother," Leo deadpanned, catching himself before he revealed Mikey's name.

 

"Not all of us," muttered Donnie.

 

Mikey gave them a disbelieving look. "In our  _chests_?" he said incredulously.

 

"No, little brother, not in our chests," Leo said in the same deadpan tone.

 

Mikey scowled at them.  **"YOU'RE NOT LISTENING TO ME!"**  he yelled furiously.

 

An abrupt smack to the face had the youngest ninja drawing up his hands in defense. "Did you just slap me?" he asked in a low tone.

 

"I was calming you down," said Leo in a matter of fact tone.

 

" **WHY WOULD THAT CALM ME DOWN?!"**  Mikey bellowed. Couldn't his siblings see he was terrified? He didn't need to calm down, he needed them to help him make sense of all this.

 

"I think we need to cut down on Leo's  _Space Heroes_  intake," Miwa whispered to Raph, having recognized Leo's 'calming technique' from the show's main hero.

 

"No arguments here," Raph muttered back.

 

"I think he's delusional," said Donnie, as he looked his brother over for injuries.

 

"No-no Mikey's right," said April, having finally caught her breath enough to speak. "L-l-look."

 

April held out the shard of the man's face that Mikey had cut off in his panic. The four older ninjas stared at the shard in disbelief.

 

Mikey, however, looked at it in revulsion. " _Ew_ , you picked it up?!"

 

"Well if that brain thing didn't let go of your face, I was going to try stabbing it with it," April explained. "It's sharp. It seemed like a good idea at the time."

 

"Wait, what's going on?" asked Raph, wondering when this night had taken the left turn to Crazy Town.

 

"Jus-just come here," said Mikey gesturing for them to follow him as he headed back to the alley.

 

He and April explained everything as best they could as they headed back to the alley. Only to find it empty. No robot man, and no alien brain pilot.

 

"B-but it was right here!" shouted Mikey, pointing at the spot the body had been.

 

"He's right, it was!" insisted April.

 

Seeing the two's helpless expressions, and having no clue what to believe, Donnie took the shard from April and examined it closely in hopes it would yield some answers.

 

On one side of the jagged piece was clearly the face of one of the men who'd attacked April and her father. Flipping it over, he saw bits of technology worked into it that was more advanced than anything he had ever seen before. He said as much to the others.

 

"So you're saying our attempt to stop a kidnapping has just turned into a Sci-Fi freak fest?" Miwa asked incredulously.

 

"Looks like it," Leo said. Then something occurred to him. "Wait a minute," he said, and turned to glare at Mikey. "How did April know who you were?" he asked, remembering that the redhead had called him by name.

 

Now all the other Hamatos were glaring at their youngest brother.

 

Mikey shrunk in on himself and stammered to find an excuse, but April came to his defense.

 

"I guessed," she said. "After I realized who Donnie was, it wasn't hard to figure out who the rest of you were."

 

Everyone turned their glares to Donnie, but he paid them no mind, as he was looking at April with hopeful eyes.

"You know about me?" he asked shyly, Mikey's previous statement about April not knowing he existed hadn't seemed to be far off the mark before.

 

April looked embarrassed. "Yeah, kinda. I've heard about all you guys, uh, through school gossip at least. Quadruplets, even ones who aren't identical, are pretty rare, so I know all you guys' names. Plus, you're always getting the really tough questions in Chemistry class."

 

Donnie felt like he was on cloud nine, but the rest of his family looked like they couldn't have heard worse news. Their one big rule of anonymity had been blown in the course of one night.

 

"Father and Mother are going to kill us," said Raph, summing up what they all were thinking. 


	3. One Heck of a Birthday Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The siblings get April to safety, and they make plans to save her father, but strange things are happening tonight.

After viewing one loud sibling argument, and an uncomfortable discussion with their parents later, April found herself sitting in the kitchen of the Renaissance Dojo, being offered tea and birthday cake by her classmates' mother, and again wondering when her life had checked into the Loony Bin.

 

The Hamato Matriarch (who told April to call her Tang Shen) gave the girl a sympathetic smile as she sat down next to her. "Do drink something, my dear," she said kindly. "From the sounds of things you've had a rough night."

 

April glanced up at Tang Shen, before taking a deep drink from her cup of tea. Once she swallowed she said, "My dad just got abducted by aliens, and I found out some of my classmates are secretly butt-kicking ninjas. Rough doesn't even begin to cover it."

 

Tang Shen shook her head at the absurdity of it all, but Michelangelo's insistence, and the piece of a man's face they'd brought back had been enough evidence that  _something_  strange was going on. "I suppose saying sorry wouldn't begin to cover it either," she said.

 

April managed to crack a smile at that. "No, but thanks anyway."

 

The girl picked up a fork, and took a small bite of the birthday cake. "So what's with the cake, anyway?" she asked.

 

Tang Shen chuckled. "It is the boys' fifteenth birthday, and will be up until-" she paused and glanced at the clock on the wall, "- about three hours from now."

 

April winced when she realized how late it was, and for not having known to wish the quadruplets happy birthday at school earlier that day.

 

"Well, I'm sure this is one they'll definitely remember," she muttered more to herself than Tang Shen.

 

Tang Shen gave a light laugh at that. "And I am glad to see your sense of humor has not suffered from this ordeal."

 

April glanced at the stairs down to the dojo, where the five Hamato siblings were giving a more detailed explanation to their father about what had happened that night.

 

"They won't get in trouble for this, will they?" April asked, remembering the stony expression on their father's face when they'd brought her home with them. "They were just trying to help me."

 

Tang Shen shook her head. "And for that very reason, I do not think my husband will punish them severely. Their hearts were in the right place, but you must understand the seriousness of this all." Tang Shen looked April directly in the eye as she explained, "Anonymity and secrecy are two of the most valuable weapons in a ninja's arsenal. The fact that they were seen and identified by you puts us all at great risk. I'm afraid we now find ourselves at your mercy, Ms. O'Neil, should you decide to tell."

 

April's eyes widened, but Tang Shen wasn't finished. "It is more than just the unwanted attention of the public that we fear," she continued. "You see, when my husband and I left Japan, we also left behind… old grudges. Ones that would be all too willing to come here, and ruin our new lives should they discover our whereabouts."

 

April shook her head emphatically. "I promise, cross my heart, I wont tell anyone about this. The guys just saved me tonight from those freaks. I would never put you guys in danger, especially after that."

 

"That's good to hear," came a sullen voice from the stairs.

 

They both turned to see Raphael trudge up the stairs looking irritated. April noticed that like Miwa, the short stocky teen wore a sleeveless black ninja outfit. However, his hood was off showing his spiky black hair, and his red eye mask had been pulled down so it hung like a scarf around his neck. He also (strangely enough) had a turtle sitting on his shoulder.

 

"Er, Happy Birthday!" April called to him lamely.

 

"What happened?" asked Tang Shen, knowing her son was simply frustrated and needed to vent.

 

Raph walked over to the fridge with a sigh. "Good news and bad news," he said as he pulled out some lettuce leaves and made his way to join them at the table.

 

He sat down, took the turtle off his shoulder and placed it on the table, and began feeding it the leaves.

 

"The good news is, Father agreed to let us go out and see if we can track down the jerks who took your dad," he said to April. "With this whole 'alien brain' thing, it's not likely the police will be much use in this."

 

April's face lit up at that. "That's great! Thank you so much," she said, glad that her father would be getting some help.

 

Raph grunted. "Thank Donnie, he insisted. Not that I mind, I wanted to beat those jerks into the ground anyway."

 

April nodded, still beaming.

 

"And the bad news?" prompted Tang Shen.

 

Raph gave an aggravated sigh. "The way we fought tonight was just embarrassing," he said sullenly. "Father thinks that we need a leader in order to work better as a team. He picked Leo for the job."

 

Tang Shen sighed, and rubbed her son's shoulder. Her strongest son had never liked taking orders. And knowing Leonardo, he would be all to eager to give them until he figured out the proper way to go about his new responsibilities.

 

April on the other hand was confused. "Wait," she said. "I thought Miwa was the oldest, shouldn't she have the job?"

 

"We thought so too, at first," said Raph with a shrug. "But Mi laughed at the idea, and said if she led, we'd all be dead in a day. Most likely because she'd kill us all herself."

 

Silently, Tang Shen couldn't help but agree. Miwa was an excellent ninja, but she was not known for her patience.

 

Sensing that a change in subject was needed, April asked, "My?"

 

"Miwa's nickname, we call her that sometimes," Raph explained shortly. "At first, Mikey wanted to call her Mimi, but Miwa wouldn't have that, and it wasn't like it was any shorter anyway."

 

Seeing that he was still surly, April turned her attention to the turtle on the table. "So who's this?" she asked.

 

Raph's face brightened slightly. "This is my buddy Spike. He's been with me since I was a kid. I saved him from being washed into the sewers."

 

"Cool," said April. She'd actually wanted to say cute, but she knew how boys tended to react to that word.

 

Gently, she reached out a hand and ran it over Spike's shell. The turtle looked up at this, but then lazily went back to chewing on his leaf.

 

"What's up with the colors?" April had to ask. The question had been bugging her ever since they'd identified themselves as ninjas. "You know, with your masks and Miwa's scarf? I mean, the dark clothes I get, stealth and all. But green, blue, red, purple, and orange? Why do you wear masks with such bright colors? Isn't that kind of eye catching?"

 

Tang Shen laughed at the question, and Raph actually looked proud.

 

"It is a testament of skill, Ms. O'Neil," explained Tang Shen when her laughter subsided. "The fact that my children can still conceal themselves completely despite the 'eye catching colors' shows that they are proficient ninjas in their own right."

 

April nodded thoughtfully at this.

 

Just then a cough from the stairs caught their attention.

 

They turned to see Leo standing there looking at Raph, with his hood already over his short black hair and his blue mask set in place. "Time to go," he said. "I have an idea where to get information about those kidnappers."

 

_____________

 

It had taken some convincing to get April to agree to stay at their home and out of danger, but eventually the five ninjas were off.

 

Though, when they found out what Leo's great plan was, they almost wished they had stayed home as well.

 

"Explain to me one more time what we're doin' here?" asked Mikey for the fifth time.

 

His siblings groaned in annoyance. They all knew they shouldn't get too angry with him, as his ADHD made it hard for him to focus. Still, it could be hard to put up with him sometimes.

 

"Mikey, we've been over this," said Leo in exasperation. He then pointed over to the building across from the rooftop they were standing on. "That building has the same logo as the van that was used to kidnap April's dad. So if we wait here long enough, at least one of the kidnappers will eventually show his face. And when they do, we'll make them tell us where they took him."

 

Mikey beamed. "And then we got ourselves a van!" he said, pumping his fist in the air.

 

Leo smacked his forehead. "Just hit the guy I tell you too," he said in annoyance.

 

"Can do," said Mikey giving him a thumbs-up.

 

"I don't know, he does have a point," said Miwa. "Do you know how long I've been saving up for my own car? If we get a van out of this, I can only see the upsides."

 

"Technically that's stealing," Donnie pointed out.

 

"And what they did is technically kidnapping. If you ask me they'd deserve it," said Raph, siding with Miwa. He then turned and shot a skeptical look at Leo. "You sure this is gonna work?"

 

Leo grinned confidently. "Trust me, they'll be here any second."

 

An hour came and went, and everyone but Leo was starting to get impatient with the waiting, and they were running out of activities to entertain themselves.

 

One look at Raph's face, and Miwa knew that if he had to listen to another round of Mikey playing I-Spy with Donnie, her hotheaded younger brother was likely to explode.

 

"Hey Leader Boy," she said catching Leo's attention. "Why don't me and Raph break in and scope out the building? Maybe we'll find some clue in there, and we don't have to keep waiting."

 

Leo didn't look like he liked the idea of them splitting up, but one look at Raph's irritated face was enough to convince him otherwise. "Alright," he agreed. "But don't let anyone see you. If you find anyone in there, text us, and we'll join you."

 

Miwa nodded, and she and Raph silently slipped off the roof and across the street.

 

While his sister kept lookout, Raph used his sai to pick the lock on the door and slip in, Miwa darting in after him.

 

The first floor of the building didn't seem like much. Just your average condemned building covered in graffiti, and filled with dusty old boxes.

 

After quickly scoping the first floor out and finding no one there, the two ninjas made their way up the stairs to the second floor.

 

That was where things started getting interesting.

 

At first glance, the second floor didn't seem any different from the first. It seemed just as dusty, and decrepit as below.

 

But then Raph noticed that there was a trail through the dust that indicated someone had been walking through there recently. A lot of some ones, judging by the number of footprints.

 

He followed the trail to a locked room, which was odd since none of the other rooms on the floor had been locked.

 

Unable to jimmy this lock with his sai, Raph kicked in the door, drawing Miwa's attention to his actions.

 

As she came to join him, she saw him standing in the doorway with a dumbfounded expression on his face.

 

"You know, despite what Mikey and April said and that chunk of the guy's face, I still didn't really believe them about the alien thing," he said as she approached.

 

"And?" Miwa asked. She still didn't quite believe it either.

 

"I think I'm starting to change my mind," he said, stepping aside so that Miwa could see into the room.

 

The room looked like something out of a Sci-Fi horror flick. Everything in the room was metallic, and had pink glowing lines running along it. There was an examination table in the middle of the room that was surrounded by various instruments of torture, and large canisters of glowing green liquid lined the shelves.

 

"Whoa," Miwa breathed, as she cautiously took a step into the room.

 

But just as she did so, a machine gun popped out of the ceiling and began firing at her, making both ninjas dart away.

 

As both of them took cover outside the door, they noticed that instead of bullets, the machine gun seemed to be firing pink laser blasts at them, which left scorch marks on the wall opposite them.

 

Finally, the machine gun stopped firing and hid itself back into the ceiling.

 

Raph and Miwa cautiously poked their heads around the door frame, and stared into the room with wide eyes.

 

"Okay, aliens, I'm convinced," said Raph with a freaked-out expression.

 

"Me too," said Miwa, equally freaked out. This was way beyond anything she had ever seen before. Machine guns didn't shoot pink lasers, and abandoned buildings didn't have freaky science labs hidden in them (at least not usually). She immediately pulled out her phone and began texting to let the others know what they'd just seen.

 

After reporting their discovery, the two spent the next hour searching the rest of the building, and found three more lab rooms hidden on the upper floors. Neither ninja bothered to try and enter the labs, as they knew it would most likely trigger more booby traps. They might not be lucky enough to avoid them a second time.

 

Just as they completed their search of the top floor, they both got a text from Donnie.

 

' _They're here,'_  was all it said.

 

"Leo's plan actually worked?" asked Raph in disbelief.

 

Miwa shrugged, and they both hurried back out of the building.

 

They exited in time to see the only man who had not been in a suit shooting at their brothers with another pink laser gun.

 

"You had to ask what he was gonna do, Donnie!" yelled Mikey as he jumped out of the way of fire.

 

The man smirked, and turned to get back into his van, only to be sucker punched by Raph.

 

Unlike the men in suits, this guy was sent sprawling after that hit, and Miwa quickly kicked his gun into a nearby sewer drain.

 

Leo and Mikey moved to join them, and the teenage ninjas had the man surrounded.

 

"Nice work you two," Leo said with a grin.

 

Mikey glared down at the man they'd just captured, and grabbed him by the face. After tugging at it a few times, he sent a disappointed look at his siblings before dropping the man back on the ground. "He's clear, not an alien robot."

 

Leo rolled his eyes, but Raph and Miwa both nodded in acknowledgement.

 

Donnie, meanwhile, had been poking around at the man's van. But when he opened the back door, a glowing green canister dropped out and rolled to a stop at Mikey's feet.

 

"Ooo, shiny," said Mikey in wonder as he looked down at the canister.

 

Miwa stepped over to get a closer look at it. "It's more of that goop from those labs," she said, picking the canister up. "They had whole shelves of this stuff just sitting there."

 

Donnie joined them, and looked the container over with a critical eye. "Amazing," he said. "I've never seen a chemical like it before."

 

Raph got a determined look on his face, and snatched the canister from Miwa. "Time to get some answers," he said, storming over to the man, who was still woozy from being hit, and then having his face tugged on.

 

Raph grabbed him by the front his shirt and growled in his face. "Who are you, and what's going on?"

 

The man glared up at them. "The name's Snake," he snapped back. "And I have nothing to say to you stupid kids."

 

Raph gave him a dangerous smirk. "Well, that's 'cause you don't know us yet."

 

The red wearing ninja threw Snake at his brothers' feet, and Donnie and Mikey grabbed his arms to keep him from escaping.

 

"You see, Snake, we're ninjas, and poisons are kind of our thing," said Raph nonchalantly as he unscrewed the canister's lid. "Now I've never seen this one before, but with all the other dangerous equipment that was in those labs, I'm betting it does something nasty.  _Or_  I could be wrong and it does absolutely nothing."

 

Raph held the canister over the man's head, and prepared to tip the gooey substance over. "So," he asked with a sinister grin, "you feel lucky?"

 

The red wearing ninja began tipped the canister, and the liquid inside slowly began to ooze out of it.

 

Snake struggled to get free, but the ooze just kept getting closer and closer, until finally he yelled, "Okay! Okay!"

 

Raph tipped the canister back upright and drew the substance back inside it as Snake sang like a bird.

 

"They call themselves the Kraang," he said. "They've been grabbing scientists from all over the city."

 

Leo exchanged a grin with Raph. "Well that worked pretty good."

 

Raph grinned back. "Of course it did, would you want this gunk on you," he said.

 

"Maybe," said Mikey, who was still admiring the shimmering liquid.

 

"What do they want with scientists?" Leo asked Snake.

 

"I don't know," he replied sarcastically.

 

Raph held up the still lidless canister and shook it.

 

Snake's eyes widened, and he quickly added, "All I know is they're taking that guy out of the city tonight! But I don't know where!"

 

"This is awesome," said Donnie happily "April's dad is a scientist, I'm a scientist, now I know she'll like me."

 

Snake looked him up and down with an unimpressed look. "I don't think you're her type, nerd boy."

 

Miwa smacked the thug on the head and said to Donnie. "I'm sure she'll like you more if we get her dad back. So, where is he?" she directed the question at Snake.

 

Snake reluctantly led them to a triangle shaped compound surrounded by a field of weeds and dead trees.

 

"How does no one notice this place?" Miwa asked, as Leo looked it over through the telescope. "It kinda screams suspicious, don't you think?"

 

"Maybe they think it belongs to the military, or something," said Donnie.

 

"Then why doesn't the military think it's suspicious?" Miwa retaliated.

 

Donnie shrugged. He had no answer to that.

 

"There's gotta be, like, twenty of them down there," said Leo as he lowered his telescope from looking at the armed guards (who were more of the men in suits).

 

"Yeah, and that's just the ones we can see," Donnie agreed.

 

Raph grinned eagerly and pulled out his sais. "Alright! An all you can beat buffet."

 

But Leo held up a hand. "We can't just rush in there," he said. "We need a plan."

 

"Why?" Raph asked.

 

Miwa elbowed him in the side, and Donnie glared at him. "Think you idiot," said the purple wearing ninja. "There's an innocent life at stake. If we screw this up he's a goner."

 

"Then we won't screw it up," said Raph like the answer was obvious.

 

"Boy, I could sure go for some pizza right now," piped up Mikey, wandering over from where he'd been guarding Snake.

 

His siblings stared at him incredulously.

 

Mikey looked at them bewildered. "What, I can't be the only one who's hungry?"

 

"Where's Snake?" Leo asked, dreading the answer.

 

Mikey gasped, and turned to where the thug had been sitting, only to find it empty, and the sound of footsteps fading away. "Oh geeze," he said cringing.

 

"Get him," yelled Leo, and the five ninjas took off after the thug.

 

For a slimy weasel of a man, Snake sure could run fast. By the time the five had reached the alley he was already out of sight. Leo and Raph ran in one direction while Miwa, Donnie and Mikey ran in another.

 

They came upon a dead end, and looked at it skeptically.

 

"Maybe he went over the wall," suggested Donnie.

 

"Doubt it," said Miwa. "It's too high for one guy to jump."

 

"I'll look," said Mikey, and Donnie gave him a boost over the wall.

 

On the other side they could hear the sound of a racket and several dogs barking.

 

"I don't think he went this way," Mikey called back with groan.

 

"Told ya," said Miwa, before turning back to catch up to Leo and Raph.

 

_____________

 

As it had turned out, Leo and Raph had managed to track down Snake, but instead of recapturing him they had set him up to trick the Kraang about their battle plan.

 

After a quick run back to the dojo for supplies (and once again convincing April to stay behind where it was safe), they rigged the van to drive itself to the compound and cause a distraction so they could sneak in (much to Miwa and Mikey's disappointment, they had wanted to keep the van).

 

When the van crashed into the compound door, none saw the glowing canister that had been housed inside it go flying out and break over Snake's head. Nor did they hear his screams as the ooze took effect.

 

Once they reached the inside of the compound, they finally got to see solid proof that Mikey and April had indeed been telling the truth about the alien robots.

 

"Freaky," Miwa whispered as she stared at them from behind a corner.

 

"At least this explains why they didn't flinch whenever we hit them," said Raph, who'd been sore about that.

 

"I told'ja so," said Mikey smugly.

 

Leo and Donnie (who had been the only ones still doubtful) exchanged looks, and whispered apologies to their little brother, while trying to keep themselves from freaking out, they'd do that later when the mission was over.

 

Without the Kraang's knowledge, the five continued to sneak through the compound until they came upon a cell door in the hall.

 

Peeking in, Donnie spotted Mr. O'Neil sitting on a bench in the cell. "We found him!" Donnie whispered excitedly, as he reached to pick the electric lock on the door.

 

Mr. O'Neil looked up at the voice and moved to the window. "Who-?"

 

"Your daughter sent us, Mr. O'Neil," said Leo in a hushed tone. "Don't worry, we'll get you out of there."

 

Mr. O'Neil had a gobsmacked expression on his face, and was clearly wondering how his daughter was acquainted with ninjas.

 

Just then, Donnie crossed two wires that he shouldn't have, and alarms started blaring through the compound.

 

"Oops," Donnie said sheepishly as Kraang came running down the hall towards them.

 

"Get the lock, Donnie," ordered Leo, unsheathing his swords. "We'll handle these guys."

 

" **Booyakasha!"**  cheered Mikey as he launched himself at the Kraang.

 

Now that they knew these guys weren't human, the teens didn't bother to hold back from blows that would be deadly on normal people. Leo and Miwa sliced through the metallic bodies with their swords, Mikey's nunchucks battered them apart, and Raph stabbed his sai into any part of them he could reach.

 

Donnie, meanwhile, was struggling with the lock. He had always prided himself on being a genius, especially with technology, but this was far beyond anything he had ever worked with before.

 

Finally, Raph got sick of waiting for him to figure it out.

 

"Oh for the love of-! Get out of my way," he growled, as he shoved Donnie aside. He then stabbed his sai into the electric lock.

 

The door made a warbling sound and slid open just in time for them to see Mr. O'Neil getting dragged away through another door by more Kraang.

 

With the sound of laser fire chasing after them, the five teens rushed after Mr. O'Neil until they reached the outside again, Raph barring the outer door with one of the Kraang's metal arms.

 

Looking to see where Mr. O'Neil was taken to, they saw him being pushed along the side of the roof towards where a waiting helicopter was starting up.

 

The five started to run towards them, but were cut off by a large green trunk like legs and swinging thorny vines.

 

Following the trunk up with their eyes, they saw a giant, snarling, plant creature with a face like a praying mantis, and odd curled leaves like lobster claws. In the center of its chest was what appeared to be a beating purple heart.

 

The creature let out a screech before glaring down at them. "You did this to me with that ooze!" he snarled in a semi-familiar voice. "Now you're going to  _pay_!"

 

"It's Snake!" shouted Leo in realization as he stared at the monster with wide eyes. "He's turned into a-a giant  _weed!"_

 

"That goop you were threatening him with must have done it!" added Miwa as she stared at the latest in impossible things that had happened that night.

 

"This is  _impossible_ ," said Donnie as he briefly wondered what could have been in that canister to cause such a mutation.

 

"Looks pretty possible to me," growled Raph, hiding his unease at the situation behind his anger.

 

The thing that used to be Snake just snarled at them, and snapped his claw like leaves.

 

"That's weird," said Mikey to Raph. "You'd think if he'd turn into anything it'd be a snake."

 

"Yeah, you would, if you were an idiot," Raph snapped back.

 

"But his name is  _Snake_ ," said Mikey.

 

" _So?"_

 

"You don't understand science," said Mikey with a roll of his eyes.

 

Snake seemed to get sick of them talking like he wasn't there, so he lifted one of his trunk-like legs, and attempted to step on Mikey and Raph, who both leaped out of the way.

 

"I'll crush you kids," Snake snarled.

 

"Uh, would it help if we said it was an accident?" asked Donnie nervously.

 

Snake sent his claw leaves out to snap at them, making the teens dodge again.

 

"So, I'll put you down for a  _NO_!" yelped Donnie.

 

Snake swung one of his thorny vines at them, making them dodge again, and Leo slashed at it with his sword.

 

The act of which had almost no effect as the vine immediately grew back.

 

"Oh, that is just  _wrong_ ," said Miwa in disgust.

 

But their attention was then drawn to the roof where the helicopter was preparing to take off, and Mr. O'Neil was being pushed inside.

 

"You guys go!" Leo ordered Donnie and Miwa.

 

The two nodded, and Mikey and Leo gave the two a boost to get them up to the roof before turning their attention back to Snake.

 

Miwa and Donnie rushed towards the helicopter, but they arrived just in time to see it take off.

 

Sharing a silent look, Donnie threw Miwa up towards the helicopter before using his bō to pole vault himself up after her.

 

They both managed to catch hold of the helicopter's skids, and they clung to it as the chopper swerved and tried to shake them off.

 

"Now what, smart guy?" asked Miwa as she tried to come up with what to do next. She swung herself up to sit on the skid so that she was no longer hanging on by her fingertips.

 

"I'm working on it!" Donnie yelled back, still dangling from the skid.

 

Below them they could see that their brothers were still caught up in fighting Snake, and would not likely be much help anytime soon.

 

"Snakeweed is very powerful!" they heard Mikey yell from below.

 

"Snakeweed?" Miwa asked, exchanging a glance with Donnie.

 

The purple wearing ninja rolled his eyes. "I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff."

 

Just then the door of the copter slid open, and one of the Kraang poked its head out and looked down at Donnie.

 

"Oh good," shouted Donnie sarcastically. "For a second there I thought this was gonna be too easy!"

 

The Kraang pointed one of its guns at him, only to have its arms cut off by Miwa slicing through them with her tantō, and then get kicked out of the vehicle.

 

"Where's the fun in easy?" she called down to Donnie as she stood up on the skid, and clung to the door of the helicopter.

 

"WATCH OUT!" shouted Donnie.

 

Miwa looked over in time to see another of the Kraang reach out and club her over the head with its metal fist.

 

The blow was enough to knock her out, and she fell from the helicopter back towards the earth.

 

Donnie knew that if she continued to fall like she was doing there was no way she'd survive.

 

"Sorry, Mr. O'Neil!" he shouted as he launched himself from the helicopter, and managed to catch his sister in midair.

 

Using his skills to roll off the landing, Donnie managed to get himself and Miwa to the ground safely. After checking to make sure she would be alright (fortunately it was just a bump), he watched sadly as the helicopter carrying Mr. O'Neil flew out of sight.

 

"I'm sorry, April," he said to himself sadly. He had promised her he'd get her father back. How was he supposed to tell her that they'd lost him?

 

He shifted so that he was better able to carry Miwa, and he hurried back to where his brothers were still fighting. He arrived just in time to see them blow up Snakeweed with a power generator, as well as several of the Kraang.

 

Taking advantage of ensuing confusion, the Hamato siblings vanished into the night, leaving the Kraang to speculate on 'eliminating those called 'the kids' from all places.'

 

_____________

 

After finally returning to their home, the five teens had to break the news to April that the Kraang had gotten away with her father. The poor girl was devastated by the news.

 

The Hamato family all agreed that it was time to call the police about Mr. O'Neil's kidnapping. Unfortunately, the cops didn't believe the truth about the Kraang, and completely dismissed the piece of face that had come off one of the Kraang as a piece of a Halloween mask. Thanks to this, no one in the Hamato family nor April had much faith in their ability to bring her father home.

 

April's Aunt was called in to take care of her till Kirby O'Neil was found (much to Donatello's disappointment, as he'd offered to let April stay at their house).

 

As April's Aunt thanked Yoshi and Tang Shen for their help, Donnie pulled April aside to talk to him and his siblings.

 

"I know the police won't be much help in finding your father," he said, "but I promise you we will not rest until we find him."

 

"We won’t?" asked Raph looking surprised.

 

Leo elbowed him in the gut. "No, we won’t," he said pointedly.

 

Raph shrugged in response, it just meant more butts he could kick.

 

Miwa snorted as she held an icepack to her head. "Fine with me." She had a score to settle with those brain squids. No one threw her off a helicopter and got away with it.

 

Mikey also nodded in agreement.

 

April smiled at them gratefully. "Thank you, but it's not your fight."

 

Donnie reached out and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Yes, it is," he said firmly.

 

April beamed up at him, and Donnie turned scarlet from embarrassment.

 

Just then April's Aunt called her over, and the two left the dojo.

 

"See you guys at school next Monday!" April called over her shoulder as they went.

 

Unknown to the ninja family and their new friend, while they were handling the police affairs and helping April, a news anchor named Carlos Chiang O'Brien Gambe was running a story about ninjas in New York, and it featured a picture of a shuriken emblazoned with the Hamato family crest.

 

This news story would quickly find it's way to be heard by a certain ninja crime lord in Tokyo, who immediately began making plans to visit his old friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt saving Mr. O'Neil right off the bat would be too much of a deviation from the original storyline. The stuff with the van was from when I was watching this show on its premier, I thought for sure that Donnie was going to convert it into the 2012 version of the Battle Shell, but no, they crashed it instead.


	4. The Odd Life of a Teenage Ninja

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The search for April's father continues, until things take a turn for the strange. Should it be concerning that such a turn is no longer surprising?

After Donnie made his vow to April that they would find her father, life for the Hamato family quickly got very interesting.

 

First there was an incident, they where were spotted by a civilian while fighting the Kraang on a rooftop.

 

Despite how angry the man had made Raph, he actually handled the situation rather well (for him at least).

 

" **Look you _IDIOT!"_**  Raph yelled at the fat angry man who was recording them with his phone.  **" _WE_  are currently in the middle of shooting a movie up here! Now get the heck out of our shot, or we'll  _SUE!_ "**

 

Surprisingly enough, the man bought the lie and didn't bother them again. Later when he tried to post his video online, Donnie had been ready for it. He hacked the man's computer, deleted the video from the phone and the Internet, and sent a virus through the computer that caused both to crash.

 

The second incident that happened was not Kraang related, but it did strike a nerve for the Hamatos.

 

"I can't believe Chris Bradford is such a major jerk!" griped Mikey as he fumed.

 

Miwa snorted in disgust. "You're not the one he tried to flirt with."

 

The Bradford Dojo was the Renaissance Dojo's main competitor in the business. None who went there could deny that the Renaissance Dojo had far better classes, and a nicer atmosphere than Bradford's. But Bradford was a celebrity, which alone gave him a good revenue of students.

 

Normally, the rivalry between the dojos wasn't really thought upon. Chris Bradford saw himself as superior to the people of the Renaissance Dojo, thus they were not worth his time, and Yoshi was content with the students he taught, and saw no point in antagonizing the other.

 

But for some reason, one day out of the blue, Chris Bradford had swaggered up to the Hamatos' dojo with a cocky grin upon his face.

 

He had been looking to talk with the Sensei of the dojo, but only Miwa and Mikey had been home at the time. So instead he'd asked them to pass on a message for him.

 

Confused, the two teens agreed, only to have to listen as Bradford boasted about how much better his dojo was, and insult everything about their own. He also bragged about how his own Sensei was in town, and under his tutelage, the Bradford Dojo was sure to run the Renaissance Dojo out of business in under a month.

 

He then saw Mikey's magazine featuring a bio about him in it sitting out, and thought it belonged to Miwa. Mistaking her for a fangirl of his, he attempted to flirt with her in order to convince her to sabotage her own dojo and shut it down faster.

 

That was the last straw for Hamato Miwa, and she quickly kicked Bradford to the curb, and left him to sulk away and lick his wounds.

 

This turned out to have the opposite reaction to Bradford's boasting, as there had been several witnesses to see the celebrity get kicked out, and the word quickly spread.

 

Patrons started flocking to the Renaissance Dojo, after all, if this dojo can teach a girl how to kick  _the_  Chris Bradford's butt, then they must be doing something right.

 

Still, it didn't change the fact that the celebrity that Mikey had looked up to had turned out to be a big jerk.

 

"I'm going on my Facebook and unfriending him," Mikey had declared, and did just that while cackling about revenge.

 

Around the same time, reports came in about ninjas other than themselves being spotted around New York. The news had Yoshi worried, but so far there was no real evidence to say if it was true or not.

 

The next thing of interest that happened was the five teens stopping a wannabe villain named Baxter Stockman from breaking into the TCRI building.

 

"Mikey, you dropped that I-pod-thing Donnie made you," said Miwa, picking it up after Raph had tossed Stockman into a dumpster.

 

Mikey beamed at his older sister. "Thanks, Donnie'd go all mad scientist on me if I lost it."

 

And the final note worthy incident involved Donnie attempting to build himself a robot to fight his battles for him, after growing frustrated about constantly breaking his bō staff in fights.

 

Leo looked over the short robot that Donnie had built (which Mikey had promptly named Metalhead).

 

"Why does your robot look like a turtle?" he asked.

 

Donnie grinned sheepishly. "Spike was crawling around my desk when I was in my designing phase, and he kinda inspired me."

 

With that statement, Raph's tolerance for the short robot went up several notches, and he too was disappointed when Donnie had to break it after a Kraang took control of it.

 

There was also an incident where the teens had to scare some Purple Dragons away from their favorite noodle place when they took April to see it. But that happened every other week, so none thought much on it. Purple Dragons are slow learners. The restaurant owner, Murakami-san, was always grateful when they did so, and would make their favorite dish on the house for them (pizza gyoza, as suggested by Mikey).

 

Still throughout all of this they had gotten no closer to finding April's dad, which made the girl all the more determined to find him.

 

Which is why, after seeing a news story about another missing scientist, she found herself rushing to the Renaissance Dojo to show it to the others.

 

"Guys!" she called as she rushed down the stairs to the basement of the dojo. The basement was where the Donnie's lab, and Raph and Miwa's bedrooms were located, along with equipment storage, and some secret passageways into the sewers in case the need of an emergency escape arose.

 

Upon entering the lab, Donnie turned beat red at the sight of her, and shoved a piece of paper out of sight as he called out a greeting, "H-hey, hey April!" he said.

 

His four siblings, who were also in the lab with him, exchanged amused looks.

 

April paid no mind to it as she set her laptop down on one of the tables, and pulled up the news story. "You guys gotta check this out."

 

Carlos Chiang O'Brien Gambe appeared on the screen and said, "Renowned Neuro-chemist Dr. Tyler Rockwell has been reported missing. I spoke with Rockwell's colleague, Dr. Victor Falco.

 

The aforementioned Doctor appeared on the screen. "I hadn't heard from him in days, so I stopped by his lab," Dr. Falco said to the camera, looking concerned. "The place was a mess, and he was gone. I fear the worst."

 

The screen switched back to Gambe. "The police say they have no-" but April shut her laptop cutting off the video.

 

"So?" asked Raph, wondering what this was all about.

 

" _So_ the Kraang have been kidnapping scientists from all over the city," April said pointedly. Her face then darkened. "Including my Dad. Maybe that's what happened to this Rockwell guy."

 

"Or they may not be connected at all," Leo pointed out.

 

April's eyes narrowed in determination. "There's only one way to find out. We should go to that lab and look around."

 

Donnie immediately jumped on the opportunity. "April's right, we should go check it out." He then held up a hand to his ear and added before any of them could respond, "What's that? You guys are busy? Guess it's just the two of us April."

 

He sent his siblings a wink as he led April out of his lab.

 

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do, little brother" Miwa called after him teasingly.

 

"That's a pretty short list," Raph muttered to Mikey, who snickered softly. It was well known that Miwa loved to get into trouble, and was just as good at getting out of it.

 

Donnie sent his sister a withering glare, but did not break his stride after April.

 

Once they were gone, Leo let out a snort and reached for the sheet of paper that Donnie had hidden from April.

 

"I bet that wasn't on his flow chart," he said sarcastically.

 

He unfolded the giant chart of Donnie's schemes to maximize the time he was able to spend with his crush and gave it a glance over. His amused expression quickly fell off his face as he saw that Donnie had indeed planned for this.

 

"Whoa! It  _is!_ " he said pointing at the little images. "That is spooky."

 

Miwa grimaced. "I think the word you're really looking for is creepy."

 

Mikey and Raph nodded in agreement.

 

_________________

 

Donnie and April made it to Rockwell's lab without any trouble, and Donnie was easily able to pick the lock on the door.

 

Since they couldn't be sure if this was Kraang related or not, Donnie decided to forgo his usual ninja garb, and just wore a purple hoodie with the hood pulled down low over his face. If they got caught, they could just pass themselves off as curious teenagers playing detective.

 

Neither of the teens bothered to turn on the lights in order to avoid detection. Instead April swung her flashlight around the room.

 

Like Falco had said in the interview, the room was a mess. Papers were scattered everywhere, and some of the glass beakers lay shattered on the floor.

 

April turned her flashlight towards one of the corners, and saw cage set into the wall with the door hanging off its hinges.

 

"Ugh, he must have been experimenting on animals," she said in distaste. At least whatever had been there appeared to have gotten away.

 

Then her light fell on something much more disturbing. What had at first appeared to be a simple dentist chair was revealed to have shackles and chains on the armrests and leg area.

 

"Either someone was up to some secret research, or they were renting space to one freaky dentist," muttered Donnie at the sight of it. It almost reminded him or the dissection tables in the Kraang labs Raph and Miwa had shown them after their failed attempt to rescue Mr. O'Neil. Unfortunately, the Kraang had gotten there first and removed most of the useful equipment, along with the canisters of the mutagen chemical.

 

Then April spotted Rockwell's desk, and the two headed towards it. Donnie flipped through the papers on the desk, but while they had some interesting formulas and theories printed on them, they weren't really what they were looking for.

 

He then turned his attention to shifting through the desk drawers. He paused when he noticed that one of the larger bottom drawers was emitting an odd glow. Opening it, and pulling out the false bottom, Donnie's eyes widened at the sight of a familiar canister sitting in the hidden compartment.

 

"Mutagen," he said apprehensively as April reached in and pulled the canister out.

 

April studied the canister in her hands. "This is the stuff that the Kraang had?" she asked. "You said it turned that Snake guy into a big green monster."

 

Donnie nodded and opened his mouth to explain his theories about the substance, but stopped when he sensed someone sneaking up behind him.

 

April also looked up and shouted, "Donnie! Look Out!"

 

Donnie ducked in time to dodge a golf club aimed at his head. Then with a fluid move, he disarmed his attacker and had him pinned on the floor.

 

April rushed to turn on the lights, revealing that the person Donnie had pinned was the man from the news story.

 

"Dr. Falco?" she asked.

 

The doctor was less than please about being pinned by a scrawny looking teen.

 

"Get off me, you trespasser!" he snapped up at Donnie.

 

"Relax, I'm not gonna hurt 'cha," said Donnie in a calming tone.

 

"You already hurt me," Falco pointed out.

 

"I mean, anymore," added Donnie as he quickly got off the scientist.

 

April stepped up as Donnie offered his hand to help the scientist up. "We're here to help," she said.

 

After explaining why they were there, Dr. Falco was more willing to talk to them.

 

"I'm sorry, I wish I knew something about your father, but I don't," he said apologetically.

 

"So what can you tell us about this?" Donnie asked, holding out the mutagen canister. He was eager to learn anything he could about the mysterious substance.

 

Dr. Falco frowned at the canister. "Some shady corporate goon paid Rockwell a lot of money to experiment with it."

 

April pulled up a photo of one of the human disguised Kraang on her phone. "This the guy?" she asked.

 

"That's him," Falco confirmed.

 

"The Kraang," Donnie said. "That's what they call themselves."

 

Falco frowned. "Well, I wanted no part of that stuff," he declared. "Who knows what kind of monstrosities could result."

 

Donnie winced as he remembered the 'monstrosity' that Snakeweed had become. "You have  _no_  idea," he said.

 

"Is that what was in that cage over there?" asked April, pointing at the busted cage. "One of his 'monstrosities'?"

 

"That's where he kept the monkey he was experimenting on," Falco explained.

 

"Well it sure didn't like being locked up in there," said Donnie as he eyed the damage that the cage had undergone, which was easier to see now that there was light.

 

"Rockwell didn't treat it very well," Falco said darkly.

 

"Maybe the Kraang didn't take Rockwell," April speculated. "Maybe the monkey went berserk, busted out of the cage, and dragged him off. Or worse."

 

The two questioned Falco for another few minutes, but the man insisted that that was everything he knew, so they went on their way. Unfortunately, Dr. Falco didn't let them take the mutagen with them ("Kids your age shouldn't be messing with mutagenic chemicals," was what he said, much to Donnie's disappointment).

 

Since it was already dark, Donnie offered to walk April home, which she agreed (much to his delight).

 

As they walked they discussed plans to find out more about the mystery they'd found themselves in.

 

"So how do you suppose we're going to find Rockwell without any leads?" April asked as they cut through an alley.

 

Donnie shrugged. "Well, maybe we'll know more once we have a look at his flash drive."

 

"What flash drive?" April asked curiously.

 

"The one I swiped off his desk," said Donnie with a smug grin as he held the stick up.

 

April grinned. "Nice."

 

Donnie grinned and tried to look cool, but was cut off by something big leaping in front of them, blocking their way through the alley.

 

They stopped dead and stared at the large ape-like creature that glared and screeched at them.

 

Donnie immediately jumped in front of April to defend her, and pulled out his collapsible bō and extended it.

 

The creature, no doubt the monkey that Falco had told them about, did not take kindly to this action, as he reared up to his full height, and roared at the two of them.

 

"Careful Donnie, that's a dangerous mutant!" said April worriedly.

 

"He's not the only one who's dangerous," said Donnie, confident he could take on this mindless monkey.

 

Unfortunately for Donnie, it wasn't much of a fight, as the monkey was able to dodge or deflect his every move, and then pounded him into the dirt without much effort.

 

Eventually the monkey threw Donnie at April's feet, and she crouched worriedly over him, trying to see if he was badly hurt.

 

As she did so the monkey stalked towards them until it was right on top of them.

 

April stared nervously up at the mutant, which continued to growl menacingly at her.

 

Then all of a sudden the creature grabbed the girl by the shoulders and roared in her face.

 

Staring up at it, April realized that the creature was just frightened. She gave it a calming smile, and reached up to grip his hands. "It's okay," she said gently. "Everything is going to be alright."

 

The monkey stared at her for a good long minute, before letting her go and backing away.

 

He looked at April with a shifty expression, and April thought it might be trying to tell her something. "What? What is it?" she asked.

 

But at the last second the monkey appeared to lose his nerve, as he roared at her again before bolting towards the rooftops.

 

______________

 

Unfortunately for him, Donnie's siblings were not very understanding when they heard he'd been beat up by a monkey. In fact they outright laughed in his face about it.

 

Donnie stewed on his family's couch as Leo made bad monkey puns, which had the rest of his siblings in stitches of laughter.

 

At least until Raph spotted Tang Shen and April returning with an ice pack for Donnie, and he signaled for the others to stop. "No more monkey puns," he said, silencing them.

 

Tang Shen took one look at the scene and knew immediately what had happened. She handed the ice pack to April to give to Donnie, and gave the rest of her children The Look. The one that always told them that she was disappointed in them, and never failed to make them wilt and look guilty for their actions.

 

April quickly caught on to as well, and glared at the rest of them as she pressed the ice pack to Donnie's head. "Are you laughing at him because he's hurt?" she snapped.

 

Mikey gave her a big grin. "No, we were laughing at him because he was hurt by a  _monkey!"_

 

The youngest started laughing again, only to break off with a cry of pain as Tang Shen pinched his ear as punishment. None of his older siblings dared laugh again for fear of receiving the same treatment.

 

Once Donnie was patched up, they moved down to the dojo area so that they could practice sparing. April sat in a corner with her laptop and turned her attention to the flash drive that Donnie had swiped.

 

After a few minutes of digging through the files on the device, she looked up and called her friends over.

 

"Guys, I think I found something," she said. Leo and Mikey quickly bowed to each other to end their spar, and they and the rest crowded around.

 

"These notes are hard to follow," said April as she pulled up what she'd found. "But it looks like Rockwell was able to modify the mutagen."

 

"Why would he do that?" asked Leo, raising an eyebrow.

 

"He thought he could use it to create a Neuro-chemical that would temporarily give someone psychic abilities," April explained, showing them the data on the subject.

 

"Should I be worried that this  _isn't_  the weirdest thing that's happened in the last few weeks?" Miwa deadpanned.

 

"So that monkey was psychic?" asked Raph in disbelief.

 

April shrugged. "It was more like he was reading our emotions. After all, he was only hostile when Donnie was hostile."

 

Donnie scowled at the reminder. "Yeah, well next time I'll be sure to think friendly thoughts while I'm beating a little sunshine into him."

 

Leo went into what Mikey had started calling his leader mode. "Okay, we need to track him down before he attacks someone else. Let’s spread out and search. Keep in contact over your cell phones."

 

"Ninja mode, or casual?" asked Raph.

 

"Casual," said Leo. "We may end up having to talk to that Falco guy again, and I'd rather not let him know our family secret. Just be sure you guys have your weapons concealed, just in case."

 

_____________

 

It didn't take long to find the monkey. Chasing it down and catching him, on the other hand, was much harder than they'd thought. But eventually after chasing it several blocks (and an incident where Mikey ran into a poll), they lost it outside Kingfisher Jewelry in China Town.

 

After it became clear that none of them knew which way the monkey had gone, things quickly dissolved into a squabble between the teenage siblings about where to go.

 

Only April wasn't involved in the argument. For some unexplainable reason, she felt compelled to go towards a dumpster in a nearby alleyway. Lifting the heavy lid on the dumpster, April peered inside, and saw the monkey crouched in the dark box, whimpering in fright.

 

With a gentle smile, April coaxed the primate out of the dumpster, and out into the alley.

 

Before the monkey could run again, Mikey was able to surprise it with his kusarigama, which tied the monkey up, and made him struggle and roar.

 

"Aha!" cheered Mikey. "Gotcha that time!"

 

Raph looked the creature over skeptically. "Great, we caught the monkey. But we're not any closer to finding Rockwell."

 

The monkey reacted to the name with a loud roar and bulging eyes, and April's own eyes widened as a hunch formed in her head. She took a closer look at the creature, and became convinced that her hunch was right.

 

"Actually," she said to the others. "We're a lot closer than you think."

 

The ninjas looked at her curiously.

 

"What?" asked Donnie. "How?"

 

"I think this  _is_  Dr. Rockwell," said April, pointing at the creature.

 

Silence reined in the alley as the others absorbed this information.

 

"Still not the weirdest thing to happen this month," Miwa deadpanned.

 

______________

 

After a lot of struggling, and several near misses with civilians, the six teens were able to bring Dr. Rockwell back to his office, and explained things to Dr. Falco. To keep him from escaping, they stuck Rockwell in the freaky dentist chair, and Falco sedated him to calm him down.

 

After Falco assured the teens that he would do his best to look out for his friend and colleague, the six teens returned to the dojo for dinner. April opted to stay over as well since Tang Shen's cooking was some of the best she'd ever had.

 

While they waited for Tang Shen and Mikey (who also loved to cook, and was always helping his mother in the kitchen) to bring out their food, Donnie decided to take another look at Rockwell's flash drive on his laptop. There was still so much he didn't know about mutagen, and he was eager to learn anything he could.

 

When dinner was set on the table, and everyone started eating, Leo turned to their guest. "Sorry we didn't get any closer to finding your dad, April," he said between bites.

 

April looked disappointed, but swallowed her food and shook her head. "It's okay. Everything we learn about the Kraang is another piece of the puzzle."

 

"Yeah, but  _psychic research_?" asked Leo, looking like he still had a hard time believing it. "This is one weird puzzle."

 

Yoshi placed his chopsticks down and studied the redheaded girl at his table. "I am curious, April," he said. "How did you know the monkey was really a human."

 

April shrugged. "I dunno," she said. "Sometimes I just get a feeling about things."

 

"A feeling?" Yoshi asked, while exchanging a glance with Tang Shen. "Hmm, interesting."

 

Tang Shen then noticed that one of her sons had yet to touch his plate. "It is dinner time, Donatello," she said firmly.

 

"Wha?" Donnie mumbled, not even looking up from his computer. "I-I'm not hungry."

 

Tang Shen closed the laptop and pulled it away before replacing it with a plate of food. "Your computer will still be there after you eat," she said, giving him a stern look.

 

Donnie looked embarrassed about being scolded by his mother in front of April, and quickly picked up his chopsticks and started eating.

 

"Mother is the only one who can always get him to stop his science projects in order to eat or sleep," Miwa explained to April, looking amused. "Anyone else he just ignores and keeps working. Even Father. Doesn't stop Leo from trying, though."

 

Donnie shot his sister a dirty look. "Sorry," he said to them all between bites. "It's just something's been bothering me."

 

"Explain while you eat," said Tang Shen, when she saw Donnie glance towards his laptop again.

 

Donnie looked sheepish, and took another bite. "Well, what's weird is that Falco said that Rockwell was experimenting on a monkey."

 

"And?" asked Leo.

 

"Well according to the notes on the flash drive, he never had a monkey in his lab. He was just using samples of monkey DNA," Donnie explained.

 

Leo glanced around at the equally confused faces of the others. "We're still not following you."

 

Donnie gave Leo a pointed look. "If he never had a monkey, then what broke out of that cage?"

 

Raph's eyes widened as he realized what Donnie was saying. "It must have been Rockwell."

 

Donnie frowned. "Which means Falco put him there, and he's been  _lying_  this whole time!"

 

All the teens exchanged glances, and started to get up from the table to go confront him.

 

" _After_ you finish your dinner," said Tang Shen sternly. "You will need your strength if you intend to confront him.

 

The five ninjas groaned, sat back down, and started eating their dinner at a rapid pace.

 

April had to stifle a giggle at the sight. It was always hilarious to see the kick-butt ninjas be quelled by one look from their mother.

 

______________

 

They arrived at the lab in time to see Falco standing over a restrained Rockwell, his eyes bloodshot and laughing like a mad man.

 

"Alright, Falco," said Leo, announcing the presence of his brothers. They were going to try and be a distraction while Miwa did a sneak attack from behind. "We've had enough of your-"

 

"Do not say monkeying around," Raph interrupted, giving Leo an unimpressed look.

 

Leo looked flustered, "I wasn't going to-"

 

"Yes, you were," said Falco smugly, interrupting Leo for a second time.

 

"It's over, Falco," Donnie said accusingly. "We know it was you who mutated Rockwell."

 

Falco grinned sinisterly. "I used him as a guinea pig."

 

"Well it didn't work. You turned him into a monkey," said Mikey, not getting the phrase, making his brothers give him exasperated glances.

 

Falco didn't seem phased. Instead he gave them all an insane grin. "The psychic Neuro-chemical I extracted from his mutant brain is  _changing_ me. Your minds are opening up to me."

 

Behind him, Miwa was getting closer, nearly in position to strike.

 

"So this was your plan all along," said Donnie, hoping to keep him distracted.

 

"Of course," said Falco with a smirk. "No man can defeat you when you know his every thought."

 

Miwa was now in position, and moved to attack. Just as she was about to hit him, Falco reached behind himself and grabbed Miwa by the wrist, and used the momentum of her attack to throw her forward and slam her head into a wall. She slumped to the floor unconscious.

 

"Nor can any girl," said Falco smugly, as the quadruplets stared at their sister's prone form in horror. Miwa was never supposed to look that vulnerable. Their big sister was one of the strongest people they knew.

 

Furious, Raph snarled at the scientist. "I'm gonna smac-!"

 

"-Smack the white off my lab coat," Falco interrupted with a laugh, correctly saying exactly what Raph had been about to say. "How humorous."

 

"Lucky Guess!" Raph roared as he shot forward to attack.

 

He aimed a spin kick at Falco's head, but the scientist simply stepped to the side and dodged it.

 

"What?" asked Raph in surprise.

 

Falco merely grinned, and beckoned with his finger tauntingly.

 

This only enraged him further, and Raph went at him again and again, but every move the hothead threw at him, Falco was able to read it and dodge.

 

Then suddenly after dodging one move, Falco was able to steal one of Raph's sais from his belt, and club him over the head with the hilt, causing Raph fall to the ground. A swift kick to the head sent him to join Miwa in dreamland.

 

Leo was not about to let that slide. He quickly unsheathed his swords, and went after Falco himself. But like with Raph, Falco was able to dodge his every attack, and eventually disarmed Leo with Raph's sai, and clubbed him over the head as well.

 

This left Mikey and Donnie the only ones who could stand up to him. Mikey pointed out that they could easily beat him if they fought without thinking, like their father had been teaching them to do. It was a technique that Donnie always had trouble with, since his big brain never seemed to stop thinking.

 

As they were discussing it, Falco managed to get the drop on them, and knock out Mikey as well, leaving Donnie as the only ninja left to fight him.

 

Determined not to let Falco win, Donnie managed to achieve his goal and wing it. Unable to read what he was about to do, Falco quickly found himself beaten, and flung through the air and into the monkey cage, unconscious and bruised.

 

With him out of the way, Donnie turned his attention to his unconscious siblings, and hurried to wake them up. They were all okay, thank goodness, but while they were distracted, Falco managed to slip past them and get away. Thankfully, he left without his canister of mutagen, which Donnie couldn't wait to start studying.

 

They all then turned their attention to Rockwell, who was still shackled to his chair, and struggling to get free.

 

"What do we do about him?" asked Mikey.

 

"Sell him to a circus," suggested Miwa. At the disapproving looks on her brothers' faces, she held up her hands in defense. "It was a joke."

 

Donnie made his way over to the mutant monkey, and released him from the shackles.

 

Rockwell leaped from the chair, and darted to the window. Before he jumped out it, he paused and looked back at the teens.

 

Donnie grinned at his siblings. "I'm no psychic, but I think he's trying to thank us."

 

With that the monkey dove out the window and into the night.

 

As he did so, a thought occurred to Raph. "Um, if he reacts to angry thoughts, is New York City really the best place for him?"

 

As if on cue, a car horn went off and an angry voice could be heard yelling about a monkey. Screaming, loud crashing sounds, and a lot of angry monkey noises soon followed this.

 

"I'm sure he'll be okay," said Leo sheepishly.

 

"This city just got a lot more interesting," said Miwa with a grin as she watched Rockwell's progress from the window.

 

______________

 

Meanwhile, back at the Renaissance Dojo, Yoshi had taken April into the training area to speak with her.

 

"April," he said. "It seems you have a rare gift, a sensitivity I have trained my entire life to develop."

 

April smiled at him encouragingly. "Don't worry, you'll get it."

 

"I did, it just took me a long time," said Yoshi in annoyance.

 

April looked sheepish. "T-that's nothing to be ashamed of."

 

Yoshi sighed. "What I am trying to say is that I would like to train you to be a kunoichi. A female ninja, like my Miwa."

 

April's eyes lit up. "Wow, that's quite an honor." Then her face fell. "But, with my dad missing, and only my Aunt supporting me, I don't know if I'll be able to afford your class."

 

Yoshi smiled warmly at her. "You have become a great friend to my children, and have kept our family's secrets. I would be willing to give you lessons without the need for payment."

 

April grinned. "If I do this, does that mean I can kick everybody's butt?"

 

Yoshi gave her a stern look. "We don't believe in using our abilities that way."

 

"Oh, oh yeah, me neither," said April quickly. "But I could, right?" she added with an eager grin.

 

"Yes," said Yoshi with a smile. "But I warn you, it will be the hardest thing you've ever done. It will drain you mentally, physically, and spiritually. When we are in the dojo, I will not be your friends' father, I will be your teacher, and you will address me as Sensei or Master Splinter. Understand?"

 

"Got it," said April, then she shrugged. "It can't be worse than high school."

 

There was a laugh at the door of the dojo. They turned to see Miwa standing there.

 

"Oh, I  _wish_ training was as easy as high school," said Miwa with a large grin, making April get a bit nervous about what was in store for her.

 

When Donnie found out April would be around the dojo more for training, he was thrilled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see, I skimmed over some of the first few episodes. A lot of what those episodes focused on had a lot to do with the turtles being turtles, and being identified because of that. No Spider Bytez in this, because to be fair, the guy doesn't do much. He's only been in a few episodes, and is kinda forgettable. Plus, this Raph's been living among the people of New York rather than under them, so he'd be more used to dealing with jerks like that. I skipped over the stuff with Bradford too, again, because this Mikey has been part of the upper world, and has plenty of opportunities to make friends. I also skimmed on Metalhead's episode, because I didn't really see it going that much differently. And avoided the thing with the Purple Dragons because that's become a regular occurrence for them, so neither party thought much of it. Monkey Brains, on the other hand, is a bit big for the plot, so I gave it the full chapter.


	5. Faces from the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An attempt to save April's father does not go as planned. Meanwhile, an old foe grows impatient.

When Oroku Saki first saw the news story about a shuriken with a Hamato crest being found in New York, he knew his old rival had resurfaced at last.

 

It had to be Yoshi, as he (and possibly his daughter, who's name was not known to him) was the only member of the Hamato clan that was still alive.

 

After Oroku Saki's disastrous attempt on Yoshi's life over fifteen years ago, where his beloved Tang Shen was killed defending the traitor, he had at first thought that his rival would perish in the fire that consumed his home. But then reports came in that no human remains were found in the rubble, and Oroku Saki knew his enemy had somehow survived.

 

Since then he had hunted down every hidden member of the Hamato clan, torturing them for information of Yoshi's whereabouts before ending their miserable lives. But his efforts were in vain, as none, no matter how much pain they were in, could tell him where Yoshi had gone. It was as though his enemy had dropped off the face of the earth.

 

Until now, when he finally had proof that his hated rival was still alive, and training ninjas of his own.

 

Oroku Saki had set a course for New York City immediately, leaving the Foot's Japanese branch in the capable hands of his second in command.

 

Upon arrival at New York, he had gone to his pupil that trained the American branch of the Foot, Chris Bradford. He had ordered Bradford, as well as a thief who was loyal to him named Xever, to scour the city and find Yoshi wherever he was hiding.

 

Weeks passed, and all search efforts seemed to be in vain. There were reports of a mysterious group of ninjas being seen around the city who were not Foot. But by the time his forces reached the area, the ninjas had already vanished without a trace.

 

All of this was making the Shredder extremely impatient. He was  _so_  close to getting his vengeance that he could taste it, but no matter what he seemed to do, his adversary remained stubbornly out of sight.

 

At least from the reports he knew one of the ninjas was a kunoichi, lending hope to Tang Shen's daughter's survival. Oroku Saki would rather not kill his beloved's daughter if he could help it (even if she was tainted by Yoshi's ilk). Perhaps she could be coaxed to his side...

 

But whether Hamato' daughter still lived or not was irrelevant. What mattered most was that Yoshi was somewhere in this blasted city, and his men were too incompetent to smoke him out.

 

Such was the case when one day the Shredder decided he'd had enough. Bradford and Xever would find Yoshi and his ninjas by the day's end or they would be a head shorter.

 

With that in mind, he summoned his two henchmen to his throne room.

 

As they approached, Oroku Saki's dog, Hachiko, snarled at Bradford. When the ninja reached out to try to calm the dog he was bitten for his troubles.

 

"He is not pleased with you," said the Shredder menacingly entered the room. "Nor am I. I entrusted you both with the task of destroying Hamato Yoshi and his loathsome recruits, and you have failed." He turned his attention to Bradford. "I spent years molding you in my image. Teaching you my darkest secrets. And you shame me with your incompetence."

 

Bradford bowed his head and looked ashamed.

 

Xever snickered at his 'partner's' misfortune, before the Shredder promptly rounded on him.

 

"And you," the ninja master snarled, "I should have left you to rot in that prison where I found you."

 

The Shredder then turned his backs on them, and stormed up to his throne.

 

"Hamato Yoshi's students have been lucky so far," said Bradford to save face, "but it won't last forever."

 

"Went we finally meet, I promise you-" Xever started to say, but was cut off when the Shredder rounded on them.

 

"ENOUGH!" he shouted, before sitting upon his throne. "I am weary of your excuses. When the next sighting of Hamato Yoshi's students come in, report it to me immediately. I will destroy his students  _myself_."

 

__________________

 

What started off as a good day turned sour very quickly.

 

At first it had seemed great. Donnie had come up with a way to make home-made smoke bombs, which would both be less expensive than buying their own, and would be less suspicious purchases to make. Nothing says 'I'm a ninja' more than constantly having to buy smoke bombs.

 

The first sign that things were about to go wrong was when April rushed into the Renaissance Dojo looking white as a sheet, and babbling about needing help.

 

Immediately concerned for their friend, the Hamato teens gathered around to see what was wrong.

 

"Alright, April, calm down," said Donnie, as he led her to a seat. "Are you okay?"

 

"I am being  _hunted_ ," April said, still looking freaked out. "By a giant  _pigeon!_ "

 

Raph and Miwa exchanged glances, and burst out laughing. They stopped abruptly when they realized they were the only ones doing so, and the others were giving them disapproving looks.

 

Raph frowned. "We can't be the only ones that find that funny."

 

Donnie glared at the two of them. "It's  _not_ funny, you two. There's a creature out there trying to hurt my April."

 

April noticed his slip, and looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

 

Donnie turned scarlet and stuttered, "O-our April... April."

 

Mikey, eager to play with Donnie's new smoke bombs, said, "This is serious, I better get Father."

 

He threw down the smoke bomb, and when the purple cloud dissipated, their father stood in the spot Mikey had been.

 

"Michelangelo said you wanted to see me?" Yoshi asked, looking amused.

 

They all stayed and listened as April described what had happened. Apparently, while she had been out walking she'd noticed a large shadow following her from above. Looking up, she'd seen what looked like a man with a pigeon's head and wings that didn't look like he should be able to fly on them.

 

She was able to escape the pigeon man by running into a nearby bank. In true birdbrain fashion the mutant had slammed into the glass window of the building, not realizing it was there.

 

Hearing this, Raph and Miwa started laughing again, and again they were the only ones to do so.

 

"Really?" asked Miwa when she saw the other's glares. "Not even a giggle at the mental image? Tough crowd."

 

She and Raph both got knocks on the head from Yoshi for their disrespect.

 

"Miwa. Raphael. Clearly April is upset," he said sternly.

 

Donnie gave the redhead an encouraging look. "Don't worry April, we won't let anything happen to you."

 

Leo grinned. "Donnie's right. We're gonna set a trap for this pigeon man, and make sure he never bothers you again."

 

Miwa got an evil grin on her face. "Well, if we're going to make a trap, we'll need to use bait," she said looking over at April.

 

The redhead gulped nervously.

 

Mikey, however missed Miwa's hint. "Bread crumbs!" he said brightly. When the others gave him deadpan looks he said defensively, "Pigeons eat bread crumbs."

 

"She meant April," said Donnie blandly.

 

Mikey looked horrified, and jumped defensively in front of the girl in question. "You're gonna let him eat  _April!"_  he shouted in disbelief, before shooting a glare at Donnie. "I thought you liked her!"

 

"Yeah," agreed April, not liking this plan.

 

"Don't sweat it, we've got your back," said Donnie encouragingly. If Miwa hadn't suggested using April as bait, he would have.

 

Leo grinned eagerly. "Alright ninjas, gear up and let’s do this."

 

__________________

 

April was not happy about this at all.

 

She had gone to her friends in hopes that they would be able to help her, and their idea of helping resulted in her wandering aimlessly around an alley, acting as bait for the very creature she'd been trying to avoid.

 

"Here I am," she called out, doing her best to sound like a defenseless waif. "Walking around in the big city! All alone! Oh, I sure hope no crazy pigeon man sneaks up on me. Thant would be the last thing I'd want!"

 

Donnie poked his head out from his hiding place behind a dumpster. "What are you doing?" he asked.

 

April glared at him. "You wanted me to be bait, I'm  _bait_!"

 

Donnie frowned. "That's not how bait talks," he said.

 

April put her hands on her hips. "How do you know how bait talks?" she said saucily.

 

"I know bait doesn't talk back," Donnie snapped.

 

April glared at him.

 

"Oooooooooh!" said the other four ninjas as they rose up out of their own hiding places, grinning in amusement.

 

"Oh no you didn't," said Mikey, waggling his finger at the two.

 

The four of them immediately slammed back into their hiding spots, leaving Donnie and April to be seemingly alone in the alley.

 

Donnie laughed nervously, and April scowled at him again. "Just act natural," he said as he sidled back into his own hiding spot.

 

April sighed in exasperation. "Here I am," she said sarcastically. "Acting natural. Just totally defenseless against any, I don't know, hideous, mutant pigeon-guy who might happen upon me…"

 

With a scowl she began walking back down the alley, when suddenly from behind her she heard the mangled sound of a giant bird.

 

She whirled around to see her pigeon stalker diving towards her with his talons outstretched.

 

April let out a piercing scream at the sight, thinking there was no way her ninja friends would intercept the creature in time.

 

Her fears were unnecessary as Donnie tazed the pigeon, and the other four jumped from their hiding spots and pinned the bird to the ground.

 

"Okay, okay, Uncle!" cried the bird man in distress. "Jeeze Louise!"

 

"And you said I wasn't good bait," said April smugly to Donnie.

 

"Good bait, maybe," said Miwa, sparing the redhead a glance. "But if you ever want to be a halfway decent kunoichi, we are going to need to work on your acting skills."

 

April scowled, but made no comment.

 

"Okay start talking, Pigeon Man," said Leo threateningly to the bird Raph was still sitting on.

 

"I have a name," the bird whined.

 

"Yeah, we just don't care what it is," snapped Raph.

 

"It's Pete," the bird snapped back.

 

"Why were you trying to hurt April, Pete?" Leo asked, continuing the interrogation.

 

"I didn't wanna hurt her," Pete protested. "I was just bringing her a message. From her  _father_."

 

April gasped in shock. Finally, after weeks of searching, this could be their chance to find him. "Let him up," she demanded, and the ninjas let the mutant go.

 

Pigeon Pete stood, and looked down at April. "We were both 'guests' of the Kraang," he explained. "They poured some ooze on me and turned me into this…" he looked down and his mutated body sadly.

 

April looked at him sympathetically. "Oh, that must have been horrible. Being turned into a  _pigeon."_  she said the last word with slight disgust.

 

"Actually, I started out as a pigeon," said Pete brightly, fortunately missing April's distaste.

 

"Told'ya the bread crumbs woulda worked," said Mikey.

 

Pete immediately jumped on Mikey. "You've got bread crumbs?" he asked excitedly, shaking the youngest teen as if that would make the crumbs fall out.

 

"Umm, my father?" asked April, bringing the bird back to the task at hand.

 

"Oh, right," said Pigeon Pete, dropping Mikey on his head ("Ow!"). He then reached into the pocket of the pants he was wearing a pulled out a phone.

 

April took it and played the video that was saved on it. Her father's face appeared on the screen and looked worried.

 

" _Something terrible is about to happen,"_  his recording said _. "I-I don't know what, but it's extremely important that you get out of the city as soon as you can. Save yourself. and remember, I love you."_

 

April hugged the phone to her chest. "I love you too, Daddy."

 

"Do you have any idea what he's talking about," Leo asked Pete.

 

"I'm just the messenger," said Pete with a shrug.

 

Donnie placed his hand on April's shoulder. "We've got to get you out of the city," he said seriously.

 

But April looked determined. "I'm not going anywhere without my Dad," she said.

 

"But you heard him," Donnie protested. "Something terrible is gonna happen."

 

"Then we better hurry," April said defiantly.

 

Seeing there was no convincing her otherwise, Leo turned back to Pete. "Can you tell us where the Kraang are holding him?"

 

"I can," said Pete smoothly. "But it's gonna cost you a lot of bread."

 

Leo rose an eyebrow at him. "We're talking about  _actual_  bread, right?"

 

Pete bobbed his head in a nod. "Yeah, sourdough," he said happily.

 

"Done," Leo agreed.

 

"Let's roll!" cheered Mikey.

 

As they left the alley, Miwa got the distinct feeling they were being watched. But when she turned and searched the alley, there was no one there.

 

"You coming?" Raph called to her when he saw she'd fallen behind.

 

"Yeah," she said, and hurried to catch up.

 

As soon as the six teens and the mutant were out of sight, a patrol of Foot Ninjas crept out of their hiding spots. One hurried off to inform those in charge, and the rest began following the teens at a safe distance.

 

__________________

 

Xever and Bradford were wandering through a fish market, hoping to find some leads. They stopped as they passed a man with snakehead fish for sale. Xever had a preference for the taste of that particular type fish, and reached into the tank and handed it to the seller to cut.

 

"That is the ugliest thing I've ever seen," said Bradford in disgust at the sight of the wriggling creature. "Present company excluded."

 

Xever only sneered at his 'partner'. It was no secret the two despised each other, and only worked together because the Shredder had ordered it.

 

"So, we have a problem," said Bradford as they watched the seller place the fish on his cutting board.

 

"No, you have a problem," Xever said back, knowing he was referring to their failure to find Yoshi and his students.

 

"We've both failed Master Shredder," said Bradford pointedly. "Can you live with that shame?"

 

Xever let out an irritated grunt. "If I had the opportunity, I would crush those students of his like bugs," he said emphatically. "Why is it so difficult to find five pathetic excuses for ninjas?"

 

"Maybe because they're  _ninjas_ ," Bradford deadpanned. He then looked down as he heard his cell phone go off. He pulled it out and looked over the message. Upon seeing his Foot scout's report, he grinned.

 

"What is that?" asked Xever with a raised eyebrow.

 

"Opportunity," said Bradford with a smirk.

 

__________________

 

Meanwhile, Pete had led the teens to the roof of an average looking office building. Donnie was able to pry through the vent on the roof, giving the ninjas a way in.

 

April had been eager to go in with them, but they managed to reason with her to stay on the roof and give them the rope when they escaped.

 

The inside of the building looked about the same as the other Kraang buildings they'd found. The walls were all white and metallic with the pink lines and pipes running through them.

 

After they found a control center in one of the rooms, they left Donnie inside it while Leo and Raph searched one way through the building, and Miwa and Mikey went another. They all kept in contact over their phones as they searched.

 

As Mikey and Miwa crept through the building, Miwa constantly had to keep her baby brother from touching random things. After the fifth time he nearly pressed a button on the wall, she snatched his hand, twisted it till he yelped, and glared at him.

 

"Listen, little brother," she hissed angrily. "I didn't want to do this, but you forced me to pull out the big guns."

 

She then pulled up a video on her phone, and showed it to Mikey.

 

Mikey watched as his image on the phone snickered as he prepared a prank involving honey, feathers, and unicorn stickers, only to trip and accidentally get caught in his own trap and look completely ridiculous.

 

The orange wearing ninja paled at the sight of it. "How- I thought nobody saw that," he wailed in embarrassment.

 

Miwa smirked. "And so far, no one but me has. But if you don't  _stop_ trying to touch every shiny thing that catches your eye, then this video is going on YouTube, and I'll be sending links to everyone we know."

 

Mikey wilted, and made a show of stuffing his hand into his sleeves, leaving him with nothing to touch with.

 

"That's better," said Miwa, and they two continued to make their way down the hallway.

 

They soon came upon a locked door. Examining it, Miwa said, "This looks like it holds something important," she said. "Now how to get past-"

 

She was cut off when Mikey forgot her previous threat, and punched a few random buttons on the door's lock.

 

Much to both of their surprise the door buzzed and slid open just as she was about to berate him for that.

 

Then remembering what Miwa had threatened to do, Mikey looked at her pleadingly. "I'm sorry! I forgot! Please don't post that-"

 

But Miwa held up her hand to stop him. "I think I'll give you a pass on that one since it was useful," she said.

 

Mikey beamed, and gave his sister a hug, before the two of them entered the dimly lit room.

 

"Mr. O'Neil!" Mikey whisper shouted. "Are you in here?"

 

Miwa squinted as she made out the something shifting in the darkness. Silently she pointed it out to Mikey, and they both began to cautiously step towards it.

 

"Mr. O'Neil?" Mikey asked again.

 

Suddenly out of the darkness, a mangled-looking creature leapt towards them and roared in rage.

 

Mikey and Miwa screamed and jumped back as the creature began stalking towards them and giving them a good look at it. It had seven limbs that looked like each came from a different creature ranging from an octopus to a praying mantis. Its head had four glowing eyes, and looked like a warped cross between a raven and a bear. Its scorpion like tail was erect and ready to strike at the teens the second either of them moved.

 

Without missing a beat, Mikey threw some shuriken into the creature's eyes, and both he and his sister bolted from the room.

 

The creature screeched in pain, and took off after them. Scrambling on its many limbs to catch the ones who caused it pain.

 

Miwa began pounding on the electric lock, trying to get the door to close again, but it wouldn't budge. "Come on! Come ON!" she hissed, as the creature drew closer and closer to the exit.

 

Mikey shoved her aside, and jabbed his fingers at some more random buttons, and the door slid shut just in time for the creature to slam into it.

 

"I take it back," said Miwa breathlessly to him once they were safe. "Touch anything you want."

 

Before Mikey could reply, the creature furiously threw itself at the window set into the door, making the siblings scream and take off back towards the others.

 

Neither of them ever noticed that the creature had been wearing the tattered remains of a lab coat, nor that the coat still bore the nametag of one of the scientists the Kraang had kidnapped a few weeks ago…

 

__________________

 

Eventually, Leo and Raph found Mr. O'Neil, and they called Miwa and Mikey back to help them. While Leo picked the lock, Raph began picking Mr. O'Neil's brain about what exactly the Kraang were. "Since it's taking my brother _forever_ to pick that lock-"

 

"I'm working on it," Leo snapped in irritation.

 

"-Maybe you can tell us what the heck's the deal with the Kraang," Raph finished, ignoring his brother.

 

"They're aliens from another dimension," Mr. O'Neil replied. "When they came here they brought the mutagen with them."

 

"Why?" asked Leo, still focused on the lock. "What's the point of turning people into monsters?"

 

"The mutagen doesn't work the way they thought it would," Mr. O'Neil explained. "Apparently, the physical laws of their universe are different from ours."

 

"So they're grabbing scientists to help them modify the ooze!" Leo exclaimed as he realized it.

 

"Wow! You figured it out," said Raph sarcastically to his brother. "How's that lock coming?"

 

Leo scowled, and kept working on the lock. "So what do they want the ooze to do?" he asked Mr. O'Neil.

 

"I wish I knew," replied Mr. O'Neil, looking downcast.

 

__________________

 

Meanwhile, Donnie was having trouble working on the Kraang computer. After a few minutes of fruitlessly trying to hack his way in, he got frustrated and banged his fists on the console. Somehow that was all it took, and he was suddenly getting an eyeful of the Kraang's plans.

 

Horrified, he rushed away from the console, and reached his siblings just as Miwa and Mikey managed to arrive.

 

"Guys," he said in a panicked voice. "They planted a mutagen bomb down town! They're gonna use it to disperse ooze over half the city!" He then caught sight of Kirby. "Oh, hi Mr. O'Neil. Your daughter's nice," he said with a wave.

 

Mr. O'Neil raised an eyebrow at him.

 

Leo turned his attention back to the lock, and in an attempt to help, Mikey accidentally tripped the alarm.

 

"MIKEY!" yelled his siblings in exasperation.

 

Leo finally managed to get the door open, and they all ran towards where April was waiting with the rope.

 

The redhead eagerly threw down the rope, but the Kraang were closing in, firing their lasers at them constantly. There was too many to take out and climb the rope at the same time.

 

After Raph stabbed a Kraang that got close through it's robotic head, Mr. O'Neil caught sight of a fallen blaster. He quickly picked it up and began firing at the Kraang.

 

"Mr. O'Neil, what are you doing?" asked Leo.

 

The man gave them a determined look reminiscent of April's. "Save my daughter," he ordered them. "Save the city."

 

"Daddy! No!" shouted April when she realized what he was intending to do.

 

The man then began drawing the Kraang's fire as the Hamato teens started climbing up the rope.

 

Miwa, who was the last one to climb, made a last-ditch effort to bring Mr. O'Neil with them. When she was halfway up, she used the lower half of the rope to lasso Mr. O'Neil around the waist.

 

"Pull!" she yelled to the other teens.

 

They didn't need telling twice, and her brothers and April and began tugging on the rope, pulling them both out.

 

Miwa quickly climbed the rest of the way and began helping them, but a blast from a Kraang laser sliced cleanly through the rope, causing Mr. O'Neil to fall back into the waiting arms of the Kraang.

 

"No!" April wailed as she saw the aliens drag her father away for a second time.

 

She shrank away from the scene in tears. Seeking comfort, she threw her arms around Donnie. She really needed a hug right now.

 

"We'll get him back, April," said Donnie comfortingly as he hugged her back. "I promise."

 

"We need to go!" ordered Leo, and the six teens ran from the rooftop.

 

__________________

 

They sent April to their home for safety (and for Tang Shen to comfort her in her distressed state), before rushing to the Wolf Hotel. From the Kraang's plans, that was where they were planning to set off their bomb.

 

They found it on the roof surrounded by Kraang Bots, and arrived just in time to hear one of the Kraang mention that the bomb would go off in five minutes.

 

Using exploding arrows, the five of them managed to clear out the Kraang so that Donnie could get to the bomb's control panel, and hopefully shut it down.

 

Pulling it open, Donnie's face dropped at the sheer complexity of the bomb in front of him. "Uh oh," he said.

 

"Uh oh?" Leo repeated worriedly. "Donnie, you said you knew how to do this."

 

"I didn't count on a design this complex, Leo," said Donnie indignantly.

 

"They're aliens from another dimension," said Leo in exasperation. "What did you expect? A big round ball with a lit fuse that said 'bomb'?"

 

Donnie scowled, "No, but this-"

 

Raph cut off their argument by sarcastically saying, "Boy, I sure hope this argument goes on for another four minutes and fifteen seconds." He then finished off his statement with a smack to Donnie's head to get him moving.

 

Donnie turned his attention back to the bomb, and his siblings were all too happy to give him suggestions over his shoulder. Eventually he stopped to snap at them to stop nagging him. "I cannot work with all this pressure!" he yelled.

 

Leo noticed something out of the corner of his eye, and said, "Um, that might be a problem."

 

They all turned to see a familiar face dressed in maroon ninja garb, and standing on the hotel's sign next to a smirking dark skinned man with an Afro.

 

"Chris Bradford!" yelled Mikey as he realized who the ninja was. "And... some other guy!"

 

"The name is Xever," said the dark skinned man with a smirk. "And we have been looking all over the city for you children."

 

"I'm almost disappointed," Bradford said in a cocky tone. "The Foot Clan have been searching the city all this time, only to find that Hamato Yoshi's pupils are a bunch of snot-nosed brats."

 

The five Hamatos tensed at the sound of their father's name, as well as the name of the clan their parents had always warned them about. They exchanged a quick glance and passed a silent message between each other. Bradford clearly didn't recognize them behind their hoods and masks, and it would be better for them if they kept it that way.

 

But first they needed to defuse this bomb, or else it'd be mutation city.

 

"Those ninja sightings that have been going on for the last few months, those have been you, right?" said Miwa, stalling for time as Donnie discreetly turned his attention back to the bomb.

 

Bradford sneered at her. "Do you think I'm amateur enough to be seen, little girl?" he asked. "No, those were just some of the lower ranks in my clan, and they were dealt with accordingly."

 

Xever then pulled out a knife and started twirling it in his hand. "Just as we are going to deal with you five,  _permanently_."

 

The two launched themselves forward in an attack, and Leo, Raph, Mikey, and Miwa rushed forward to meet them head on, leaving Donnie to sweat over the bomb.

 

It quickly became clear that Bradford and Xever weren't like the opponents that the Hamatos had faced before. Bradford was clearly a highly trained ninja with years under his belt, and Xever moved in an unpredictable way, using his flexibility and break-dancing skills to twist around their defenses.

 

But the Hamatos had numbers and teamwork on their side, so the battle was on fairly equal footing.

 

"You guys picked a really bad time for this!" shouted Leo in an attempt to reason with them as he blocked a kick from Xever.

 

Xever jumped away from him. "Oh sorry for the inconvenience," he said sarcastically. "When would you prefer to breath your last breath?"

 

"Do you idiots not see the giant bomb behind us?!" Miwa shouted as she dodged a hit from Bradford. She was beginning to regret not putting him in the hospital when she'd kicked his butt previously.

 

"If that thing goes off, it'll wipe us all out!" added Leo, still trying to reason with the villains.

 

But Bradford would have none of it. "I would rather perish with honor, than to live in shame," he said as he swung his sword at Raph, who managed to dodged and land a kick to Bradford's face.

 

"Are you not hearing us?" Miwa asked as she kicked his legs out from under him as he was recovering from Raph's hit. "Where's the honor in getting blown sky high by a freaky alien goo bomb?"

 

"And what'd we ever do to you guys, anyway?" Mikey added as he dodged a kick from Xever.

 

Raph, on the other hand, turned to yell at Donnie. "Will you hurry up and defuse the bomb!" he shouted. "We're dealing with a couple of nut jobs here."

 

"Be  _QUIET_!" snarled Donnie as he strained under the pressure.

 

The fight continued around him, the Hamatos giving as many licks as they were getting, but Bradford and Xever just wouldn't stay down.

 

Finally Donnie said to himself, "I'm down to two wires. Which do I cut, black or green?"

 

"Go for the green!" called Mikey with a grin, only to be sucker punched by Bradford a second later.

 

Donnie hesitated for a moment, but the alien clock was counting down, and he had no better options to go with. So throwing caution to the wind, he snapped through the green wires, and braced himself.

 

Just like that, the bomb powered down, and Donnie wheeled around with a big grin. "Guys! Guys! He was right about something!" he yelled as he grabbed his bō and rushed to join the battle.

 

"Always the tone of surprise," Miwa teased as he joined them.

 

With their whole team together, the five of them were quickly able to change the tide of the battle, and eventually cornered Bradford and Xever along the side of the bomb.

 

Trapped with nowhere to go, the two villains glared at the teenagers defiantly.

 

"You are worthy adversaries," said Leo in his best hero voice. "But the fight is ours. Lay down your weapons."

 

"And tell us what the heck your problem is?" snarled Raph. As much as he loved to fight, he preferred to know why his opponent was trying to kill him. And if these guys were really with the Foot Clan, then they needed all the information they could get.

 

"Never," Xever snarled. And Bradford kept his grip on his sword and glared at them.

 

"You don't have a choice," snapped Leo. "You've lost."

 

"If I'm going down," said Bradford as he eyed the bomb thoughtfully. "I'm taking you with me."

 

With that he jabbed his sword into the glass that held the mutagen within the bomb.

 

"No!" yelped Donnie, as he and his siblings jumped clear of the ooze.

 

Bradford and Xever were not so lucky, as the glass broke, and the ooze poured out and swept the two of them away.

 

Without the mutagen inside the bomb, the chances of it ever going off reached zero, and the siblings exchanged glances. They immediately burst out cheering as they fully realized what they had accomplished that day.

 

Just as they were turning to leave, a deep, menacing voice rang out behind them.

 

"Your skills are impressive," the voice said, and they whirled around to see the speaker.

 

Standing on the very top of the deactivated bomb was a man completely clad in spiky armor and a metallic helmet covering his face. The latest arrival glared down at them, his eyes lingering on Miwa longer than any of her brothers liked.

 

The man then jumped from the bomb and landed before them.

 

"But they will  _not_  save you," he finished as he shifted into a battle pose.

 

Donnie's eyes widened as the cautionary tales their parents had told them over the years came flooding back to him.

 

"Oh man," he genius said nervously to the others. "Do you think that's Oroku Saki? Do you think that's the Shredder?"

 

"Well it's definitely  _a_  Shredder," said Raph, trying to cover up his nervousness with bravo.

 

The man in armor began striding towards them. "There is undoubtedly a fascinating story how my old nemesis convinced you four to allow him to train you," he said, eyeing the boys with distaste. "Perhaps I will let one of you live long enough to tell it."

 

"You're gonna have to catch us first," said Leo quickly, signaling for Mikey to drop a smoke bomb.

 

Mikey threw the egg in his hand to the ground, only for it to make a crunching sound and spill egg white at their feet.

 

Mikey gave his siblings a sheepish look. "Oops, I think I'm out."

 

Realizing there was no running from this, the teens only had seconds to prepare as the Shredder came at them with the might of a charging elephant.

 

The five gave the fight their all, but it still wasn't enough. The Shredder systematically knocked each of them away like they were nothing but annoying flies.

 

He kicked Raph into the Hotel's glowing sign, causing the boy to be electrocuted.

 

Leo, he disarmed, and kicked several feet across the ground, causing Donnie to run to him in concern.

 

With Donnie, he smacked the teen over the head with his own bō staff, before hitting him with a strong backhand punch.

 

He practically threw Mikey off the roof, though the teen managed to grab the edge and pull himself back up.

 

When he had Miwa pinned, he took a moment to study the girl.

 

"You have your mother's eyes," the Shredder said almost wistfully.

 

Said eyes narrowed, as Miwa struggled to get free of him.

 

"Get away from her!" Leo bellowed as he reclaimed his swords and came running at the Shredder along with Donnie.

 

The Shredder threw Miwa into Donnie, and focused on fighting Leo.

 

Mikey, meanwhile ran to check on Raph, who was able to get back up, but was still shaken from his electrocution.

 

The five of them went at their opponent again, throwing every move they had at the Shredder, but none of them could even lay a scratch the mad man. The most they were able to do was when Mikey managed to temporarily string him up with his kusarigama chain.

 

In retaliation, the Shredder cut through the hotel's sign's supports to bring one of the glowing letters down on top of Mikey.

 

Fortunately, the letters had a dent in the back just big enough for Mikey to hide in and not get crushed until his siblings were able to pull him out.

 

As they struggled to catch their breath, the Shredder started coming towards them again, looking no worse for the wear than when they had started.

 

The five teens prepared themselves for round two as the Shredder came at them once again.

 

But it was no contest. The Shredder kicked their butts without even breaking a sweat.

 

By the end of it he had Leo pinned beneath his gauntlet, and the other Hamatos were struggling painfully to get back to their feet behind him.

 

"Tell me where Hamato Yoshi is, and I promise your demise will be swift," the Shredder said, slowly extending the hidden blade of his gauntlet so that it came close to Leo's neck.

 

The lead teen struggled to get free, but it didn't look like there was a way out of this.

 

Just then a gasping sound behind the Shredder startled the ninja so much he released the teenager, and turned to see where it was coming from.

 

Laying helpless on the ground gasping for breath lay a giant snakehead fish with arms. "Help... meee…" the fish wheezed  a familiar voice.

 

Another figure crawled forward, this one looking like a man-shaped version of the Shredder's own dog. The dog one also groaned in another familiar sounding voice.

 

"What is this!" demanded the Shredder. He was so surprised that he failed to see Leo being gathered up by his siblings, and all of them taking their chance to escape. "Xever? Bradford?"

 

Then realizing that he had lost his prey, the Shredder let out a roar of rage.  ** _"NOOOO!"_**

 

__________________

 

After making certain they weren't followed, the five teens returned to their home.

 

When their parents saw their children, all beaten and bruised, they had immediately had set to tending to their injuries, and asking what had happened.

 

And so they told the whole story, April joining them to add her own parts even though she was still depressed at failing to rescue her dad.

 

Once the story was done, they all fell silent as the events of their night took their toll upon the teens. They had never been beaten that badly before, and none felt like doing more than mope.

 

"You were all very lucky," said Yoshi, once the last wound was tended to.

 

"I think we define that word a little differently, Father," said Raph moodily.

 

"Few have ever faced the Shredder and survived," Yoshi stated, his expression showing just how well he knew that to be the truth.

 

Tang Shen gave a small shudder, and reached over her shoulder to touch the scars left over from the last time she had seen Saki. Seeing this, Miwa stood and gave her mother a hug, which Tang Shen returned gratefully.

 

"He was just so fast," Mikey lamented.

 

"It was like he was everywhere at once," agreed Donnie.

 

"I guess there are some things we're just not ready for," said Leo looking defeated. "We didn't stand a chance against him."

 

"Perhaps," said Master Yoshi gravely. "But that no longer matters. My worst fear has come to pass. The Shredder knows I am alive, and worse, he knows about all of you. It is clear to me now he is a problem that will not go away."

 

The family exchanged glances, and nodded, knowing it to be true.

 

"So prepare yourselves, my children," said Yoshi. "Because as of this moment, we are at war."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you have it. The Shredder finally enters the scene. I also included a bit of my theory on what happened to all the scientists the Kraang kidnapped. In the show they never really say what became of them, just that they were kidnapped to work on the ooze, and I figured once they outlived their usefulness, the Kraang used them as guinea pigs as well. There's also some early hints of Mikey being a Kraang genius, I always like that in the show.


	6. Nightmares and Bad Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Shredder has revealed himself to be in New York, and will do anything to get what he wants.

Yoshi felt relaxed and content at his family home in Japan. He was sitting by the back door with his wife as they watched their five children goof around in the garden. Everyone was happy and laughing under the flowering cherry blossoms trees.

 

But then his beloved wife stood abruptly pulled away. "Yoshi…" she said in a soft plaintive tone.

 

Yoshi looked up to see what was wrong, and his eyes widened in horror at the sight.

 

Tang Shen was standing with her back to him, facing into the house. As he watched, her back began to ooze with blood,  _too_  much blood, from long gashes cut into her back.

 

"Tang Shen!" he yelled, leaping to his feet. But before he could reach her the house erupted into flames, and Tang Shen was dragged screaming into the fire right before his eyes.

 

Horrified, Yoshi could only watch as the flames spread from the house to the garden, separating him from his children, who were now crying out in alarm.

 

He tried to make his way trough the flames towards them, and they were doing their best to pick through the burning bushes and trees to reach him as well. But no matter what they did, there always seemed to be a wall of fire between them.

 

Then all of a sudden a familiar shadow rose up above Michelangelo. When his youngest turned to see who it was, Yoshi only had time to shout a warning before the Shredder grabbed him and dragged him away into the flames.

 

"MIKEY!" yelled Raphael, and he rushed towards where his baby brother was last seen, desperate to save him.

 

As he scanned the flames, he somehow failed to see the Shredder rise up behind him.

 

Yoshi and his other three children shouted a warning, but Raph only had time to look over his shoulder before the Shredder struck out with his blades, making Raphael fall into one of the burning bushes.

 

Donatello, Miwa, and Leonardo took up defensive positions around each other, their eyes scanning their surroundings for their enemy.

 

But their efforts were in vain, as once again the Shredder appeared and struck, directing a devastating blow at Donnie's head, and dragging a screaming Miwa away into the smoke and ash.

 

Only Leo was left standing, and Yoshi doubled his efforts to reach him in time.

 

But it was all for not, as the fire between him and his eldest son leapt even higher than before, blocking any path they could have taken to reach each other.

 

"Father, Help!" yelled Leo, coughing as the smoke filled his lungs, and the flames drew ever closer to him.

 

But Yoshi could do nothing watch as the Shredder appeared before Leonardo. The remaining teen gripped his swords tightly and rushed at his enemy, determined not to go down without a fight.

 

But the boy was hopelessly outmatched, and the Shredder soon had him at his mercy.

 

Yoshi could only watch in horror as the Shredder's bladed gauntlet came down upon his oldest son's throat, knowing there was no way he could survive the blow.

 

" ** _NO!"_**

 

__________________

 

" ** _NO!"_** bellowed Yoshi as he sat straight up in bed, his body dripping from sweat as the nightmare remained fresh in his memory.

 

Beside him, Tang Shen shifted, and sat up. "What is it?" she asked sleepily in concern.

 

Yoshi didn't say a word, he only gripped his wife in a tight hug, before climbing up from their futon to check on his children.

 

Once he was sure all of them were safely sleeping in their own beds, only then did he let his wife comfort him.

 

As he listened to Tang Shen's gentle murmurs as he drifted back to sleep. There was one thing he knew for sure, he was not going to let Oroku Saki try to take his family from him again, not if he had anything to say about it.

 

__________________

 

The next day, Yoshi called his children's school to excuse them from class for the week, claiming they had a family emergency.

 

The five teens had been grateful for his doing so, thinking he was giving them time to recover from their injuries before they had to go rejoin the public. Or that's what they had thought, until their father spent the day drilling them in their techniques.

 

Then he did the same the next day, and the day after that. Once their injuries had mostly healed, he had them start sparring against himself and each other all day, only pausing long enough to switch partners before starting again.

 

By the end of the week the five teens were exhausted, and Tang Shen was beginning to get worried for her husband. It was very unlike him to be so harsh, or for him to train their children for so long without rest.

 

So when he finally allowed their children to go to bed on the last day of their week off (after Michelangelo passed out in the middle of training), Tang Shen quietly confronted him about it.

 

Yoshi looked at his wife imploringly. "The last time the Shredder came to our home, I nearly lost you. I nearly lost Miwa. Now he has found us again, and seeks to take you all away from me a second time, and I fear that this time he will succeed."

 

Tang Shen wrapped her husband in a tight hug. "Saki may seek that, yes," she said comfortingly. "But that does not mean it will happen. You are strong, my love, and our children are strong as well. If the Shredder believes he can take us, he will have to fight tooth and nail for it, because I know none in our family would  _ever_  lay down and let him."

 

She then pulled back, and looked at him sternly. "But you cannot continue to train our children like this," she scolded. "If you keep wearing them into the ground like you have been doing, you will make them too exhausted to even stand before the Shredder, much less fight him."

 

Yoshi frowned, but then looked ashamed of himself. "I just- I want them to be prepared for when they inevitably face him again. Even  _I_  would have difficulty fighting him, if they aren't strong enough, he will slaughter them."

 

Tang Shen lowered her head. "I know," she said softly, Yoshi had not been the only one having nightmares recently. "I agree you need to step up their training, but not in the way that you have been doing, my love."

 

Yoshi sighed, and bowed his head. "I know."

 

__________________

 

The next morning, Yoshi allowed his children to return to school, and while he was still training them harder than before, he was far less harsh than he had been over the last week.

 

The five teens were greatly relieved by this, though they didn't fully understand why their father had acted as he had, they were grateful he was now back to himself.

 

After their initial meeting with the Shredder they did not see him again as they continued to run patrols in the evening, as well as search for April's father.

 

They did, however, run into a transformed Bradford (whom Mikey promptly named Dogpound for his new canine nature) and his army of Foot Ninja while trying to get April's stolen phone back from some Purple Dragons.

 

"You work with these lowlifes, Dogpound?" called Miwa as she dodged one of the gang members coming at her with a bat. "Why does that not surprise me?"

 

"Yeah, and I thought you couldn't get any lower," Leo added, making the canine mutant snarl and attack harder.

 

Unfortunately, their actions that night brought Baxter Stockman (the inventor they had stopped from breaking into TCRI) to the Foot's attention, and reluctant employ.

 

After that they heard that there was a new mutant lurking in the sewers. Deciding to investigate, they found a mutant alligator fighting against a horde of Kraang. Mikey had insisted they take him home with him once it had collapsed after finishing off the Kraang and roughing the teenagers up a little.

 

"Mikey, he's a big green monster!" Raph had protested when their youngest brother first suggested bringing the gator home.

 

"And he had me by the face, Mikey!" yelled Donnie in distress. "My face!"

 

But the orange wearing ninja could not be budged on the subject, and the others reluctantly began the difficult task of bringing the alligator home with them.

 

At first it had seemed like the alligator would be just as much a mindless monster when he woke up as before. But then Tang Shen arrived on the scene and, miraculously, was able to calm the reptile down till he was practically purring in her lap.

 

"It was not that different from calming Raphael's temper tantrums when he was small," she explained when asked. "Once I calmed him down he would react to in a similar way as well," she added, stroking the now placid alligator's head.

 

Raph turned scarlet at that response. " _Mother!_ " he complained

 

The mutant gator then explained to the Hamato clan that the Kraang had experimented him on for most of his life, leading for him to have an unadulterated hatred of the aliens. Even the mention of their name was enough to set him off in another fit of temper (where he kept grabbing Donnie by the face, much to the genius' dismay), only for Tang Shen to need to calm him down again.

 

Once he regained his senses a second time, he agreed to tell them how he had escaped the Kraang, and managed to bring along a power source of theirs with him, setting back the Kraang's invasion plans exponentially. After some convincing, they managed to get Leatherhead to show them the power source, and the gator led them around the traps he had set to keep the Kraang away.

 

The power source turned out to be a glowing crystal unlike any found on Earth (according to Donnie). But while they were examining it, they began hearing crashes coming through the tunnels as the Kraang began picking their way through the traps to come after their power cell.

 

With the forewarning that they were coming, Donnie managed to rig Leatherhead's abandoned subway car of a home to use the power cell as a power source, and speed them away to safety.

 

Once they were a safe distance away, Donnie was able to wrap the power cell in lead to keep the Kraang from tracking it. Then, with Leatherhead's permission, he hid it in his lab for experiments.

 

Mikey then offered to let Leatherhead live in their basement (much to his siblings' distress) but the gator turned him down, and returned to the sewers. He feared his temper was still too uncontrollable to be in a domestic setting, and he did not wish to harm his new friends. But at Mikey's insistence, he did agree to visit often through the secret passageways to the sewers.

 

After the fiasco with Leatherhead, the Hamato clan barely had a few days to recuperate before the next disaster hit. On one ordinary day, rats began spewing out of the sewers in droves.

 

After having to save April from being trapped on a power line, the Hamato clan was clueless as to why this was happening, or how. The rat attacks were too organized to be random, but who could control every rat in the city like this. It wasn't until Leatherhead called them into the sewers that they found out what had happened.

 

The gator had been searching for a safe place in the underground to make his home. During his search he stumbled across the charred remains of an abandoned lab, with some of the remaining partially singed paper having rambled science babble written on them discussing research yielding a psychic connection to rodents.

 

Donnie managed to recognize the handwriting on the papers, and he realized that Dr. Falco had returned, and his psychic research had succeeded in giving him new powers. It was him leading the rodent attack on the city.

 

After searching the remains of the lab, they were able to deduce where Falco was hiding, and the five ninjas and the alligator all went to stop the madman.

 

They arrived to see Falco drastically changed from the scientist they had fought last time. His experiments had mutated his appearance to resemble that of an Egyptian mummy, complete with bandage wrapping around his most of exposed skin. His eyes were hollowed out and blind, and he had been apparently using the rats to see. He had also decided to call himself the Rat King, much to Mikey's displeasure ("Dude! I'm the one who names stuff!").

 

After beating their way through Falco's rat minions, they were able to take down the former scientist fairly easily. Without his telepathic powers to tell him what they were about to do, and no more minions to fight for him, he was fairly easy to beat. Unfortunately, once he was knocked unconscious, a swarm of rats carried him away before they could take him to the police.

 

All in all, it, had been a hectic few weeks, but nothing prepared them for what would happen next.

 

__________________

 

It started when Snakeweed had resurface (apparently, he had survived being electrocuted and blown up on the night they'd met), and was snatching people off the street for an unknown reason.

 

Unfortunately, their chasing of the giant plant man ended up bringing about another of what was now a common argument between Leo and Raph.

 

Raphael had been jealous ever since Leo had been appointed their leader, and that jealousy most commonly showed itself with Raph questioning Leo's authority, or outright disobeying his direct orders. Depending on the situation, sometimes their siblings followed Raph's example rather than Leo's, and it was upsetting the whole team dynamic.

 

They had managed to corner Snakeweed in an alley, and Raph had wanted to go charging in guns blazing, but Leo wanted to follow a plan he'd come up with to stop the mutant, a plan that Raph believed was too slow.

 

And so, when they finally followed Leo's plan, they arrived to see that Snakeweed had already escaped, which resulted in the current bickering.

 

Miwa had grown fed up with the constant shouting matches after the first argument, so when it looked like the two of them would be there yelling all night, she took her leave from the rooftop.

 

Only Donnie and Mikey acknowledged her departure.

 

"Where are you going?" Mikey called after her.

 

Miwa didn't bother to stop, but instead called back over her shoulder. "To find some trouble, preferably far away from those two idiots."

 

"Keep your phone on you in case you need backup!" was all Donnie said. They both knew there was no way they could stop her from going.

 

Miwa gave him a thumbs up. "Will do, let me know who wins!" she called as she hurried out of sight.

 

She was fairly certain the bickering pair hadn't even noticed she'd gone.

 

A few minutes later she was several rooftops away when she got a text from Mikey.  _'Leo said that if Raph is leader now since he thinks hes better than Leo,'_  said the text. A second later she got a text from Raph.  _'Keep an eye out for Snakeweed, call us if you see him,'_ was all it said.

 

Miwa rolled her eyes and put away her phone. "Boneheads," she muttered to herself.

 

She suddenly realized that she wasn't alone on the rooftop. She drew her tantō and wheeled around.

 

Standing before her was an entire patrol of Foot Clan ninjas.

 

She grinned viciously. "Hello misplaced aggression," she said as she darted forward to attack.

 

The Foot Ninjas were good, but Miwa was better. In a few minutes all the Foot members were laying knocked out on the rooftop, and Miwa was standing over them smugly.

 

"Thanks for the fun, boys," she said to her unconscious foes as she turned to leave.

 

"Most impressive," said a sinister voice behind her.

 

Miwa paled as she recognized the voice. Turning, she was just in time to raise her tantō to block a blow from the Shredder's gauntlet.

 

She flipped away as the Shredder made to strike again, throwing shuriken at him as she did so.

 

The Shredder blocked the shuriken, but made no move to attack her a third time.

 

But Miwa was not about to let her guard down. She stood with her tantō at the ready and glared fiercely at her family's enemy, while simultaneously searching for a way to escape the rooftop and call for backup, or to just get out of there alive, period.

 

But the Shredder only studied her up and down. "You fight well," he said. "Clearly you have your mother's spirit."

 

Miwa's glare turned venomous. "You have no right to talk about my mother!" she snapped, remembering the terrible marks on Tang Shen's back. "Not after what you _did_  to her!"

 

The Shredder actually hung his head at that. "Believe me, child, there is nothing in this life I regret more than your mother's death."

 

Miwa's eyes widened when she heard that. "Her-" she breathed softly.

 

He thought she was dead. The Shredder thought that Tang Shen had died in that fire.

 

Then that meant he didn't know that the others were her brothers, which explained his choice of words when they'd met, and why he'd been so focused on her over them.

 

"I do not know what lies my old nemesis has raised you on," the Shredder continued, not aware of Miwa's epiphany, "but I loved Tang Shen more than anything. She should have been mine,  _you_ should have been  _my_  daughter, but Hamato Yoshi stole you both from me years ago."

 

Miwa snapped out of her daze and glared at the Shredder again, inwardly recoiling in disgust at the idea of being raised as his daughter. "Well if you loved her so much, you had a funny way of showing it." she snarled. She made no indication that her mother was still alive for her own safety. Miwa shuddered to think what the Shredder would do if he knew she still lived and was within his reach.

 

But the Shredder didn't react to her ire. "I  _will_  have my vengeance on Hamato Yoshi for his betrayal, and for Tang Shen's death," he said casually, as if he wasn't talking about ending the life of her father. "But I would rather you not get caught in the crossfire, if only for the fact that you are her daughter and as such you are the only living piece of her left in this world."

 

Miwa blinked at him incredulously. "And what, I'm just supposed to stand back and let you do it?" she asked in disbelief. "Did you miss the fact that he's my  _father!_ "

 

The Shredder looked almost amused by this. "He doesn't have to be," he said holding his hand out to her. "Join me, child, and be my daughter as you were always meant to be. Together we can avenge your mother's death, and make the one responsible suffer."

 

Miwa was glad her scarf and hood covered most of her face, because she doubted the Shredder would appreciate her looking at him like he was crazy. He wouldn't appreciate her saying it either, so she kept her mouth shut. The idea of becoming this mad man's daughter curdled like sour milk in her stomach, and she didn't think she'd ever been more repulsed by an idea in her life.

 

The Shredder mistook her silence for contemplation, and he turned to leave. "The choice is yours, girl," he said. " I will be at the Byerly Building at midnight to receive your answer."

 

With that the Shredder leapt off the building and out of sight, leaving his unconscious soldiers to sort themselves out.

 

The second he was gone, Miwa bolted from the building, and didn't stop until she was a mile away, and well hidden. Once she was sure this wasn't a ruse to ambush her, she felt her strength leave her, and she collapsed to her knees on the rooftop. It felt as though her heart was trying to beat it's way out of her chest, as all that had just happened caught up to her in one instant.

 

She curled up on herself and tried to reconcile with the idea that she'd survived her second encounter with the Shredder. But in the back of her mind she knew that a whole new set of nightmares would be waiting for her next time she went to sleep.

 

__________________

 

After leaving the others, Leo had gone home and received a lecture on leadership from his father, and then been sent back out to find his brothers and his sister.

 

He was not eager to try and take leadership back from Raph, and the argument that was sure to ensue from the action. So instead he focused on finding Miwa, who had broken off from the group early on, and probably hadn't rejoined them yet.

 

After several minutes of searching, he found his older sister collapsed and partially hidden on a rooftop, looking like she had seen a ghost.

 

"Nee-chan!" he yelled as he rushed to her side. Looking her over, he could see she wasn't hurt, but her face was too pale, and her eyes were too wide for things to be alright.

 

"He thinks mother is dead," she said softly, not really seeming to see Leo in front of her.

 

"What?" asked Leo.

 

"The Shredder…" said Miwa faintly, still looking sick. "He showed up…"

 

" _WHAT!_ " shouted Leo in alarm. He leapt to his feet and drew his katanas, and searched the roof as if expecting the Shredder to appear out of a shadow at any moment.

 

"He's not here," she said, the faintness slowly fading from her voice. "He was on a building in Chinatown, but I ran, and I'm pretty sure he didn't follow me…"

 

Leo turned his attention back to his big sister. "What did he do to you?" he asked in concern.

 

"He offered to let me join the Foot," said Miwa, her face twisting in disgust, "and become  _his_  daughter instead of Father's."

 

" ** _WHAT!"_**  shouted Leo. He was using that word a lot tonight,

 

Miwa took a deep breath and told Leo what had happened.

 

By the time she was done, Leo was sitting on the rooftop next to her, processing this new information. One thing was very clear out of all of it.

 

"He's completely out of his mind," Leo declared.

 

Miwa nodded in agreement.

 

"I mean, really, he can't honestly expect you to just stand back and let him  _kill_  our dad, much less help him do it," said Leo, still stuck in his disbelief at the situation. "And becoming his daughter isn't much of a consolation prize."

 

"He's an angry bitter old man who was convinced that Mother would have married him if he'd managed to kill Father fifteen years ago," said Miwa. "I think his sanity took a hike long before either of us were born."

 

Leo grunted in agreement. "Plus, he thinks he killed the love of his live, no matter how much he blames Father for it," he added thoughtfully. "That probably only helped the guy go even further around the bend."

 

"We  _can't_  let him know that Mother is still alive," said Miwa urgently. "If he knew-"

 

Leo's face paled at the thought.

 

"Yeah, let's avoid that as long as possible," he said, shaking his head in an attempt to chase away the thought.

 

Miwa frowned and stared out over the city. "You know... we know where the Shredder will be in a few hours," she said thoughtfully.

 

Leo immediately saw where her thoughts were going. "No!" he stated bluntly. "Absolutely not, Mi! There is no way we're going to try to attack the Shredder on our own!"

 

Miwa frowned at him. "But-"

 

" _NO!_ " Leo emphasized. "The five of us  _together_  couldn't even put a scratch on him! We don't stand a chance with just the two of us!"

 

Miwa scowled at him. "It would take too long to track down the others, and this is our big chance to end this vendetta before anyone else in our family gets hurt. We can  _do_  this, Leo."

 

Leo looked far from convinced, but he could see the determined look in her eyes. "You're going to try to do this no matter what I say, aren't you."

 

"Yup," said Miwa stubbornly. If she had the chance to stop the Shredder now before he did more damage, she was going to take it.

 

Leo let out a sigh of exasperation. Nothing short of knocking Miwa out and chaining her to the basement floor would stop her from doing what she wanted when she was this determined.

 

"Alright," he agreed reluctantly. "But if we do this, we  _need_  a plan. And I need to trust that you will actually follow it."

 

"I will," she promised without hesitation.

 

Leo nodded. "Then here's what we'll do..."

 

__________________

 

When the clock struck midnight, Miwa crept onto the roof of the Byerly Building. She kept her eyes peeled, trying to see if the Shredder was there yet, determined not to be taken by surprise again.

 

But her attempts were all for not, as once again a voice came out of the shadows behind her. "So, you decided to come."

 

Miwa stiffened, and turned to face the Shredder, only to jerk back when she realized that he was directly behind her.

 

The Shredder only looked down at her stoically. "What is your answer, child?" he demanded.

 

"Call me Karai," said Miwa, giving the alias she would use to hide her identity while doing ninja work. All her siblings had one. "I thought about what you said, and you're right. I should do what my mother would want."

 

For a brief instant she thought she saw the Shredder smile under his helmet. But the moment quickly vanished, as the Shredder wheeled around and landed a kick in the middle of Leo's gut. He had been trying to sneak up on the Shredder, but the blow sent him flying back.

 

The Shredder then had to turn quickly again and block a strike from Miwa's tantō. He glared furiously at her, and shoved her back.

 

"You dare try to ambush  _me!_ " snarled the Shredder.

 

"I'm just doing what my mother would want," Miwa snapped back. "And I really don't think she would want me to be a lapdog for the  _monster_  who sliced her back open!"

 

The Shredder roared in rage and attacked. But as he did so, a chain wrapped itself around his ankle. The ninja master only had a chance to look down at the chain, before Leo shoved the heavy weight that the chain was attached to off the building.

 

The Shredder's feet were yanked out from under him and he was dragged over the side. He took a swipe at Leo as he passed, but the boy dodged it and the man went over the edge.

 

Miwa and Leo ran to the edge to see if their plan worked, only to gape in shock when they realized that he wasn't there.

 

"Where'd he go?" asked Leo nervously.

 

Miwa shot him a terrified look. "I don't-"

 

The two teens froze as they sensed someone behind them, and dodged just in time to avoid being knocked off the building by the sharp blades of the Shredder's gauntlets.

 

"I had thought you would be smart enough to see through the lies of Hamato Yoshi, and the rest of his pathetic clan," the Shredder snarled at Miwa. "Perhaps I was wrong."

 

Miwa gave him a scathing look. "Sorry, but it looks like I'm Daddy's little girl."

 

"Then it seems I will simply have to educate you how to properly be such," said the Shredder, drawing the blades from his gauntlets.

 

Leo attempted to strike a blow at the Shredder while he was focused on Miwa, but the ninja master saw it coming, and redirected Leo's course to send him flying into Miwa.

 

The two teens were sent sprawling in a heap on the rooftop, and the Shredder started towards them with his blades drawn.

 

Just then Raph showed up out of the blue. "Guys!" he yelled, only to skid to a stop in horror when he realized who was standing over his downed siblings. " ** _What!_** "

 

His older siblings were able to use the distraction he caused to throw a smoke bomb at the Shredder and get some distance away from the him, dragging Raph with them as they ran.

 

"Where are the others?" Leo asked.

 

"Back home," Raph yelled as they went.

 

"What?" asked Leo. "We told you guys to come meet us!"

 

Raph scoffed. "Yeah, I got your text. For the record, 'Come to the Byerly Building ASAP' is not a good warning that you guys are fighting the  _freaking **Shredder!"**_

 

"Less talking more running!" Miwa snapped at her younger brothers. "He's gaining on us!"

 

Leo and Raph glanced over their shoulders to see indeed a furious Shredder was getting closer to them by the second.

 

Just then Snakeweed burst up from within the alley in front of them, hissing and snapping his claw leaves. "I found you brats," he sneered down at them.

 

"Oh, just what we need," Leo deadpanned as the three skidded to a stop.

 

They quickly dodged as Snakeweed swung at them with his thorny vines.

 

Raph turned to Leo and said rapidly. " _All-is-forgiven-you're-the-leader-again-welcome-back!_ "

 

Snakeweed continued to attack them with his vines, and no matter how many they cut off, they would just grow back a second later.

 

Leo then caught sight of the Shredder standing on a nearby rooftop, watching the fight for his moment to strike.

 

He frantically searched the area for a way out of this mess, and smirked when he spotted one. "Guys!" Leo called to the other two, "Follow me, I've got an idea!"

 

"You're the boss," Raph called back as he and Miwa followed him off the building and down to the street below.

 

They lured Snakeweed till they were directly under the building the Shredder was on.

 

"Now what?" asked Miwa. From her perspective, this wasn't the best place to be. With the Shredder directly above them, and Snakeweed closing in in front of them, enemies surrounded them at all sides.

 

"We charge the Jolly Green Giant," stated Leo.

 

"Really?" asked Raph. That sounded more like a plan he'd come up with.

 

"Trust me," said Leo. "Let's move."

 

Dodging the plant mutant's swinging vines, Leo grabbed some kegs of Antifreeze stored near the building. He shoved one into Snakeweeds mouth, and tossed another up into the air so that it went up to the Shredder's level.

 

"Guys!  _NOW!_ " he ordered.

 

As one, Raph and Miwa threw their weapons so that they caused the kegs to explode, dousing Snakeweed in Antifreeze, and creating a frigid smoke screen between them and the Shredder.

 

Before the mist had time to clear, Raph shattered the now frozen Snakeweed with a quick blow and a shout of "Booyakasha!"

 

When the mist finally cleared, the Shredder was left with the sight of a shattered plant monster, and no sign of his quarry.

 

He roared in frustration that his vengeance had again been denied to him that night.

 

__________________

 

When they returned to the Renaissance Dojo, Miwa told her family what had happened that night, as Donnie and Tang Shen tended to Mikey, who had been hit on the head during a fight with Snakeweed, causing Raph to freeze up as leader.

 

Once the story was told, Master Yoshi stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I never suspected that Oroku Saki would believe your mother perished, but I can see why he would think so," he said, exchanging a glance with his wife. "You were right not to let him know otherwise."

 

"I can't believe Shredder thought you'd just turn your back on us like that," said Raph incredulously.

 

Miwa scowled as she remembered their enemy's offer. "He seems to think he has more of a right to me than you guys do, and that I would see things his way. I don't think he's given up on that either."

 

"Yeah, but we're your family," said Mikey as he munched on a piece of pizza Tang Shen had allowed him to eat.

 

"But the Shredder doesn't know that, Mikey," said Donnie. "He thinks Mother died in that fire, and that was before the four of us were born."

 

"So?" asked Mikey.

 

Tang Shen hugged her youngest to her chest. "So, if I had perished that night, the four of you would not have existed, my son," she said softly.

 

Mikey's eyes widened as he realized what they meant.

 

"So in order for him to keep thinking that, we can't let Shredder know we're related," said Leo with a serious expression.

 

Raph rolled his eyes. "It's not like we're gonna go tell him our life story, Leo."

 

"Your brother is correct, Raphael," said Yoshi sternly. "One slip could give the Shredder crucial information. From now on, you are forbidden to call Miwa by a familial name while out in the field."

 

Mikey's mouth turned into a pout. "But we can still call her Nee-chan and Sis at home right?"

 

The rest of the family had to smile fondly at Mikey's question.

 

"Yes, you can still call me that out of ninja mode," said Miwa with a grin.

 

Mikey beamed at her. "Good," he said darting over and hugging her. "Because you're  _our_  big sister, not some Foot Clan Witch."

 

Miwa patted him on the back. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It said in the show that the Turtles were being trained super hard for a long while, but I figured Tang Shen wouldn't let Yoshi push them as hard as he did in the show. As you can see, Shredder still wants Miwa as his daughter even if he didn't steal her as a baby. The way I see it, having Karai to care for during those fifteen years gave him something to anchor him, but without her, he went even farther around the bend than he is in the show. He's not the weird Joker kind of crazy, but more the cold calculating insanity that makes him think that the terrible things he does are all within his rights, and anything challenging his delusions with reality can cause him to go into a rage. Miwa turning down his offer to be his daughter is one such challenge, and he's not happy about it.


	7. Responsibilities of Friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A close call at their school leaves the teens on edge. Meanwhile, they find out that they have not been as stealthy as they had hoped, and in their adventures have picked up a fan... for better or worse.

Raph scowled as he sat at a desk in Detention Hall.

 

He hated it when he got detention. It felt like an insult to his ninja skills that he couldn't get into trouble, and then get out of it without being caught.

 

Normally he could pull it off no problem, but this time was different. This time if he had slipped away to avoid trouble he would have left his best friend, Casey Jones, hung out to dry, and Raph was nothing if not a loyal friend. So he had allowed himself to be caught, and took his share of the blame.

 

Though to be fair, it hadn't really been either of their fault to begin with. Casey had seen some bullies pushing around a freshman half their size, and had stepped in to put a stop to it. Unfortunately, his 'stepping in' quickly dissolved into a fistfight between Casey, and six other guys who were all bigger than him.

 

Seeing his friend outnumbered like that had Raph jumping in to help even the odds. But then a teacher had broken up the fight, and rather than slip away into the crowd in the ensuing confusion, Raph had stayed so Casey wouldn't get the full blame of starting a fight.

 

At least the kid who was being bullied had stood up for them. That meant the two of them had only gotten a week of detention, rather than suspension like the bullies had received.

 

But that still didn't help with Raph's dislike of detention.

 

In the desk next to him, Casey was folding random scraps of paper into paper footballs, and flicking them at their detention monitor's head. The teacher had only been awake for the first ten minutes of detention before falling asleep on his desk, and filling the detention hall with loud snores.

 

Casey pumped his fist in the air as his paper football hit the teacher directly in the middle of his bald forehead, making the snoring man snort in his sleep, but not awaken. "Bullseye," he whispered to himself in glee.

 

"Congratulations," said Raph sarcastically, "you're the champion of useless paper sports."

 

Casey rolled his eyes at Raph's biting words, and knew better than to take them seriously.

 

"Hey man," he said, "the way I see it, we can sit here and be bored the whole time, like you're doing. Or-" he paused to launch another paper football at the teacher's nose, which hit right on the mark, "-we can find some way to entertain ourselves, like I'm doing."

 

Raph rolled his eyes, but kept silent.

 

Casey was far too used to his friend's moods to be insulted by this. Instead he grinned at him. "Hey man, thanks for sticking with me yesterday."

 

Raph gave a noncommittal shrug. "Where was I supposed to go?" he asked. "I was in that fight too."

 

Casey gave him a look that said he wasn't fooled. "Yeah, right. I've seen you, Raph. If you don't want to get into trouble you can, like, disappear. It's like you're a freaking ninja or something."

 

Raph grunted and turned his head so that Casey couldn't see the smirk on his face. If only his friend knew just how right he was.

 

"What I'm saying is," Casey continued, "I know you could have just ditched me to get off scot free, but you didn't. So thanks, man."

 

Raph gave his hockey-loving friend a fist bump. "What are friends for."

 

Casey gave him a grin showing off his missing teeth. "So, didja send in your spit for that that World Wide Genome Project thingy?"

 

Raph shook his head. "Nah, my family's kept a pretty good record of our history over the generations, and my father's kinda paranoid about sending in my DNA to some weird genetics lab."

 

Casey raised an eyebrow. "Really? Too bad, the extra credit on that project is probably gonna save my science grade."

 

"Maybe that's a sign you should get a tutor," said Raph blandly.

 

"I'll think about it. I probably need one for trig at least," said Casey, "but most of the tutors at this school are intimidated by my awesomeness."

 

Raph opened his mouth to reply with something snarky, but he was cut off when a loud crash and the sound of glass breaking came from outside their room.

 

The two teens exchanged glances, before looking at their teacher, who hadn't been awoken by the sound.

 

Another crash followed the first, and the two boys leapt from their seats, and shot out the door to find out what was happening.

 

They came out to see the trophy case in the front hall now had a hole in it.

 

"Whoa, did someone practice their baseball swing in the hallway?" asked Casey when he saw it.

 

But Raph had an uneasy feeling in his gut. "I don't think so," he said, eyeing the scene. "If that was it then where's the ball? And what was the other crash?"

 

Casey frowned. "Vandals, you think?"

 

"Maybe," said Raph, searching for more clues.

 

Just then another crash came from farther down the hall followed by a scream. The two boys hurried towards the sound to investigate.

 

Poking their heads around the corner, they saw the remains of the foam Viking head that their mascot wore on the ground broken to pieces, and a strange woman with her back to them prowling the halls.

 

"What the heck happened here?" Casey asked the woman, stepping out of his hiding place.

 

The woman's head twisted around Exorcist fashion revealing glowing red eyes.

 

Casey jumped back in shock. "What The?!" he yelled.

 

"Do not interfere," the woman said in a robotic but pleasant sounding voice that did not match the malevolent expression on her face. Then before Casey could respond, the woman lifted her arm, and it opened at the elbow to reveal a cannon, which glowed as it prepared to fire.

 

Casey could only stand rooted to the spot as what was happening slowly sank in.

 

" ** _CASEY!"_** shouted Raph as he launched himself out of his hiding place to tackle his friend out of the way.

 

He managed to get them both out of the line of fire just before the 'woman' shot a missile at them. Unfortunately, Raph over did it on his tackle, and Casey's head got knocked against a locker hard enough to leave a dent in the metal.

 

"Case!" Raph yelled in concern, which only grew when his friend didn't respond. But a quick check showed that Casey wasn't badly hurt, just unconscious.

 

"Good thing you have a hard head," he muttered to his friend.

 

"Raph! Move!" came a shout behind him.

 

Raph barely managed to grab Casey and dodge in time before the robot woman's fist collided where they once were, striking hard enough to leave an even bigger dent in the locker.

 

Still carrying Casey, Raph moved to get some distance between him and the woman. April, who had been hiding in a closet nearby (and had called the warning), ran to join him.

 

"What the heck is going on?!" Raph yelled as they ran through the halls.

 

"She said her name was Ms. Campbell, and that she came from the World Wide Genome Project," April explained as they ran. "She keeps trying to get me to come with her. When I said no she started punching things."

 

Raph scowled. This robo-woman was most likely sent by the Kraang, and attacking at their school was way too close to home for comfort, to say nothing for the fact that his own friend was caught in the crossfire. "Now I'm really glad Father said not to do that. We gotta either get out of here, or get the others here to fight this thing. I don't think my tonfa are gonna cut it this time."

 

Not for the first time Raph cursed the fact their school had metal detectors, which kept him and his siblings from sneaking their metal weapons into the school with them. Instead they had to bring wooden equivalents hidden among their schools supplies. They used to abide by the whole 'no weapons at school' rule, but with the Kraang and the Foot shaking things up, they had decided it might be better to be prepared.

 

"I sent them a message while I was in that closet," April replied. "They'll be here soon."

 

Just then Ms. Campbell appeared in front of them with her elbow cannons at the ready. The two teens abruptly changed directions to dodge another pair of missiles that she fired at them.

 

"Not soon enough!" yelled Raph as they sprinted away.

 

They managed to ditch Ms. Campbell by ducking back into the detention hall. Raph propped Casey back at his desk, and hoped that he would think that the robot woman had been a dream (a vain hope, as April pointed out that the damage to the school would still be there when he woke up). Somehow, the teacher monitoring detention was still asleep at his desk, and did not appear likely to awaken any time soon.

 

Raph then rushed to his backpack and pulled his tonfa out from their hidden pocket. He had to be ready to fight should Ms. Campbell find them again. Normally, he'd be charging out there to fight the bad guy, but right now he had April, Casey, and his useless teacher to defend. If he went charging out there, then no one would be left to protect them.

 

Outside the detention hall, they could hear the robot pacing the halls searching for them, but she hadn't started looking in the rooms just yet.

 

Finally, Raph and April heard the sounds of Leo, Miwa, Donnie, and Mikey arriving. Unfortunately, they had forgotten about the school's metal detectors, and set off the alarms when they arrived (which still did not awaken the teacher).

 

As Raph heard the sounds of someone (probably Miwa) stabbing the metal detectors to get them to stop blaring, he turned to April and said, "I'm gonna go out and watch their backs. You stay here and barricade the door till we beat this thing."

 

April made a face, and started to protest to being left to hide, but Raph pointed over at Casey and the teacher. "I need to help my brothers and sister, that leaves you as the only one who can protect  _them_. So can you do this?"

 

April's irritated look fell away, and she nodded. "Give that Kraang bot a good kick for me," she said.

 

Raph gave her a mock salute and hurried out the door. He arrived at the fight just in time to hear Leo say, "Alright guys, let's put Old Mother Hubbard back in her cupboard."

 

Among his other sibling's groans of exasperation Raph said, "Dude, it literally hurts to listen to you sometimes."

 

__________________

 

After cutting through Ms. Campbell's arms and face, and spraying her with a nearby water fountain until she short-circuited, April came back out of detention hall and she and Raph explained to the others what happened.

 

It was decided that in order to get to the bottom of this they needed to investigate the World Wide Genome Project.

 

That night the five ninja teens geared up and broke into the building that the DNA samples were sent to.

 

However, unknown to the teens, they were being watched from a distance by a dark figure, who followed after them without their knowing.

 

When they broke into the lab, they quickly noticed that the whole place was, as Mikey so astutely put it, "awfully Kraang-y" leading the teens to conclude the Kraang most likely had been behind the WWGP all along. It only got more Kraang-y the farther in they went, where they discovered Kraang guards (who were quickly dispatched) and giant tubes of what Donnie speculated to be DNA from every plant and animal species on Earth as well as a large supply of mutagen.

 

Unfortunately, before they could shut it down Leo put his hand in the wrong place and tripped the alarm, bringing all the Kraang in the building down on their heads. In the ensuing fight Miwa accidentally hit a button on the Kraang's control console which mixed the DNA in all the tubes with the mutagen, creating a giant, slimy, bug-eyed, snail-shelled, tentacle, electro-shock monster.

 

For reasons beyond any of his siblings understanding, Mikey decided to name it Justin.

 

The good news was Justin decided he didn't like the Kraang, and took out most of them for the teens. The bad news was that once Justin ran out of Kraang to chase, he turned his attention on the ninjas and decided he didn't like them either.

 

With some doing, Leo was eventually able to beat him by using his swords as a lightning rod, and making the console blow the mutant up. The resulting explosion was enough to set fire to the whole building, causing them to flee before they went down with it.

 

What the teens didn't know was that the figure who followed them had been watching the entire battle. While the fight distracted the ninja teens, the figure took the opportunity to steal the remains of one of the Kraang's endoskeletons before taking leave. The five ninjas weren't even aware the figure had been there.

 

The shadowed figure then took the endoskeleton to the church the Shredder was using as his base, and deposited it at the Shredder's feet.

 

The Shredder glared at the one who had brought him the robot.

 

"I told you I am not interested in these alien freaks," the Shredder said harshly. "No matter what connection you may have with them in the past. Our focus now should be on Yoshi and his disciples. Nothing else."

 

The figure remained silent, and only reached out to grab a part from the endoskeleton and tossed it to Stockman, who had been attempting (and failing) to build Xever a new pair of legs nearby.

 

The wannabe evil scientist caught the part, and curiously tapped one of the buttons. The endoskeleton's head immediately jerked up and twitched until Stockman tapped another button to make it drop back down.

 

Stockman's eyes lit up. "This is exactly what I need," he said in relief, referring to his attempts to build robotic legs. If he continued to fail to get Xever walking, the Shredder would have had his head. But now he could finally build legs that worked.

 

The Shredder glared at the two before him before him before nodding. "Very well," he conceded to the silent figure. "I want you to find out all you can about this Kraang. Their technology may prove useful in our war against the Hamato Clan."

 

The figure said nothing, and only gave the ninja master a pleased smirk.

 

__________________

 

Fortunately, none of the teens were blamed for the damage done to the school. Donnie managed to alter the security footage to hide their presence, and the damage was blamed on unknown vandals from a rival school.

 

Thanks to the knock Casey got to his head, his memory of the events was fuzzy enough that Raph managed to convince him the robot lady with missile launching elbows was just a dream he'd had when he fell asleep in detention. He blamed the bump on Casey's head on him falling out of his desk while he was asleep.

 

Casey wasn't happy that he slept through a bunch of vandals in their school, but he accepted that explanation. It was certainly more likely than a killer robo-woman in their school.

 

Meanwhile, life went on for the Hamato clan. Donnie in particular had been keeping himself busy by spending most of his time in the abandoned subway station in the sewers near their home where they had stored Leatherhead's old subway car, as well as where the alligator in question had made his home.

 

Mikey had insisted they call the area The Lair, and the name stuck.

 

Then one day Donnie called his siblings down to the Lair to show them what he'd been working on.

 

The four of them sat at the turnstiles of the old subway station waiting for Donnie to show up with his 'big invention'.

 

"Ugh, what's taking so long?" Mikey complained as they waited. "Donnie knows I have a short atten-" He paused when he noticed something on the floor. "Ooh, gum," he said cheerfully, reaching down to grab the used piece of chewing gum on the rails.

 

Raph smacked it way before his little brother could put it in his mouth. "This better be worth it," Raph grumbled.

 

Just then a rumbling could be heard from down the tunnel. The siblings exchanged glances of confusion. This subway station had long been abandoned. There wasn't even power on the rails anymore. There shouldn't be a train coming this way.

 

They got their answer a few seconds later when what used to be Leatherhead's subway car drove around the corner.

Only it didn't look much like a subway car anymore. Every inch of the vehicle was covered in graffiti, there was a large bumper attached to the front, and the whole thing looked more like a graffitied tank than a subway car.

 

"Worth it," Raph said in a tiny voice as he stared up at the vehicle with wide eyes.

 

The subway car stopped right in front of them, and the door opened with a ding.

 

Leatherhead jumped out of it, and Donnie leaned out the door and looked smug. "So…?" he asked gesturing to the vehicle.

 

"You turned Leatherhead's old subway car into this?" Leo asked in disbelief, sparing a glance at the mutant gator, who shuffled back into his home.

 

"Donnie, have I ever told you how awesome you are?" Raph asked sincerely.

 

Donnie beamed. "No you haven't.

 

"Well I am seriously considering it," Raph replied, as he looked the car over in appreciation.

 

Miwa let out a whoop and punched her fist in the air. "YES! Now I don't have to save up for a car anymore!"

 

Leo shot his sister an amused look. "You know mother and father are just going to make you save that money for college now, don't you?"

 

Miwa's happy bubble popped as she realized that he was right. And just when she had been planning on using the money on something fun too.

 

Leo rolled his eyes at her, and turned back to Donnie. "So what do you call this thing?"

 

Donnie's grin widened, and he began spouting off a technical sounding name, before he was interrupted by Mikey, who had been hugging the car gleefully.

 

"The  ** _Shellraiser!_** " the youngest said in a dramatic voice.

 

His siblings all turned to him in surprise. "What?" asked Donnie.

 

"The Shellraiser," Mikey repeated, looking proud of himself. "It's the perfect name."

 

His siblings exchanged glances, before looking over the car again.

 

"That is the perfect name," said Leo in a voice that said he was surprised by that fact.

 

"But why 'shell'?" asked Miwa.

 

"Because it's more family friendly, and I think the name without the s at the beginning is copyrighted," said Mikey with a shrug. "Also the part on the top looks like a turtle shell."

 

The other four looked up to see the green plating on the roof did somewhat resemble a turtle shell.

 

"Your inventions  _have_  been getting kinda turtle-like recently," remarked Miwa sparing a glance at her genius brother. "First Metalhead, and now this."

 

"Did Spike inspire this one too?" asked Raph, looking happy at the thought.

 

"Maybe, I don't know," said Donnie with a shrug. He honestly hadn't noticed it until Mikey had pointed it out.

 

"Well whatever the reason," said Leo. "Mikey's right about the name. Shellraiser it is."

 

Mikey preened. "Of course i'm right, bro. You guys always underestimate me-" He then broke off, and looked down on the ground. "Ooh, gum!" he said, diving for the same piece of gum again.

 

After Raph smacked the gum from his hands a second time, Donnie showed his siblings the inside of the newly christened Shellraiser.

 

They all squinted in darkened car until Donnie pressed a button that started the machine, and turned on all the lights.

 

"Is that an ice cream lamp?" Miwa asked incredulously as she stared at the smiling light fixture in the corner.

 

Donnie ignored her, and started to explain to them all how he had designed the car so they all had their individual stations based on their skills. Unfortunately, he mentioned how he couldn't drive it because he had to stay by his computers, causing the others to start pushing and fighting over who would get to be driver.

 

Donnie quickly put an end to that argument. He shoved his bō between them and the driver's seat, and said in a tone that left no room for argument, "Leo drives."

 

Leo grinned while the others shouted, "Why?!"

 

Donnie gave them a deadpan look as Leo climbed into the driver's seat. "He's least likely to hit something just for fun," the genius said.

 

"True," admitted Miwa, Raph, and Mikey grudgingly.

 

In the end, Leo was the driver, Donnie manned his computers, Mikey was in front of a big map of New York City to act as navigator, and Raph and Miwa were both assigned to man the Shellraiser's weapons, the sewer lid launcher, and the garbage cannon respectively.

 

They all got ready to start it up, but before they could go, Leatherhead poked his head into the car.

 

"I am still not certain your idea to use the Kraang power cell as your power source is a wise decision, Donatello," the gator growled, casting a glance at the compartment where the cell was hidden.

 

Donnie's siblings all looked where the mutant had indicated. "I thought you said that was dangerous," said Leo looking worried. "Like the Kraang could track it."

 

But Donnie just grinned. "That's why I put it under a lead glass shield. Now I can regulate the power output and prevent the Kraang from detecting its signal."

 

Leatherhead still didn't look convinced.

 

"Look," said Donnie reassuringly. "I know you're worried about it, but I really think it's safer here. If we just hid it somewhere in the sewer, the Kraang would just need to listen for reports of giant Alligator sightings to track down where you hid it, and are no doubt protecting it, even if they have to search the whole sewer for it. In here, it'll never be in the same place twice, and they'd have a harder time figuring out where it is. I mean, if you didn't know, would you really expect for us to hide it in here? It's the perfect spot."

 

Leatherhead looked slightly more at ease, but they could tell he had lingering doubts. "If you think so. But make sure that if they do find it, they do not escape with it, or it will spell doom for us all."

 

With that the alligator mutant left the car, and wandered back into his home.

 

With that out of the way, the teens started the car, and began driving back down the subway tunnel.

 

Donnie took way too much pleasure in freaking his siblings out when it looked like they were going to run into a dead end, before pressing a button that opened up a secret entrance to the sewers that allowed the Shellraiser out onto the street.

 

"Donnie! You're Awesome!" Raph yelled gleefully as they started speeding down the New York street.

 

The five teenagers had the time of their lives testing out their new ride. At least until Raph caught sight of some Purple Dragons breaking into a store nearby.

 

The five of them parked the Shellraiser, eager for the easy fight the Purple Dragons were sure to give.

 

At least until Donnie noticed a shadowed figure confronting them on one of his monitors.

 

As they watched, the figure challenged the Purple Dragons to a fight while talking in a superhero like voice that Leo could appreciate, and calling himself the Pulverizer. The ninjas were impressed, at least until the Purple Dragons started kicking his butt without much effort.

 

Disappointed the tough talker wasn't as tough as he was acting, the teens had piled out of the Shellraiser, and came to his rescue.

 

Upon closer inspection, they were surprised to see that the Pulverizer was dressed fairly similarly to themselves, only substituting the ninja garb for a black hoodie and sweatpants. He also seemed to already know about them, and kept getting in their way during the fight. Thanks to his bumbling, a Purple Dragon member named Fong got away with what the Dragons had been trying to steal. Once he did so, the other two gang members fled, and the ninjas had to run to avoid being caught by the cops.

 

__________________

 

Unfortunately for them, the Pulverizer followed them, and accidentally got caught on the Shellraiser door, and was pulled along with them as they returned the vehicle to Leatherhead's lair.

 

Fortunately for Leatherhead (who was far from thrilled to see that they had inadvertently brought the costumed wannabe to his doorstep) the Pulverizer had blacked out for most of the trip back, so he still didn't know where the gator lived.

 

Once that was cleared up, the five ninja teens got some answers on how the Pulverizer even knew of their existence, much less enough to try and dress like them.

 

Apparently, he had witnessed one of their fights against the Kraang, and thought that they were costumed superheroes. He had been trying to emulate them by fighting crime in similar dress. The only problem was the boy had no training whatsoever and was a klutz on top of that, he was far more likely to get himself killed than to be a hero like he wanted.

 

They also had to watch him flirt using painfully bad pickup lines at Miwa, who was far from pleased that the wannabe had an obvious crush on her.

 

The Pulverizer did prove somewhat useful when looking at Leatherhead's collection of broken Kraang tech (spoils of war from when the gator encountered the Kraang). He pointed out that the parts were similar to the ones the Purple Dragons had stolen, and the ninjas were able to conclude that they had been stealing them for Stockman.

 

With that realization, Leo, Miwa, Raph, and Mikey went to find out what he was up to, leaving Donnie to make some repairs to the Shellraiser, and take the Pulverizer home before he caused more trouble.

 

As Donnie worked on the Shellraiser in the makeshift lab that Leatherhead let him use, he was eventually convinced by the Pulverizer to show him how to do some moves with his bō staff. In the process, he came to realize just how inept the Pulverizer really was.

 

He also found out that the boy was not at all interested in training or practice. He wanted to be a hero, and he wanted to be one now, no matter how unprepared he was for the task.

 

An aspiration that was going to get him killed.

 

Taking pity on him, Donnie agreed to teach him a few self-defense moves in order to keep him from being completely helpless when he went out and tried.

 

He took the Pulverizer to a secluded part of the sewer, only for his Father to show up out of the shadows after he had set the Pulverizer to drill on a basic kata.

 

"S-Sensei!" yelped Donnie when he caught sight of the ninja master. "What are you doing here?" He then glanced over his shoulder at the costumed wannabe, who had not noticed their visitor, and was busy performing his kata (in a very clumsy fashion).

 

"I received a call from Leatherhead about the stray you boys brought to his door," said Master Yoshi, looking disapprovingly at his son.

 

Donnie looked sheepish. "I'm sorry Sensei, we found him on the street trying to fight the Purple Dragons, and he accidentally wound up here. I thought I'd teach him a few basics-"

 

"Hey, ninja dude!" called the Pulverizer, still not noticing Yoshi in the shadows. "Check this out!"

 

The Pulverizer began doing a montage of silly looking fighting moves that would be next to useless in a real fight, complete with sound effects, and silly facial expressions.

 

"Apparently, you have not taught him shame," said Yoshi, still looking disapproving. "My son, he has no business learning our art. He is-" Yoshi paused and glanced at the Pulverizer to find the right word, "-a doofus," he concluded.

 

"Hai sensei, but he's gonna put himself at risk no matter what I do," Donnie protested. "So I just wanna teach him enough so he doesn't get creamed."

 

Yoshi sighed. "You may," he conceded. " _But_  if you train him,  _you_  are responsible for whatever happens to him."

 

They turned to look back at the boy, only to see that he had somehow gotten the bladed end on Donnie's staff embedded in the wall. Only to fall tumbling when he pulled it free.

 

"Good luck," said Yoshi as he vanished back into the shadows.

 

Donnie groaned at his father's words. He could already tell he'd need all the help he could get.

 

__________________

 

The two continued training until Donnie got a call from Mikey while teaching the Pulverizer how to sweep someone legs from under them.

 

It seems  Stockman had been stealing the Kraang tech in order to build Xever a new pair of legs, as he had lost his own during his mutation into a giant fish.

 

He also appeared to be a venomous species of fish, and Mikey had called in a panic about Raph being bitten, and was acting weak and delirious from the venoms effects.

 

Donnie had the Pulverizer drive him to his brothers and sister in the Shellraiser while he made an antidote in the back. Though the fact he was able to do it was a miracle, since the wannabe was a  _terrible_  driver.

 

They managed to get to get to his siblings in time, Donnie taking the wheel and crashing through a wall to do so, and used the trash cannon to knock Xever (or as Mikey had started calling him, Fishface) into a wall. Once that threat was out of the way, Donnie was able to administer the antidote to Raph, which cleared up the effects of the venom.

 

Unfortunately, their reckless driving in order to get there in time caused the lead casing where the power cell had been stored to crack, alerting the Kraang to where it was.

 

They desperately tried to drive the Shellraiser back underground to hide it from them again, but the Kraang were too quick, and soon caught up to them in vans, a helicopter, and several Kraang in flying endoskeletons.

 

The ninjas fought valiantly to escape them, but the Kraang's numbers were too great, and the Shellraiser crashed before it could get back to the subway system.

 

They tried to fight them off, but one of the Kraang slipped by them and stole the power cell from the Shellraiser, making the Pulverizer chase after it.

 

Donnie chased after him, but was soon faced with a choice. Save the Pulverizer, who had been cornered by two Kraang and held at gunpoint, or stop the Kraang with the power cell from getting away in the helicopter.

 

Donnie winced as he realized what choice he was going to make. "Sorry, Leatherhead," he muttered to himself as he threw his bō at the Kraang with the gun pointed at the Pulverizer, disarming the robot. He quickly made quick work of the the robots, but not quick enough, as the Kraang were flying away with the power cell by the time he was done.

 

Still, he saved the doofus' life, and he couldn't bring himself to regret that.

 

As they watched the chopper get farther and farther away in the night sky, the Pulverizer sighed in disappointment, and turned to the rest of them. "Aw man, looks like I mucked everything up, didn't I."

 

"Hey bro, it's not your fault," said Mikey sympathetically.

 

Miwa snorted, and Leo said, "Um, actually dude, it is."

 

"Oh yeah," said Mikey.

 

"Not completely," Donnie admitted. "I'm the one who sent the Shellraiser through the wall. That's what cracked the power cell."

 

"Uh, so," said the Pulverizer nervously, "think we could pick up our training again sometime?"

 

Donnie walked right up to the Pulverizer, looked him straight in the eye and firmly said, "No."

 

The Pulverizer shrugged, but didn't look too disappointed. "Fine. But I'll be practicing, and I'll be back. And wherever crime may roam, wherever help is-"

 

" ** _BYE!_** " the five ninjas said pointedly, cutting him off from his 'heroic' tirade.

 

The Pulverizer turned to leave, but before he did he turned back and shoved a piece of paper into Miwa's hand. "Call me," he said holding his hand up to his ear like a phone, before taking off.

 

Miwa glanced down at the paper, and saw that it was a phone number. "Oh hell no," she snapped, before crumpling the paper up and tossing it away.

 

__________________

 

The next day, the Hamato siblings were half asleep as they dragged themselves to school. With the loss of the power cell, the Shellraiser no longer had a power source, so the five ninjas had to push it all the way back to the sewer. They'd given up on getting it all the way back to Leatherhead's Lair (and they weren't looking forward to admitting to the gator they had lost the power cell), and had left the subway car hidden halfway there before going home.

 

All of it had taken most of the night, so the five teens were pretty much dead on their feet when they woke up that morning.

 

While Donnie was on his way to class, he happened to notice the group of bullies that Raph had been in detention for fighting had gotten back from their suspension, and were already picking on another helpless victim.

 

Just as Donnie was about to step in and tell the jerks to buzz off, a voice rang out from down the hall.

 

"If you meatheads are going to pick on someone," said a familiar voice in a confident tone, "why don't you try picking on me."

 

Donnie looked around the bullies to see a chubby boy in a Space Heroes t-shirt glaring at the bullies with a confident expression. He wasn't wearing a hoodie or mask, but Donnie still recognized him as the Pulverizer.

 

The bullies took one look at him and burst out laughing, allowing the kid they were bullying to take the chance to run away.

 

"What are you going to do, lard butt?" said the lead bully with a sneer. "Sit on me?"

 

The Pulverizer's glare hardened, and he ran towards the bully before sliding to the ground, wrapping his legs around the bully's legs, and used the move Donnie had taught him to knock the jerk flat on his face.

 

The other five bullies were not pleased that their leader had been knocked down by some chubby geek, so they began circling around the Pulverizer to teach him a lesson.

 

The Pulverizer held his ground, and started using some of the moves Donnie had taught him to the best of his ability, but it was still clear that the boy was going to get creamed.

 

As Donnie watched this, he remembered what his father had told him the night before.  _"If you train him, you are responsible for whatever happens to him."_

 

Donnie shrugged his backpack off his shoulders, and made his way over to the fight. The bullies caught sight of him coming at him and took off. After the fight with Raph, they knew better than to pick a fight with a Hamato.

 

Donnie smirked at the sight, before holding out a hand to help the Pulverizer up from where the bullies had knocked him to the ground.

 

The Pulverizer looked at his hand before grinning and taking it. "Thanks."

 

"That was a pretty brave thing you did," Donnie said nonchalantly.

 

The Pulverizer preened. "Well, someone has to be a hero," he said proudly. He then turned to grin at Donnie. "But you, they took one look at you and ran like rabbits. How'd you do it?"

 

Donnie shrugged. "My brother kicked their butts a week ago. I'm pretty sure they thought I was gonna get him to do it again."

 

"Sweet!" said the Pulverizer appreciatively. He then held out his hand to Donnie to shake. "My name's Timothy, what's yours?"

 

Donnie hesitated before shaking the Pul-Timothy's hand. "I'm Donatello, but most people call me Donnie."

 

Timothy suddenly squinted and scrutinized Donnie closely. "Hey wait, haven't I seen you before?"

 

Donnie's stomach dropped as for a second he worried that he'd been recognized. He hid his nervousness by turning away from the other boy, and fetching his backpack from where he'd discarded it, but still he felt Timothy's eyes on his back.

 

Then Timothy's eyes lit up and he snapped his fingers. "You're the guy whose picture is in the trophy case for winning that Mathlete competition."

 

Donnie couldn't help but sigh in relief. "Yeah, that's me."

 

"That is awesome," said Timothy cheerfully. He then proceeded to talk Donnie's ear off until the warning bell for their next class rang. In their mad rush to get to their next class, Timothy asked Donnie to meet him after school to hang out.

 

Donnie couldn't help but agree. Timothy the Pulverizer may be annoying as a hero, but Donnie thought he just might be able to put up with him as a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see, I brought in Casey a little early, but he won't get in on the action until later. I also made Donnie and the Pulverizer better friends than they were in the show, though Timothy doesn't know about Donnie's double life. Will this save him, or will it blow up in his face, you'll all just have to wait and see.


	8. Crazyness in Kraang Central

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Hamatos make their move against the Kraang in TCRI, but plans never survive first contact with the enemy.

The Hamato teens tried their hardest to fix their mistake by getting the power cell back on their own. They searched all the known Kraang facilities, tried to interrogate some of the brain aliens as they fought them, and searched high and low through the city for the helicopter they had gotten away in. Donnie even made an app on his phone to track it, but it was no use, they just kept losing it.

 

It was obvious to them all that it was time for them to face the music. They needed to tell Leatherhead what had happened in hopes that he'd know where the Kraang would take it and how they could get it back.

 

Leatherhead was  _not_  happy to hear that they lost the power cell. In fact, he went on another one of his temper induced rampages (which included him grabbing Donnie by the face, much to the genius' displeasure) before he managed to snap out of it on his own. He had been getting better at that thanks to many calming techniques taught to him by Tang Shen.

 

The mutant gator told them that his memories of the Kraang's torture while on Earth were foggy at best, and the only thing he remembered from his time with the Kraang that indicated any form of location was a symbol, which he carved into the stone floor for them to see.

 

It took Donnie a while to remember where he'd seen the honeycomb like symbol the alligator drew, which was not helped by Mikey insisting it was the Olympics.

 

With some help from Yoshi, Donnie eventually remembered that the symbol was the logo of TCRI, a company that operated out of New York City, and had a very tall building all to itself. It was also the building Stockman had tried to break into when they first met him in his lame battle armor.

 

With that discovery, the five of them and April immediately began planning to break in, destroy the Kraang portal, and hopefully find clues to the whereabouts of April's father in the process.

 

While the others made preparations, Donnie kept himself busy building a bomb he hoped to use to destroy the portal. He looked up when Miwa walked over to him with a sly look on her face that could only mean trouble.

 

"Hey," she said with a grin. "Since you're working on things that go 'boom' anyway, do you think you could try making a little something for me?"

 

Donnie quirked an eyebrow at his sister. "Depends on what it is," he said fairly. When Miwa went looking for trouble it could always be counted on to be fun, even if it was usually also very likely to be stupid and dangerous.

 

Miwa's grin widened. "Well you see, I've had this idea for a while now," she then leaned over to whisper it in his ear.

 

Donnie frowned at what he heard, but nodded. "That sounds highly dangerous, but doable. I'll see what I can come up with. If it works, it'll definitely come in handy with what we have to deal with."

 

Miwa beamed at him. "Awesome, thanks little brother."

 

__________________

 

An offhand comment from April was Leo's inspiration for his plan to get them into the tower. After finding a giant box, they all packed themselves inside it, and had April wheel them into the building and onto the elevator claiming they were special delivery.

 

Despite the run-on method in which the Kraang spoke, the aliens weren't stupid, and knew right away something was up. April had to hightail it out of there to avoid capture, leaving the Kraang to turn their attention to the package. They opened the elevator again, and readied their blasters to destroy whatever was within it.

 

Only for Leatherhead to burst out of the box, and began mercilessly attacking the Kraang. The gator was having the time of his life crushing his hated enemies and listening to them squeal as he pried the brain-like aliens from their robotic bodies.

 

Meanwhile, the five Hamatos had climbed through the elevator shaft up towards where the portal had to be.

 

"I kinda feel bad leaving Leatherhead," said Mikey worriedly. He hadn't been completely on board with leaving the mutant to fend for himself while they went farther in.

 

The others listened to the sound of happy alligator roars and Kraang being twisted into scrap metal.

 

"I think he'll be fine," said Leo reassuringly. And he believed it too. Leatherhead had proven to be a very strong and resilient fighter in the short time they'd known him. When he was angry there was nothing that could take him down (except for Tang Shen, and sometimes Mikey, who both took a 'kill him with kindness' approach). Personally, Leo was just glad the gator was on their side. They all had Mikey to thank for that.

 

"How far to the top?" asked Raph, looking up the elevator shaft.

 

A black tunnel with seemingly no end was all he could see.

 

"Yikes," he muttered, to which his siblings all agreed. It was going to be a long climb.

 

But there was not much else they could do about it, so they started climbing, Mikey humming the Olympic theme song as they went.

 

Thinking they may have climbed far enough, Raph hoisted himself up to a door and forced it open.

 

He was greeted to the sight of several Kraang bots in the process of putting on their human suits.

 

Raph slammed the door back shut, and couldn't shake the feeling he had walked in on seeing the Kraang naked, and all the disturbing mental images that followed that line of thought. "I need to wash my eyes," he said with a freaked-out expression. Then the alarm began sounding through the building. He winced knowing he was the cause of it. "That's bad."

 

"Alright!" cheered Mikey.

 

"What?" asked Leo in annoyance, failing to see what was good about this situation.

 

"Finally someone set off an alarm, and it wasn't me," said Mikey cheerfully.

 

"Leo was the one who set off the alarm in the World Wide Genome Project last time, genius," said Miwa sarcastically.

 

Mikey's eyes lit up. "Oh right, that's two alarms I didn't trip," he said happily. "I'm getting better at this. Well that, or everyone else is getting worse."

 

But before he could celebrate further, an elevator door above them opened and a Kraang aimed its blaster down at them and prepared to fire.

 

The five teens had to make use of their acrobatic skills as they flipped their way up the elevator to avoid the laser fire.

 

Mikey managed to use his kusarigama chain to knock the Kraang down the elevator shaft, but it did little good, as the elevator began ascending towards them with more armed Kraang firing up at them once they came into eyeshot.

 

The teens promptly let go of their handholds, and dropped onto the elevator to begin fighting the aliens. They cleared the ones on top of the elevator, only to find even more were waiting inside to shoot them when Leo opened the hatch.

 

They cleared out those Kraang too, and decided to ride the elevator the rest of the way up in order to catch their breath before the next battle.

Breath they soon found that they needed, as when they reached the top floor, a wave of green gas flooded into the elevator, choking the teens as they stood.

 

Miwa watched in horror as her brothers began collapsing to their knees around her, choking on the poisoned air. Her signature green scarf over her nose and mouth had been able to filter the gas a bit so that she was not in as bad a shape as her brothers, but without oxygen she knew that would soon change. She had to do something fast, or they would all suffocate.

 

And there was  _no_   _way_  she was letting her baby brothers die. Not on her watch.

 

So she squinted her eyes and searched desperately through the soupy fog for some way to protect her little brothers from suffocation.

 

In the back of her mind, she registered several Kraang had noticed their entrance and were starting coming towards them, speaking to each other of how, "The ones known as 'the kids' have infiltrated the place known as here." But she couldn't focus on that right now.

 

With her eyes watering from the smog, Miwa could vaguely see a large window across the room from where the elevator opened.

 

With the last of her breath, she drew out the new toy she had convinced Donnie to make her and got ready to use it.

 

It looked like a typical shuriken with the Hamato crest. But this one had a switch on the top of it that was well hidden in the engraving.

 

She flipped the switch making the shuriken light up and start beeping shrilly to signal its activation. Praying that the gas surrounding them wasn't flammable, she let the shuriken fly.

 

Her aim was perfect, and the star imbedded itself in the glass of the window with a  _'thunk'_. It began beeping at a rapid pace before exploding, shattering the window and allowing the gas to blow out with the wind, fresh air filtering in its place.

 

Miwa and her brothers gasped greedily at the clean air as it became available to them. Slowly the room stopped spinning, and they were able to see and think clearly again.

 

But they didn't have long to enjoy it, as the Kraang on the top floor now had them completely surrounded, and were all aiming their weapons at them ready to fire.

 

The teens darted out of the elevator just before they were blasted to bits, and continued dodging through the Kraang bodies to get to their objective.

 

"When did we get exploding throwing stars in our arsenal?" asked Mikey as he dodged the laser fire. His voice was a little weak from the effects of the gas, but he didn't appear otherwise harmed by it.

 

"She asked me to make them earlier," Donnie called, his voice raspy as well as he took out two Kraang. "She just used my only prototype!"

 

"Well, I'd say they work," said Miwa as she stabbed her short sword through a Kraang. "So I want more ASAP."

 

"Me too!" Mikey cheered. He then noticed something shiny on the ground, and reached down and pocketed it without second thought before going back to Kraang bashing.

 

"Yeah right. Like we're going to trust you with exploding anything," Raph shouted sarcastically at his youngest brother, his voice huskier than usual. Without waiting for a reply he turned back to his fight, and impaled his sai through one of the Kraang's robot heads.

 

"Go!" yelled Leo as best he could as he pushed his way through the androids, his voice still wheezy from the effects of the gas. "Follow the plan! We need to destroy that portal!"

 

"That must be it!" said Donnie as he pointed towards the large machine in the middle of the room with a platform and three large cannon like structures surrounding it.

 

"It's beautiful," Donnie said appreciatively. "Scientifically speaking."

 

"Does April have competition now?" Miwa teased. "I recall you said something similar the first time you saw her too."

 

Mikey laughed at the look on Donnie's face at that. "Do you take this portal to be your lawfully wedded-" he started to say, before a Kraang got too close for comfort, and he had to focus more on the fight at hand.

 

"Well, what are you waiting for, Romeo," yelled Raph as he stabbed a Kraang in the head. "Blow it up already!"

 

Donnie ran over and jammed the bomb he'd built into a tight spot where he thought it'd cause the most destruction and the Kraang wouldn't be able to remove it before he activated it.

 

"Let's go!" Donnie yelled, and they all piled into the elevator and mashed the button to go down.

 

Once he felt they were a safe distance away, Donnie hit the buttons on his phone that activated the bomb and the five heard the welcome sound of the explosion above their heads.

 

The five teens spent the rest of the elevator ride cheering at their victory.

 

When they reached the ground floor, they found it littered with Kraang parts, and Leatherhead standing over the carnage looking very proud of himself.

 

"Mission accomplished, LH, now let's move!" yelled Raph as the five ninjas rushed past him out of the building. They blew up the portal, but the building was still full of Kraang, and none of them would be happy about what the six of them had done.

 

The gator let out a victory roar before following after them.

 

Once they were a safe distance from TCRI, they climbed to the roof of a tall building. Leo pulled out his telescope and focused it on the hole in the window that Miwa had made with her explosive shuriken.

 

He promptly dropped the telescope in shock at what he saw.

 

The portal was  _still_  standing! And from the look of things it didn't even have a scratch on it.

 

When he told the others, they all stared at him in disbelief. They didn't want to accept what their leader was saying was true.

 

Wanting answers, Donnie scooped up the telescope (which fortunately hadn't broken in the fall) and looked through it himself.

 

"That's Impossible!" he said in horror as he saw what had freaked his brother out. "I packed enough explosives in that bomb to take out the entire room. How is that thing still standing?"

 

"So you're saying all that was for  _nothing?_ " Miwa asked in distress. They had been packed into a box too small for all of them, been shot at, forced to climb an obscenely high elevator shaft, gotten shot at again, nearly choked to death on poisoned gas, and then shot at some more upon recovery. To find out that everything they'd just been through was all for naught was terrible news.

 

"No fair!" shouted Mikey.

 

Raph turned and punched a nearby satellite dish clean off the building in rage.

 

"Let me see," said Leatherhead, reaching out for the telescope. With some difficulty, he brought it up to his eye, and peered at hole.

 

"Oh no," he said, his growling voice showing his distress. "The portal has a force field put around it."

 

"A force field?" Donnie asked, looking intrigued, despite the situation.

 

"One of the Kraang's strongest measures of defense," the gator explained, lowering the telescope to look down at them. "Not even the strongest of Earth explosives would have been able to touch it so long as the force field is up. And now that the Kraang have seen us attempt to destroy it once, our window of opportunity has closed. I fear we will no longer be able to destroy it until we gain another."

 

"Then we failed," said Leo in despair, his head bowed.

 

The other four ninjas slumped as the truth of the matter sank in. They  _had_  failed, and now the Kraang had a working portal to bring who knows how many horrors from their own dimension down on them. And on top it all off, they had not come across a single clue as to where April's father was. As far as they were concerned, this mission could not have gone any worse.

 

__________________

 

With heavy hearts, they returned to the Renaissance Dojo to inform their parents and April of what had happened.

 

But when they got to the part in their story where they told about the poison gas, Leatherhead had to interrupt in order to make a correction.

 

"It is likely they did not release the gas to poison the five of you," he said while nursing a calming cup of tea provided by Tang Shen. "It is more likely the gas was already present on that floor. That is what the atmosphere in Dimension X is like, it is what the Kraang and the other inhabitants there breathe."

 

Raph scoffed when he heard that. "Well that's stupid. Why would you invade a place where you can't even breathe the air?" he asked in disdain.

 

Mikey snickered. "Yeah, what are they gonna do? Mutate the whole planet so they can live here, and we can't?" he asked as a joke.

 

Leatherhead crunched the teacup in his fist to dust on reflex, and everyone else stared at the youngest in utter shock and horror.

 

"I don't know what's scarier," said Donnie, sounding slightly amazed. "What you just said, or that you said it."

 

Mikey looked around in confusion. "Wait, wait, what'd I say?"

 

"Mikey's right," said Donnie looking around at the rest of them, the pieces of the puzzle that was the Kraang's agenda finally falling into place in his mind. "The Kraang are trying to transform the planet into something they can live on."

 

"And  _we_  can't," Leo added, looking horrified as he caught on as well. "We  _have_  to stop them."

 

"Agreed," growled Leatherhead fiercely. Everyone else nodded in agreement. If the Kraang had their way, it would mean the end of all life on Earth, and that was something they could not let happen.

 

"But how?" asked Raph despairingly, pointing out the obvious question that stood in their way. "You heard LH. Nothing we've got is strong enough to punch through that force field, and now TCRI's security will be tighter than ever. We're not gonna get another shot at it for a while."

 

"Raphael is correct," said Master Yoshi. "But remember, my children. The nin in ninja means patience. Another opportunity will arise to strike at our enemy and their weapons, and when it does, we will be ready for it."

 

His face turned grave, and he looked at each of those assembled in turn. "We have to be," he said, making sure the point got across.

 

Tang Shen listened to the proceedings and wondered not for the first time how her family had gotten wrapped up in all of this. The grudge that the Shredder had pursued after all these years and all the way from Japan to New York, that she could understand. It made some form of sense, and as terrible as it was it was within the realm of human nature. A twisted and malevolent nature, but human none the less.

 

But this was far beyond human nature. In fact, there was almost nothing human about it. Here she was giving tea to a giant, mutant, bad-tempered alligator sitting in her living room for Kami's sake.

 

But he was an alligator who had quickly become a dear friend to both her and all of her family. One that often sought her out in order to talk through his anger issues, much like her own Raphael would do. And one who was fiercely loyal in protecting those he deemed his friends, likely to the bitter end if need be.

 

These events had also brought April into their family's trust, and Tang Shen could not deny that she was a delightful girl as well. The fact she was the current focus of Donatello's affections only seemed to make her more endearing as Tang Shen watched his affections for her grow, and to see April to grow closer to him as well.

 

Tang Shen knew she could not begrudge the good things that had come of this crazy adventure, despite all that was bad.

 

But even with the good, somehow Tang Shen's family had inexplicably become the Earth's last line of defense against an alien threat that sought the genocide of her entire race. And the ones to fight most of the battles were only children.  _Her_  children, and they had taken on the weight of the entire world.

 

Her darling Miwa, a rebellious spitfire whose only real goal had been to have fun and enjoy her life, was taking on the responsibility of saving an entire planet on top of her responsibility as the eldest of her siblings. Pushing her up against everything she had ever feared, and everything she could ever fear.

 

Her beloved Leonardo, so idealistic and still naive in many ways of the world, was leading all of his siblings down a path that would test his ideals, his integrity as a leader, and everything else that made her son who he was to the very limits of their potential for either good or ill.

 

Her brave Raphael, who was so passionate and even kind to those closest to him, no matter how often that fact was hidden behind the sheer ferocity of his temper, was now tasked to protect those he loved most from dangers beyond imagination, as well as beyond what his strength alone could fight.

 

Her clever Donatello, so gifted and intelligent, and only just feeling the beginning fruits of his first love, was taking part in situations that would test every ounce of his vast knowledge, skill, and strength, and then some, all the while trying to keep a promise to the girl he likes.

 

And her sweet Michelangelo, the radiant light of all their lives, whose laughter and joy they could always count on to brighten their day, was now on a path that would bring him face to face with the darkest that the universe could throw at him, and may even snuff out that light if he was not careful.

 

If she could, she would keep her children home and safe, locked away from all the dangers their enemies presented to them. She and Yoshi would be the ones fighting these numerous enemies instead. Allowing her babies to remain home and unscathed from the toils of battle.

 

In a better world, this would be true. But that was not the case.

 

Not for the first time, Tang Shen cursed the fact she could no longer fight with the strength she used to have. To be able to protect them like she felt she should.

 

But the cuts Saki had placed upon her back, and the emergency cauterization of the wounds had done more than simply mar her skin with ugly scars. No, those scars also spoke of the loss of strength and much recurring pain.

 

The marks the Shredder made on her, while they had not been fatal, had greatly damaged many of the nerves on her shoulder and spine. She still had her mobility, and was considered by many doctors to be lucky to even have such. But the strength she once had had greatly decreased, and at times her back would flare with a crippling pain that would not recede till hours later. Medication helped somewhat, but nothing could ever fully repair the damage that had been done, and nothing would bring back the abilities she'd once had as a kunoichi.

 

So as much as she wished it was otherwise, Tang Shen found she had no choice but to stand aside, and let her precious babies fight this impossible battle on their own, while she was left in the role of moral support and comfort when they returned home.

 

But despite the overwhelming feeling of it all, she knew none of them could back away from this battle now. They were involved, and they could no more turn their backs on it than they could stop breathing. This was their fight now, and she knew she had to do her part. Even if that part was only to be the mother her children (as well as April and sometimes even Leatherhead) needed to love them and banish their troubles away for a short time at least.

 

Speaking of her children, she came out of her thoughts to notice that Michelangelo was absentmindedly fiddling with a shiny piece of metal in his hands. "What do you have there, my son?" she asked curiously.

 

Mikey brightened from the revelation of the Kraang's plans, and held up the piece of metal for her to see. "I found it on the floor by the portal," he said cheerfully.

 

"Oh good, now you're picking up alien trash," said Raph sarcastically with a roll of his eyes.

 

Donnie, however, came over and peered closely at the piece of metal. "Do you realize what this is?" he asked in wonderment, plucking it from his little brother's hands.

 

" _Shiny!_ " said Mikey with a pleased grin.

 

"It is a Kraang data storage device," said Leatherhead once he saw what they were talking about. "It shares many similarities with what you call a flash drive."

 

"Exactly!" said Donnie, suddenly looking happier than he'd been since the start of this mission. "If I can decode it, maybe I can find a way to stop them."

 

The genius ninja quickly sequestered himself down into his lab to do just that. Leatherhead followed after him to lend his own knowledge of Kraang technology to help with the decoding process.

 

The rest of them sat in the living room and waited, watching one of Leo's Space Heroes cartoons to pass the time.

 

On the screen, Captain Ryan was trying and failing to sink an enemy ship on a water covered planet before the villains could freeze the whole place over, but for once Leo wasn't paying all that much attention to his favorite show. None of them were, but pretending to do so meant they didn't have to find something else, and could be left to their thoughts in relative peace.

 

April, however, felt the need to voice a question that had been bothering her since she'd heard the Kraang's plan.

 

"This just doesn't make sense," she said to the others. "If the Kraang are trying to terraform the Earth, what do they need my dad for?"

 

"Well, he is a scientist," Leo pointed out.

 

"Maybe they think he could bring something new to their mutagen problem. That's why they wanted all the others," added Miwa with a shrug.

 

After their first meeting with Falco and what they learned of mutagen afterwards from their attempt to rescue Kirby O'Neil, they knew that the reason the Kraang had been abducting or employing scientists to help them develop the mutagen so that it would do what they wanted.

 

"Yeah, but he's a psychologist," said April, pointing out how it couldn't work. "He studies rats running through mazes. My dad wouldn't know anything about what they're trying to do."

 

Raph, who had been lounging nearby, glanced over looking confused. "But if they didn't need your dad, why were they after him in the first place?" he asked.

 

Just then Donnie emerged from his lab looking grave. "I don't think they were," Donnie said, before gesturing them to follow him back to the lab.

 

Leatherhead was waiting down there with as grim an expression as could be shown on his scaly face as he mentally went over the information he had just received. When he saw them arrive, he quickly moved to hover protectively by April, causing the redhead to stare up at him questioningly.

 

The reason for the gator's sudden protectiveness quickly became clear as Donnie sat himself in front of his desktop computer and pulled up the files he had found.

 

"With Leatherhead's help, I used the Kraang processor inside Metalhead to access that storage device," he explained as his fingers flew over the keyboard. "A lot of the files are damaged, but… I think I found what they're after."

 

With a final keystroke, Donnie pulled up several lines of Kraang text, as well as multiple headshots and photographs of April, all clearly taken without her knowledge.

 

April gasped in horror at the sight. "They're after  _me?"_  she asked, almost afraid of the answer.

 

Donnie looked like he wanted to comfort her, but didn't know how. Instead he nodded his head gravely.

 

Leatherhead placed a hand on the redhead's shoulder protectively. "My ability to read the Kraang's language is limited," he said, "but from what I can understand of this, there is something about you that they desperately want. Something that seems to be the key to their entire invasion plot. And they intend to get it from you, dead or alive."

 

At the sight of April's terrified face, the gator hastily added. "Though alive is highly preferable to the latter. The dead part is just if it is caused by an accident or an outside party."

 

Somehow, that did nothing to make April feel any better.

 

Donnie took April's hand in his and looked her straight in the eye. "Well they are  _never_  gonna get you," he said with determination. "Not if I have anything to say about it. I'll-we'll protect you April, I promise."

 

The other members of the Hamato clan added their own assurances to Donnie's promise. April was considered a member of their clan now, and they would protect her with all they had.

 

Slowly a small smile snuck onto April's face, and she squeezed Donnie's hand in thanks.

 

Things may be looking grim, but it was a battle they could still fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see, I saved Leatherhead from going into Dimension X. Because of this things are going to start diverging from the show, for better or worse. You can already see some changes, such as telling them about the force field before they storm the building again, and using his Kraang experience to aid Donnie. We also get a peek inside Tang Shen's head, and her thoughts on the situation.


	9. Stranger Danger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While staking out TCRI, the teens have a run in with a new face. But is he friend or foe?

The next few weeks passed in a blur of crazy missions, and strange happenings.

 

It started with Donnie training cockroaches to wear little security cameras and go spy on the Kraang for them.

 

Unfortunately, on the Spy-Roach's first mission it promptly fell into a vat of mutagen, causing the spy gear it bore to take on a cybernetic quality and for it to grow ten times its original size.

 

All this would not have been as big an issue, if the roach hadn't decided it wanted to kill Raph for trying to squish it earlier, and began pursuing him relentlessly.

 

Add to that the fact that the red wearing ninja was deathly afraid of cockroaches and was utterly terrified of this new cyber-roach that was out for his blood, and the Hamato teens had been in for a wild night.

 

"Did you really have to make your spy bug a cockroach?" Miwa had to ask as she and Donnie watched Raph run away screaming from the giant cyborg bug.

 

"Scientifically speaking, cockroaches are an evolutionary marvel, what with the way they are hard to kill, and seem to get into everywhere and everything. So, I thought that would make them ideal for spying purposes," Donnie explained, trying to look innocent.

 

Miwa sent him a look that told him that she was not at all fooled. "And you wanted to freak Raph out."

 

Donnie sent her a sheepish grin. "Well… at the time, it seemed like a bonus."

 

Unfortunately, the Spy-Roach couldn't have picked a worse time to go rogue. The Kraang were hatching a plan to use a giant laser to drill into the Earth's crust, causing the city to become a sight for a new volcano. They needed all hands on deck to stop them, which was hard to do with Raph cowering every time the insect came close.

 

It wasn't until the roach attacked Mikey instead of Raph, that the ninja was able to muster up the courage to fight back against it (no stupid bug was going to hurt  _his_  baby brother on his watch). Thanks to this, he was able to defeat the roach, as well as destroy the laser almost single-handed.

 

When they got back to the dojo afterwards, Miwa convinced Donnie to fake orders for hundreds of trucks of cement to go fill the hole the next day.

 

When asked why, she pointed out, "We stopped the drill, but they came pretty close to cracking the crust. If we don't get it filled up, they could probably finish the job on their own with shovels."

 

No one could argue with that, and as an added bonus, Donnie managed to pay for the cement by hacking one of TCRI's bank accounts. The Kraang ended up having to pay for the clean up of their own mess.

 

__________________

 

The next crazy things that happened was more encounters with Dogpound and Fishface.

 

One such encounter happened when the teenagers were spying on the Kraang, and Donatello identified their newest weapon as a Subspacial Endoparticle Disrupter, which in the Kraangs hands was very bad news.

 

Bad news that apparently went  _'Zwee-Choo-Pop'_  as it seemed to shrink whatever it blasted into nothing.

 

Knowing they couldn't leave a weapon like that in the Kraang's possession, the five teenagers had prepared themselves to go steal it from the aliens, only to see Dogpound and Fishface with a patrol of Foot Ninja charging in to do the exact same thing.

 

After that, the fight became pretty much a free-for-all, as the teens fought the evil mutants and the Kraang, the mutants and their ninja flunkies fought the teens and tried to steal the Disrupter, and the Kraang just tried to shoot at everybody.

 

While everyone was busy fighting each other, Miwa managed to sneak over to the truck holding the Disrupter and swipe it, leaving some trash she'd found in a nearby alley that had a similar shape to replace the weapon.

 

She then got to watch as a Kraang grabbed the weapon up and attempt to fire it at them, only to look down in confusion when it didn't work.

 

Thinking it had malfunctioned, the Kraang jumped into their van, and drove away. With no weapon to fight over, and police sirens drawing near, the teens and the Foot members bolted. They'd continue the fight another day.

 

"This stinks, they got away with the Disrupter thingy," said Mikey, looking at the former fight scene from a nearby alley as police crawled all over it trying to make sense of what had happened.

 

Miwa smirked behind her scarf. "Or did they?" she asked, pulling the Disrupter out of where she'd stashed it.

 

Her brothers gaped, and Mikey squealed in delight. "You're the best, sis," he said cheerfully.

 

Miwa laughed. "I know, but I'm still not going to let you shoot it."

 

"Worth a try," said Mikey with a shrug.

 

__________________

 

The next time they ran into the two evil mutants, they were lured into a trap designed by Stockman. Unfortunately for the mutants, Stockman didn't intend for any of them to leave alive, so they were at the mercy of Stockman's weapons as well.

 

For an incompetent goof of a scientist, Stockman managed to make a Maze of Doom that could actually make good on the doom part if they weren't careful.

 

In desperation to get out of there alive, the teen ninjas and the evil mutants agreed to a truce until they escaped and stuck it to Stockman for putting them in there.

 

During their travel through the labyrinth that Stockman had created, they ended up getting separated when a magnetic wall suddenly shot up, cutting Raph and Miwa off from the rest, and leaving them stuck with only Fishface for company.

 

As the three of them went through the maze dodging traps, they learned Fishface's back-story. How he was an orphaned thief who had impressed the Shredder with his skills and ruthlessness, thus leading to his employment to the man.

 

He also tried to make Raph uncomfortable by pointing out that the two had a good bit in common, such as a hot temper, a love for the fight, and a dislike of following orders from those like Leo and Dogpound.

 

But once he had told them all this, he began subtly pumping the two for information. Information they refused to give until he asked why Miwa had turned the Shredder's offer to join him down.

 

"Because he murdered my clan, and killed my mother," Miwa replied coldly, only having to lie about the latter.

 

After the arrival of the Shredder in New York, Yoshi had subtly sent out messages through secret channels to be found by their hidden clan mates, calling for their aide. Only to discover to his horror that the Shredder had spent the last fifteen years ruthlessly hunting them all to extinction. The five Hamato teens and their parents were the very last of their clan who were still alive.

 

Fishface frowned. " _He_  killed Tang Shen?" he asked doubtfully. "Are you certain? I was always told that it was  _Hamato Yoshi_  that had killed her."

 

Miwa's face hardened. She knew Fishface was trying to instill doubt in her head. Trying to turn her against her family and join the Shredder. But she was far from fooled. She had heard the story from both her parents, and had seen the scars marring her mother's back with her own eyes. There was no doubt who was to blame for it, and it sure as heck wasn't her father.

 

But all she said to Fishface was "Yes, I'm certain. The Shredder lied to you about that."

 

The fish mutant hummed as he thought over that information. "That is cold. But it doesn't matter to me. The Shredder is my Master, and I suppose I can no more stop following him than you can stop following yours."

 

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," said Raph gruffly, not liking all the attention the fish had been giving his sister. "So the Shredder got you out of some prison time. Big deal. There's nothing really stopping you from just going to some beach and leaving to find Atlantis or something where he can't find you. Far as I'm concerned, you don't owe him anything, and you don't really strike me as the type who's big on loyalty. So why stick around?"

 

Fishface glared at the red wearing ninja. "I have my reasons," he said firmly, and that was that.

 

Eventually they met back up with their brothers and Dogpound, and went to where the tracker Donnie built told them Stockman was hiding.

 

Working together the Hamatos and the mutants managed to send Stockman fleeing with his tail between his legs. By the time they were done with that fight, both parties were too exhausted to continue their battle, and decided to take a rain check on their fight for another day. Despite this, Fishface still attempted to throw a cheap shot at Leo's back as they left, only to be stopped by Raph's sai.

 

__________________

 

They returned home to find Yoshi in the dojo with April, and watched as the girl tried and failed to make use of some of the weapons in their collection.

 

Miwa stifled a giggle as April attempted to swing a weighted chain, only for the weapon to fly out of her hand and hit Donnie on the head, knocking him out cold. Her brothers had no such reservations, and once they were sure Donnie was okay they began laughing at the redhead's misfortune, making her very miffed at them.

 

"How long have you been at this?" she asked her father in amusement.

 

Yoshi sighed. "Since you left," he admitted. "April wishes to have her own weapon to train with. And with the Kraang after her, that may be a wise thing to have more to defend herself than just her fists. But so far, every weapon she had tried has been ill suited for her."

 

Miwa tapped her chin. A weapon for April to use, that was a hard one. Miwa had to admit she still didn't know what to make of the redhead even after the few weeks she'd known her. Miwa didn't have many friends outside her clan, and being able to talk about ninjutsu with another girl was a novelty that she felt she could get used to. Not to mention the way Donnie would light up whenever April was around (and inevitably make a fool of himself, much to her amusement). At the moment, that was all their relationship was, a novelty to Miwa, and she was not sure when she would be able to accept the girl as anything more than that. It wasn't easy to shake off sixteen years of secrecy and deception that came with the life of a ninja to let in someone new. But in order to keep that novelty, they needed a way to make sure April wouldn't get carted off by the Kraang the second they turned their back.

 

Which brought her back to the weapon problem.

 

Just then, an idea occurred to Miwa, and she snapped her fingers and made her way out of the dojo.

 

"Let me go get something," she called over her shoulder, making her family and April stare after her in confusion.

 

She came running back a few minutes later holding something in her hand which she held out for April to see.

 

"Father made this for me when I was still a baby," she said, Yoshi's eyes lighting up as he realized what she had. "But I always liked the tantō more, so I ended up not using it much. Which is a shame, really, it's a good weapon. Maybe you can have a better use for it."

 

Miwa gave a flick of her wrist, and a metal fan unfolded in her hands, showing the Hamato crest.

 

"It's beautiful," said April as she admired the tessen.

 

Miwa nodded. "Yup, but also-" she paused and threw the tessen like a Frisbee so that it embedded itself into the wall between Mikey and Leo's heads, making the two yelp and jump back. "-Dangerous."

 

"I think we found my weapon," said April with a wide smile. She turned to the other girl and gave her a hug, "Thanks, Miwa."

 

Miwa shrugged it off, but was secretly glad she could do this to help Donnie's little crush defend herself. She hated to think of how he would react should anything happen to her.

 

But deep down, she couldn't help but feel a bit hurt her father hadn't protested her giving the tessen he'd made specifically for his daughter to someone else.

 

__________________

 

Another day, another stakeout on TCRI.

 

After their failed attempt to take out the portal, it had become a habit of theirs to spend their evenings studying the building, making note of everything they saw the Kraang do, and trying to find some weak point to allow them to break back in and take another crack at the portal.

 

Leatherhead was hard pressed to even move from their lookout spots, and more often than not the ninja teens had to bring him up his meals because he had not left a stakeout all day. The gator used to stalk April in her daily life in order to protect her from the Kraang, but after they all explained how that was creepy and for the most part unnecessary, since the five of them went to school and hung out with her anyway. Plus, April's Aunt had spotted him one night and had freaked out before April convinced her that it was just a trick of the light.

 

So with protecting April out of his hands, the mutant gator spent most of his time and energy focusing on taking down the Kraang (though April did report that she had noticed him still following her sometimes on weekends).

 

Usually staking out TCRI was pretty boring, but this particular night the storage device Donnie had decrypted said there was supposed to be some sort of shipment coming through the portal, and they were determined to find out what it was.

 

At first TCRI looked how it did every night, just a tall, oddly shaped tower in the city skyline. But then the entire roof lit up with an eerie purple light, and a set of hanger doors on the front of it slid open and  _something_  flew out.

 

"A Stealth Ship," said Leatherhead with a growl as he recognized it.

 

The five teens looked the ship over critically. It was rounded with domes on the top and bottom, and tentacles dangling out of bottom dome. The entire ship was silver with glowing pink lines and what looked like a large eye in the front.

 

It was creepy looking, sure, but not all that subtle.

 

"On what planet is something like that stealthy?" Miwa asked, voicing what she and her brothers had been thinking.

 

Before Leatherhead could answer, the ship seemed to spot them, and a blast like pink lightning shot out at them. The ninjas and the gator scattered, avoiding the blast.

 

They tried to vanish from sight, but the ship started scanning the area, and would always find them again no matter where they hid.

 

Leo ordered his siblings and Leatherhead to get underground to avoid the scanner. He then rushed off to draw the ship's attention while they opened the way.

 

Leatherhead pulled the manhole cover open, and they all dived in. Raph hung back at the edge, and called to Leo, "Come On!"

 

Leo meanwhile was jumping and dodging the ship's blaster, using the walls of the alley as a springboard to launch himself away from the blasts.

 

But despite his best efforts, he still found himself cornered in the alley, with the ship's eye glaring down at him menacingly.

 

The eye lit up as it prepared to fire, but before it could blast Leo to bits, a streak of red light struck the ship with enough force to make the ship change its direction and miss its shot.

 

Leo wasted no time darting past the ship and running towards the manhole where Raph was still waiting for him.

 

But Raph wasn't looking at him anymore, his eyes were focused on a nearby roof where the blast that had saved Leo had come from.

 

Leo spared a glance at the roof, and saw a large shadowy figure standing there holding some type of gun.

 

But neither teen had time to dwell on who the figure was, because the ship had righted itself and was now closing in on them again.

 

Leo and Raph leapt down into the sewers, and shoved the manhole cover back in place.

 

From a storm drain across the street, they watched as the ship attempted to scan for them again. Apparently finding nothing it flickered and vanished from sight.

 

"And  _that_  is why it's called a Stealth Ship," said Leatherhead, angry that there had been so little they could do against it.

 

"Oh great," said Raph sarcastically, scanning the sky for the now invisible ship. "'Cause it wasn't scary enough when we could see it."

 

Leo angled himself so he could look up at the rooftop with the figure again, only to find that whoever had saved him had vanished.

 

"Who was that guy?" he asked mostly to himself.

 

__________________

 

The next night Donnie rigged up sonar devices for them to plant on rooftops around the city. Using the sonar, they planned to track the invisible ship try to take it down using the Shellraiser.

 

As Leo was placing the last beacon on its rooftop, he became aware that someone was behind him.

 

In a swift movement, Leo unsheathed his katana and wheeled around.

 

Standing in a dark area across the rooftop was a shadowy figure.

 

"If I was here to fight you, you'd be dead already," the figure growled with a Japanese accented voice.

 

But Leo didn't lower his guard, and instead glared at the figure in the shadows. "Who are you?" he demanded.

 

Slowly, the shadowy figure stepped into the light, and Leo had to gape in shock at what he saw.

 

It was  _another_  mutant. A tiger mutant to be exact. He was standing almost as tall as Leatherhead, armed to the teeth with all sorts of weaponry, and what looked like a jetpack strapped to his back.

 

The tiger smirked at the sight of his shocked expression. "Not what you were expecting," he asked rhetorically.

 

Leo picked his jaw up off the ground, and looked at the tiger suspiciously. "Who are you, and what do you want?" he asked, still keeping his swords ready if the mutant turned hostile.

 

"I am called Tiger Claw, young cub," the mutant replied with a slight bow. "And what I seek is information."

 

Leo shifted uneasily. "What kind of information?" he asked hesitantly

 

"Information about the creatures you and your comrades fought against last night," Tiger Claw replied bluntly.

 

Leo's eyes widened, then were drawn to one of the guns holstered at the tiger's hip. "It was  _you!"_  he said in realization. "You saved me from that ship last night!"

 

"Indeed," said the tiger, seeming indifferent about the fact. "What can you tell me about those creatures that were piloting that flying machine?"

 

Leo hesitated, and the mutant added, "I only ask because it holds key information as to what happened to me as a boy," His face darkened. "I was once as human cub as yourself, but events in my past led me to be transformed into this." He gestured towards his mutant body. "Fortunately, a man took me in, and trained me to be who I am today. But I wish to know why this happened to me, and who the culprits of it were."

 

Leo slowly lowered his swords just a bit. Just enough that he could bring them up again in an instant, but low enough he no longer appeared as hostile.

 

"They're called the Kraang," he explained slowly. "They're an alien race from another dimension who came here to take over. They were the ones who created the mutagen that changed you. We  _think_  they plan to use it to mutate the entire planet so that they can live here… and  _we_  can't."

 

Tiger Claw stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Then they are your enemy?" he asked.

 

"They're the enemy of everyone who lives on this planet," said Leo, gesturing to the city for emphasis. "If they mutate the Earth like they plan to, the air will turn toxic and monsters will run rampant. Everyone on the planet will die."

 

"And the reason they mutated me?" Tiger Claw asked, looking at Leo expectantly.

 

Leo shrugged, not really knowing the answer to that. "Probably as an experiment. I've met some other mutants they've done stuff like that to. Just be glad you got away from them as a kid. They're completely merciless to the mutants they keep ahold of," he said, thinking of how Leatherhead had the scars to prove it that for a fact.

 

The tiger continued to ponder Leo's words, before turning to leave. "Thank you for the information, cub."

 

"Raion," Leo called after him, giving him the codename he went by on missions when he had to give out a name, similar to how Miwa went by Karai. Aside from her, they all had code names based on the meanings in their real names.

 

Tiger Claw glanced back at him.

 

Leo shrugged again. "You saved my life, so I owe you. The least I can do is give you is a name to call me other than 'cub'."

 

The tiger nodded, and leapt out of sight.

 

__________________

 

Later that evening, the five Hamato teens were in the Shellraiser driving through the city. Leatherhead decided to stay behind and keep a look out at TCRI, in case the Kraang brought anything else nasty over from their dimension.

 

As they drove around the city, Leo told his siblings about his conversation with Tiger Claw.

 

"Aw, he named himself," moaned Mikey in disappointment once Leo was finished. "That's not fair. I'm the one who names stuff."

 

Raph glared at his pouting little brother. "Seriously, that's all you got out of it?" he asked incredulously.

 

"So what was your take on him?" Miwa asked Leo, focusing on more important matters.

 

Leo shook his head. "I don't really know," he said. "He saved my life last night, and he really did seem to want to know about the Kraang, and what they had to do with his past, but…"

 

" _But?_ " Donnie asked as Leo trailed off.

 

Leo frowned at the steering wheel as he tried to put his impression into words. "There was just something, I don't know,  _off_  about him. And I don't mean the fact he was a giant cat. It just felt like there was something he wasn't saying, and I can't shake the feeling that whatever it is was important."

 

"So we'll keep an eye out for him," said Raph sullenly. "As if we didn't have enough to worry about."

 

Leo gave his brother a shrug, "Maybe I'm just being paranoid. He could really be a nice guy. Er, maybe."

 

"A 'nice' giant tiger man who walks around armed with guns strong enough to make an impact on a Kraang Stealth Ship," Miwa pointed out in a deadpan tone. "Please, as if we're ever that lucky."

 

Donnie took that moment to remind them of the mission at hand. "Guys, I think I've got something. It doesn't match any authorized flight patterns. It's gotta be the Kraang ship."

 

"Or Santa," said Mikey brightly.

 

The Shellraiser sped around the corner to find the Stealth Ship hovering in the air as if waiting for them.

 

"Nope, it's the Kraang ship," said Mikey in disappointment. "That's a bummer."

 

Leo immediately had to floor it, as the Kraang ship geared up to fire at them. As they sped through the streets, Miwa did her best to take aim with the garbage cannon. A tricky thing to do since they kept swerving all over the place to avoid getting blasted. She eventually managed to get a few hits, but the compressed garbage only bounced off the ship harmlessly.

 

"I am  _really_  starting to hate this thing," Miwa growled once she knew her attacks were useless.

 

Unfortunately, they drove into a dead end while trying to escape it, and became trapped.

 

The ship bore down on them, and began blasting at the rear of the Shellraiser. The vehicle shook with the force of the blast, and the teenagers knew it was only a matter of time till it broke through and fried them.

 

Just as things were beginning to look bleak, once again a red blast shot from a neighboring roof and hit the ship hard. Startled, the Kraang piloting the ship began veering left and right trying to avoid more blasts like the last one.

 

Leo's eyes widened at what he saw from the monitors in his station. "That was Tiger Claw," he said in surprise.

 

Wasting no time, he used the opportunity the mutant had provided to drive the Shellraiser back out of the alley, and away from the ship. "Miwa, take the wheel," he ordered, unbuckling himself.

 

The oldest Hamato jumped into the driver's seat, and took over their speedy get away.

 

"What are you doing?" Raph asked as Leo jumped into Raph's Stealth Bike that was attached under the Shellraiser.

 

"Repaying a debt," said Leo, as he disengaged the bike, and took off after the Kraang ship.

 

"Is he crazy?" Raph had to ask his remaining siblings.

 

Donnie and Mikey both shrugged at him, and looked like they wouldn't be surprised if he was.

 

"He just doesn't want to keep owing a guy we can't be sure we can trust," Miwa explained, understanding the reason behind Leo's actions. "It's an honor thing."

 

Meanwhile, Leo was speeding back towards the stealth ship. Tiger Claw was still shooting at the ship, but the Kraang had caught on to him and were preparing to blast him to smithereens. To avoid the blast, the tiger leapt from his rooftop perch into the alley below, narrowly escaping being fried.

 

Leo pulled the Stealth Bike up next to him. "Get on!" he yelled.

 

Glancing up at the Stealth Ship, which was targeting them in its sights again, Tiger Claw gripped the back of Leo's seat and he crouched on the back plating of the bike. With the tiger perched behind him, Leo revved the bike, and shot back out of the alley, leaving the ship in his dust.

 

"My thanks, young Raion," Tiger Claw said once the ship was out of sight.

 

Leo nodded to him. "Now we're even."

 

Leo didn't stop driving until he was certain he'd lost the Stealth Ship, and then pulled to a stop in a deserted alley.

 

Tiger Claw stepped down from the Stealth Bike, and looked down at the young ninja.

 

"Why'd you save us again?" Leo asked.

 

"I have my reasons," Tiger Claw said. "I also needed to speak with you again about our common enemy. I believe I have a way of getting rid of your current UFO problem. That is, if you are interested."

 

Leo frowned, contemplating this. "I'd like my whole team here for this, if you don't mind," he said finally.

 

Tiger Claw actually smirked at that. "The more the merrier."

 

One quick phone call later, the other four Hamato teens joined them in the alley.

 

Once they'd all gathered, Leo decided to make introductions. "Tiger Claw, these are my teammates. Guys, this is Tiger Claw."

 

Mikey smiled at the tiger and waved in a friendly fashion. "Hi, I'm Tenshi."

 

Donnie gave a small bow to him. "I'm Gifuto."

 

Raph only nodded his head. "Iyasa," he said in a guarded tone.

 

"I'm called Karai," said Miwa. She then looked over the tiger mutant, and noticed that he was missing something. "I thought tigers had tails," she said in a teasing tone.

 

Tiger Claw's face darkened. "Don't mock me, child," he said scathingly. "It was a rival who sliced off my tail. One day I will find it. And  _he **will PAY the price!"**_

 

His face then cleared, and he regarded the five teens seriously. "Now for your problem with the Kraang, I do believe I can help you with it."

 

The teens exchanged looks, before looking back up at the tiger. "How?" asked Raph skeptically. "We threw everything we had at that thing, and none of it even left a scratch."

 

"Yes, I saw your 'weapons'," replied Tiger Claw in a tone that said he didn't think very highly of them. "But I know where to find more useful weaponry which are far more likely to cause some damage,  _if_  you are willing to get them."

 

Miwa frowned. "What's the catch?" she asked skeptically.

 

"The weapons are part of an illegal shipment, being carted off to criminals within the city. To get what you need, we would have to steal it from them from them," he replied.

 

" _We_ , so you're going along with it?" asked Donnie, raising an eyebrow. "Why? What's in this for you?"

 

Tiger Claw gave them a grin showing off his sharp teeth. "The chance to pay the aliens back for what they did to me all those years ago," he said sinisterly. "The shipment is at the docks tomorrow night. Meet me there if you wish."

 

With that, the tiger mutant swept out of the alley and out of sight, leaving the teens to mull over his offer.

 

Mikey shuddered. "Dudes, is it just me, or was that guy even scarier than the Stealth Ship?" he squeaked.

 

"It's not just you, Tenshi," Donnie agreed, thinking it might not yet be safe to use their real names (tigers, like all cats, had very good hearing after all). Taking the hint, they all started climbing to the roofs to gets some distance from the alley, and any listening ears that might be lingering.

 

"You were right, Leo," Donnie continued once they were a safe distance away. "There's definitely something not right about Tiger Claw, and I don't mean the fact that he's a mutant."

 

"Mutants can be nice," said Mikey. "Look at Leatherhead."

 

Raph let out a snort. "Yeah, with the way our lives are going, being around mutants both good and bad is almost becoming normal."

 

"Now there's a scary thought," Miwa added in amusement. "Still, if he can get us something to take down that ship, it might be worth a look."

 

Mikey nodded. "Yeah, and who knows. His off-ness might just be from how much he doesn't like the Kraang. What do you think, Leo?" he directed his question at their leader.

 

The other three looked at Leo as well, and his expression hardened as he came to a decision. "Here's what I think," he said, and his siblings all gathered close to hear his plan.

 

__________________

 

The next night, the five Hamato teens cautiously approached the docks, keeping their eyes peeled for Tiger Claw or any arms dealers wandering around.

 

But the docks were deserted. No sign of criminals or a mutant tiger anywhere in sight. Just lots of crates, boats, and water.

 

When they paused their search by the water's edge, Mikey turned to the others and asked, "Hey guys, do you get the feeling this is a-?"

 

Suddenly the dark docks were flooded with light, as spotlights mounted on the containers were suddenly turned on.

 

"-A trap," Raph finished for Mikey as he shifted into a defensive stance, sarcasm dripping from his every word. "Gee, I don't know, you tell me."

 

Mikey looked around at the bright area, and saw Foot Ninja surrounding them at all side, and Dogpound and Fishface leering at them among the ranks.

 

"Definitely a trap," he said with a nod.

 

Raph slapped himself on the forehead and groaned.

 

"Welcome, ninjas," said Tiger Claw, striding into view, the Foot Ninja parting so he could pass, and a large weapon held carelessly in his hand. "So good of you to join us."

 

"So this was all a set up," Leo said as he and his siblings glared at the cat, not really that surprised by the fact.

 

"It is," said a voice they had been dreading to hear.

 

The Shredder stepped into view next to Tiger Claw, looking at the teens impassively.

 

"Excellent work, Tiger Claw. Exactly what I would expect from my second in command," the Shredder told the feline as he eyed the five teenagers before him, his gaze lingering on Miwa too long to be comfortable, making the girl shudder.

 

"I live to serve, Master Shredder," said Tiger Claw with a small bow to his master.

 

"You pretended to be on our side to lure us here, I get that. But all that talk about hating the Kraang, that was a lie?" Leo had to ask.

 

The tiger smirked as he turned his attention back to the teens. "No, not entirely. I  _do_  resent those disgusting creatures for all that they've done to me. If it is any consolation, I intend to shoot their ship down with this," he held up the weapon in his hand, showing them a shoulder fired missile launcher. He then rested it on his shoulder and aimed it towards the boys, leaving Miwa enough room to dodge if she wanted. "After I use it on you, of course."

 

Far from being intimidated, Leo smirked at the mutant. "Good thing we brought our own secret weapon."

 

On cue, Leatherhead burst from the water behind them, roaring viciously at the assembled bad guys.

 

Taking advantage of their enemies' surprise, the five teens shot forward and began fighting off the assembled Foot, making it impossible for Tiger Claw to get a clear shot.

 

As they fought, Donnie's cell phone began beeping. "The Kraang ship is nearby!" he called to the others.

 

"Great, just when I thought this couldn't get worse!" Raph called back as he threw a Foot Ninja into five others, knocking them down like bowling pins.

 

"Get the missile launcher from Tiger Claw!" Leo ordered as he disarmed a Ninja and kicked him into Fishface. "It's our best bet for taking it down!"

 

The Kraang ship appeared in the sky, and began firing at the teens. They were able to dodge the blasts, but the opponents they were fighting were not always as lucky, and soon there were far fewer Foot Ninjas in fighting condition at the docks.

 

But nothing stopped the Shredder as he relentlessly went after the teenagers. It got to the point that Raph, Mikey, and Donnie had to team up just to have a slight chance against him, but despite that the Shredder still appeared to be winning.

 

Meanwhile, Miwa and Leatherhead were facing off against Dogpound and Fishface, and appeared to be doing just fine at holding their own.

 

Leo, on the other hand, had focused his attention on Tiger Claw. More specifically getting the missile launcher from him.

 

"You were fools to come here," Tiger Claw taunted, as he and Leo had their swords locked against each other, the tiger pushing the boy back with his superior strength. "Even with your reptilian freak helping you, you will still die here today."

 

Leo scowled at the insult to their friend. "Who are  _you_  calling a freak,  ** _freak?_** " he asked. With a final grunt of effort, he managed to disarm the tiger, and land a solid kick to his face.

 

Snatching up the missile launcher before the cat could recover, Leo climbed to the top of a pile of storage crates, and took aim at the stealth ship. Once he had a lock on the ship he fired, sending the missile at the metallic killing machine, before quickly having to duck as Tiger Claw leapt at him again.

 

The missile hit the ship and it was shot out of the sky. The now burning wreck started descending towards the docks below trailing smoke behind it as it fell.

 

As it went down it became clear it would crash on the spot where Raph, Donnie, and Mikey were fighting against the Shredder. The three teens bolted when they saw it coming and were able to dodge the falling ship.

 

The Shredder, on the other hand, didn't budge, and was plowed over by the wreckage and knocked into the river along with it.

 

At the sight of their master being thrown into the water by a crashing space ship, his hench-mutants abandoned their fights, and dove into the river to rescue him.

 

Taking that as their opportunity to escape, the five Hamato teens and their alligator friend vanished into the night. Their mission accomplished for now.

 

But if they had stayed just a few minutes longer, they would have seen the Shredder emerge from the water alive, and relatively unharmed. They also would have seen that he managed to retrieve a still living Kraang from the wreckage, and heard his intent to take it back with him for interrogation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I brought in Tiger Claw a bit early, and he was the mysterious figure stalking the teens. Without Karai, the Shredder needed someone else to be his second in command, and in his search for one he found Tiger Claw sooner than he did in the show. Another thing with Miwa stealing the Subspacial Endoparticle Disrupter, it was to explain why the turtles had one at the finale. The Kraang drove off with it in the show, but they suddenly had one when they tried to blow up the portal, it's a bit of a plot hole, that or I'm missing something. We also get a peek inside Miwa's head about April. She mostly puts ups with her for Donnie's sake, but isn't too sure of her own opinion on her yet. The two aren't exactly friends, and Miwa has her reasons for keeping April at a distance, which you'll see eventually.  
> Also, if you hadn't noticed, up until this point, the Hamatos avoided saying any names while they were in fights, or places they could be overheard by the enemy. This is an added precaution to keeping their identities secret. Donnie has some programs set up on the internet to keep the Shredder from finding them that way, but with their first names they'd stand out a lot more. I tried to be clever about the codenames, each of them is Japanese and has a tie to the meaning of their real names. Leonardo means Lion-Bold, and Raion is Japanese for Lion. Raphael means God has Healed, and Iyasa is Japanese for Healed. Donatello means Gift from God, and Gifuto is Japanese for Gift. And Michelangelo means Who is like God an Angel, and Tenshi is Japanese for Angel.


	10. To Protect a Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the teens thinning out the Foot Clan's ranks, their enemies were forced to gain new recruits, among them a familiar face.

The Hamato Clan soon found out that the Foot had gotten some new information about them. Specifically, information on who one of their friends was.

 

The weekend after the fight on the docks, April had offered to swing by Murakami's restaurant to pick up lunch before afternoon practice.

 

But while she was gone, the Hamatos came across information that the Kraang were intending to poison the water in the Hudson, and left for their underwater base to stop that from happening.

 

Unfortunately, April's trip to the restaurant was hindered by a patrol of Foot Ninja ambushing her on the way there. It was clear this was no random attack. They were after  _her_  specifically, and with her ninja friends stuck underwater fighting the Kraang, there was no help coming her way from them.

 

April made use of her tessen, and all the skills that Master Yoshi had instilled in her over the last few months. But even with that, the redhead was severely outnumbered, and if something didn't change soon, she would not be able to get away from this.

 

Just when she thought for sure she would be captured, an angry alligator leapt off a nearby rooftop with a vicious roar.

 

April had never felt so grateful for Leatherhead's overprotective stalking.

 

With the mutant gator on her side, the tide of the fight quickly turned, and the two of them were soon running through the sewers to safety, leaving an alley full of beaten and unconscious Foot behind them.

 

But with the Foot knowing who April was, and that she had a connection to the Hamatos, it was no longer safe for the girl to go out in public anymore.

 

April agreed to move into the spare room in the dojo, and began taking her classes over her computer. Donnie faked a school trip form for April to give to her Aunt to give an excuse for why she wouldn't be home for awhile. If she ever needed to go out, she'd need an escort and would use one of the many secret exits hidden in the dojo so she wouldn't lead the Foot to the Renaissance Dojo's doorstep.

 

____________________

 

One good thing about getting into fights with Foot Ninja and Kraang bots every other night, was that after a while you got a lot of experience at fighting them.

 

Case and point, their most recent patrol led them to a rooftop fight with a Foot patrol, and they ended up winning the fight in record time.

 

"Aw man," Raph groaned in disappointment once he saw that all the Foot were unconscious at their feet. He'd been having fun kicking their butts.

 

"Iyasa, if you keep breaking your toys, we're not going to buy you new ones," Leo said in a mock scolding tone. The codename was in case any Foot Ninja were still conscious enough to hear.

 

Mikey surveyed the scene before him. "Dude, It's like we just cleared a video game on  _easy_."

 

"Tenshi, if Sensei has taught us anything, it's that real combat is not like a video game," said Leo with a frown.

 

As if to directly rebuke Leo's statement, Donnie chose that moment scoop something off the roof with a call of, "Hey, coins."

 

"You were saying?" Miwa asked Leo with a knowing smirk.

 

Leo ignored them, and continued on like they hadn't spoken. "The Foot Soldiers haven't been much of a challenge lately. Wonder why?"

 

"Maybe we're just that awesome," said Raph, and Miwa gave him a high five in agreement.

 

Leo smirked. "That sounds right."

 

"You know who I'd hate to be," said Donnie as he stuffed his newly acquired change into his pocket, stepping over unconscious bodies as he came towards them. "The guy who has to tell Shredder about this."

 

Miwa smirked. "Ten bucks says his head explodes."

 

Mikey looked up at them in awe. "Dude, I'd pay to see that."

 

____________________

 

 

After their taking out the Foot Patrol, they decided to stake out TCRI for a while.

 

Leatherhead was not there at the moment. After the Foot's attempt to capture April, the gator had started focusing his energy on running patrols through the sewers near their Dojo, and escorting April whenever she wanted to go out in case any of the Kraang or Foot showed up to try and capture her again. April didn't complain about this after his over-protectiveness had saved her last time.

 

It was just as well that he wasn't there, as all was quiet on the TCRI front. The Kraang didn't appear to be doing anything sinister tonight.

 

Normally that would be a good thing. But this time it left the five teenaged ninjas very bored.

 

Just as they were about to call it a night, Leo spotted a lone Foot Ninja skulking around in the alley below. He quickly pointed it out to the rest of them, and they gathered at the edge of the roof to scrutinize the figure below them.

 

"I don't get it," Raph said as he looked the Foot Soldier over. "Just one guy?"

 

"Maybe they only need one guy," said Mikey in a dramatic voice. "Maybe this guy's the meanest, most baddest, deadly ninja we've ever seen."

 

Miwa let out a snort of disbelief. "If he was that good a ninja, then there's no way we would have even seen him."

 

"Unless that's just what he wants you to think so we'll let our guard down," Mikey argued, not yet ready to give up his theory.

 

They turned their attention back to the Foot Ninja in time to see him try and fail pathetically to jump and climb in a window of TCRI, only to fall flat on his face.

 

"Or not," said Donnie. He squinted and tried to get a better look at the Foot Ninja in the dim light. Something about him seemed familiar.

 

The ninja finally managed to knock in the window, but when he tried to climb in he apparently got stuck inside it, and was left to dangle half in with his legs kicking furiously.

 

"Anyone else find this dude kinda adorable?" Mikey asked.

 

"Well, he's not much, but he's all we've got. Let's go," said Leo, signaling for them to drop into the alley.

 

But as they approached the stuck ninja, more Foot Soldiers jumped out of nowhere, and surrounded them.

 

"Ambush!" Leo shouted as they all drew their weapons.

 

"Alright!" Raph cheered as he jumped into battle.

 

This fight didn't last any longer than the previous one, and soon the Foot were fleeing from the fight to avoid getting beaten to unconsciousness again.

 

But when they ran, they also left behind their stuck friend, who was still dangling from the window.

 

Finally, the remaining Foot Ninja pulled himself free, and wandered towards them, unaware his comrades had ditched him.

 

"Everything okay?" he asked in a muffled sounding voice. "I heard-"

 

But that was all he got the chance to say, before Donnie tripped him with his staff, and sent the chubby Foot Ninja sprawling.

 

By the time the Foot Ninja looked up at them, the Hamato teens had him surrounded, and Donnie was holding him at staff point.

 

"Wait, dude, it's  _ME!_ " the ninja said in a panicked voice.

 

A  _familiar_  panicked voice.

 

Donnie's stomach dropped as he realized who it was. "Oh no," he muttered as he reached forward to yank the ninja's mask off.

 

Free from the expressionless mask, Timothy grinned up at him sheepishly.

 

"The Pulverizer?" said Mikey in surprise.

 

" _Timothy!_ " Donnie groaned as his suspicions were confirmed.

 

Timothy's eyes widened. "No way, how'd you know my name?"

 

"Uh," Donnie stuttered nervously.

 

"Your name's really Timothy?" asked Miwa, sounding unimpressed.

 

Timothy sent her a cheesy grin that he no doubt thought made him look sexy. "Sure is, beautiful, but you can call me whatever you like." He finished his statement off with a wink.

 

Miwa made a gagging sound of disgust.

 

Timothy didn't seem to notice, and he turned his attention back to Donnie. "Anyway, how awesome is this? Bet you guys were wondering when you'd see me again," he said excitedly.

 

' _It was supposed to be tomorrow at school,'_  Donnie thought to himself miserably. How could he not have noticed that his friend had joined the Foot? Timothy was not that good at keeping secrets,  _how_  could Donnie not have picked up on this?

 

Unaware of his brother's inner turmoil, Raph answered a blunt, "No," to Timothy's question, to which the chubby boy laughed off.

 

"Hey, what do you guys think of my new threads?" he asked, holding out his arms so they could see the Foot Ninja clothing. "Way better than the sweat suit I had before."

 

Timothy's smile wilted when he saw the severe look on Donnie's face. "How in- What are you doing with the  _Foot?!"_  he asked forcefully.

 

Timothy shrugged as if it was no big deal. "Well, last time you told me I needed to practice. So, I joined the Bradford Dojo to hone my craft."

 

"Dude, you  _do_  know the Renaissance Dojo is, like, way better, right?" Mikey interrupted.

 

Timothy gave Mikey a patronizing smile. "Yeah, but that place doesn't have Chris Bradford. That guy is awesome."

 

"Actually, he's a flea-bitten jerk," said Raph.

 

"Literally," Leo added.

 

"Anyway," Timothy continued, "I wowed them with my smooth moves, and BOOM! They liked me so much they asked me if I wanted to join the Foot Clan."

 

"Wow, they must really be hurting for dudes," Mikey muttered to Miwa.

 

"That, or their standards are lower than we thought," she replied.

 

"I've only been with them a few days, and already I've made the rank of Ashigaru Sha," Timothy finished, beaming at them like they were supposed to be impressed.

 

Donnie smacked himself on the forehead and groaned. It was worse than he thought. Not only had his friend joined the Foot, but he was also part of the rank that was most likely to get him killed in some horrible manner.

 

Even after explaining that Ashigaru Sha meant that Timothy was literally cannon fodder, the boy still didn't seem to get that the people he was with were bad news. He was convinced that the Foot were the good guys since they were fighting the Kraang as well.

 

 

"Why are the Foot fighting the Kraang?" Leo had to ask. "As far as I was know, only Tiger Claw seemed to have a vendetta against them."

 

Timothy's eyes lit up, and Donnie knew that this could lead to nothing good. "I could totally find that out for you," he said excitedly. "I could be a  _SPY!"_

 

Donnie shook his head. "No way," he said firmly. "Not a chance. Timothy, do yourself a favor and quit the Foot. In fact, don't even bother quitting. Just go home, and forget you ever even heard of them."

 

To emphasize his point, Donnie crumbled up the Foot Mask still in his hand, and threw it on the ground.

 

Timothy quickly picked it back up, and pouted for a minute, before something seemed to occur to him, and he grinned up at Donnie.

 

"Ooohoo, sure, I'll quit the Foot," he said with an exaggerated wink, letting Donnie know he thought the purple wearing ninja had meant just the opposite.

 

"I'm  _serious,"_  Donnie said, putting as much emphasis on the word as he could.

 

"Of course you're serious," Timothy replied in the same tone, winking several times.

 

"I AM! STOP WINKING!" Donnie shouted, trying to get it through his thick skull that this was a bad idea.

 

"Right," said Timothy as he ran off. "I'll recon Intel, and, uh, meet you here tomorrow. I'm in ninja stealth mode." He did a bunch of goofy hand gestures and hurried away, almost getting hit by a car in the process.

 

"Wait, Timothy!" Donnie called after him, but it was no use.

 

Donnie's face hardened. There was no way he was letting Timothy get himself killed by the Foot. He'd get him out of this one way or another.

 

____________________

 

 

The next day as Timothy was coming into school, he was stopped by a furious looking Donatello.

 

"Hey Donnie, what's up?" he asked, wondering what happened to get his friend so angry this early in the morning (he hadn't seen him this angry since his little brother mistook his coffee mix for dirt, and put worms in it).

 

Donnie grabbed him by the arm, and dragged Timothy to where they wouldn't easily be overheard.

 

"What's up is that I got a call last night telling me  _you_  joined a  ** _criminal gang!"_**  Donnie said angrily. He wasn't even lying about that; he had gotten a call last night. A wake-up call that his friend was in some serious trouble. He just hoped he could get Timothy to listen to him better as his friend Donnie, rather than as an unnamed ninja hero.

 

Timothy seemed stunned for a second. "How does that guy know this stuff?" he whispered to himself, wondering how the guy in the purple mask seemed to know just who to call to tattle on him most effectively.

 

"Will you focus, Tim!" Donnie demanded. "What were you  _thinking?!_  These guys are dangerous!  _Really_ dangerous! I know you want to be a hero, but this is the completely wrong way to do it!"

 

Timothy looked at him indignantly. "What do you know about being a hero?"

 

"I know it doesn't involve throwing yourself to the sharks," Donnie deadpanned.

 

Seeing that Timothy still wasn't listening to him, Donnie took a deep breath, and tried again. "Look, Timothy," he said in a calmer voice. "I'm just worried about you. These Foot guys are seriously bad news. I don't want to see you get yourself killed."

 

Timothy's face softened a bit. "Ah, I'll be fine. Heroes always win, remember."

 

"Not in real life," said Donnie, remembering their recent failure at TCRI, and the beating they got when they first met the Shredder. "In real life, sometimes the heroes lose. And when they lose they get hurt or worse."

 

Timothy still didn't look like he believed him.

 

"Besides, you're not playing the hero in this, Tim," Donnie pointed out desperately. "You're the spy. And when spies get caught, they get terminated."

 

"Unless they're like James Bond," Timothy pointed out.

 

"Then why is he played by a different actor every other movie?" Donnie snapped back. "Besides,  _you_  are no James Bond."

 

Timothy looked like he was going to say something else, but at the thunderous look on Donnie's face he slumped, and looked disappointed.

 

Donnie put a comforting hand on Timothy's shoulder. "Look, I know you're trying to do the right thing with this. But playing spy in a killer ninja clan is not the right way to go."

 

He then made sure Timothy was looking him in the eye when he said his next piece.

 

"And these guys  _are_  killers," he said with the utmost seriousness. "I've heard of the Foot Clan before, and I know the Foot are connected to several murders back in Japan. Some of my own relatives were killed by these people just for being connected to another guy they were after. You're my  _friend_ , Tim. I don't want to wake up tomorrow to find out that I've lost someone else to them."

 

Finally, this seemed to get through to Timothy like nothing else did. "They killed your  ** _family?!"_**  he asked in horror.

 

"My paternal grandparents, and some second cousins who stayed in Japan when my parents moved here," Donnie said softly. He had never had the chance to meet the rest of the members of his clan, and now thanks to the Shredder, he never would. "The Foot were looking for someone they all knew, but they didn't know where he was, and couldn't give the Foot any clues as to where he went. So the Foot killed them to send a message."

 

Timothy's face darkened. "Those-those  _dirtbags!_ " he spat angrily. "And I thought they were the good guys!"

 

"Yeah, well they're pretty much the opposite," said Donnie firmly. His gaze then softened. "Promise me you'll drop this crazy spy plan, Tim, please."

 

Timothy still looked ticked off, but he slowly nodded in agreement. "Alright, I promise. I'll let those other guys know tonight that I can't help them," he agreed sullenly, but unknown to Donnie he crossed his fingers behind his back so his friend wouldn't know he was lying.

 

Donnie heaved a heavy sigh of relief. "Good. And, uh," he scratched his head sheepishly. "Could you not tell anyone what I said about my relatives? If word got out I was related to them, the Foot might come after me and my family too."

 

Timothy's eyes widened as he heard that, and nodded emphatically. "I won't tell anyone, I promise," he said with much more sincerity than he did for the other promise.

 

Donnie gave him a grin, and they both heard the school's late warning bell ring. "Well, time for class. We can meet at lunch to talk about better hero options that are out there for you," he said as he hurried off to his first class.

 

"Yeah, see you there," Timothy called after him as he watched him go.

 

Once Donnie was out of sight, Timothy frowned, and felt a little guilty for lying to his friend. "Sorry, Donnie," he muttered to himself. "But the Foot could really hurt you, and that makes this personal. Watch out, Foot Clan, because soon you will face the wrath of the ** _PULVERIZER!"_**  he shouted the last word dramatically.

 

Just then the final bell rang, signaling that Timothy was late for class.

 

"Curse you, Foot Clan!" he yelled as he ran as fast as he could to his first class.

 

____________________

 

 

Donnie glared down at Miwa's tantō in his hands.

 

What Master Yoshi had gathered from their bragging about stomping the Foot Clan into the dirt was that they had become complacent, overconfident, and too reliant on their signature weapons. He told them for a true ninja, anything could be used as a weapon. As a result he had ordered them all to switch weapons with each other for the day.

 

Leo and Miwa had immediately tried to switch with each other, since theirs was a similar weapon, but both had received a whack from their father's walking stick for the attempt.

 

In the end, Leo got the bō staff, Miwa was given the sais, Raph was staring cluelessly at the nunchaku, Donnie received the tantō, and Mikey got his hands on the katana blades (which he claimed automatically made him the new leader).

 

"Look, I'm Leo," Mikey said cheerfully, waving the katana in the air. "Guys, shh, we have to be quiet. Ninjas are quiet. Quiet down," he said in his best Leo impression.

 

Raph, Donnie, and Miwa snickered at the impersonation, and Leo's eye twitched in annoyance.

 

"I sound nothing like that," the blue wearing ninja insisted.

 

"Yes, that's why we're laughing, because you sound  _nothing_  like that," Raph said sarcastically.

 

Leo glared at them all, and Donnie could tell he currently wished he had Mikey or Raph's weapons, so that he could retaliate with an embarrassing impersonation of his own.

 

Yoshi then had them face off against each other, with himself sparing with Miwa.

 

The end results were an utter embarrassment, as the five of them ended up taking themselves down tripping over the new weapons rather than do any harm to each other.

 

Seeing their inability to adapt, Yoshi ordered that they continue to fight with the exchanged weapons until they learned versatility. Their reactions to this news were mixed at best.

 

Miwa took it as a new challenge (and an insult to her abilities to not already be good at this), and remained in the dojo training with the sai long after practice was over. She managed to drag Raph in with her to give her pointers on how to properly use his weapon of choice. In return, she helped Raph figure the nunchaku out. The hothead was determined to at least get a passing ability to use the nunchucks if only to spite Mikey (whom had been gloating over Raph's inability to use them). Between the two of them, they started getting something of a proficiency in using their new weapons.

 

Leo was also trying to get used to his new weapon, but was determined to figure it out on his own. Thus far his progress was limited to baseball swings, and trying not to trip over the length of the staff. But the movements were clunky and lacked the grace in which Donnie had shown when using the weapon.

 

Donnie spent his time examining the tantō, as if studying the short sword hard enough would yield the wisdom he needed to use it properly (or at least how to avoid nearly decapitating himself again, like he did in practice). But so far all it was yielding was a blank.

 

Mikey, on the other hand, didn't stress over the situation too much, and instead sat himself in front of the TV, and used Leo's katanas to skewer pizza slices for him to munch on.

 

When it came time for the five of them to go out to meet Timothy, none of them were feeling optimistic. The only bright side of the evening in Donnie's eyes was that Timothy was going to tell them that he was giving up his crazy spy plan.

 

But when they reached the alley, Timothy was nowhere in sight.

 

"Timothy!" Donnie hissed into the darkness, wondering where he had gotten too.

 

Just as he was starting to worry that the Foot had caught him trying to leave, the sound of a cell phone beeping under a pile of garbage drew his attention elsewhere.

 

Removing the garbage, the ninja teens were surprised to see a cheap, disposable phone sitting there.

 

Mikey reached down to pick it up, and read the text on the screen. "Pulverizer here. Foot Patrol coming your way in ten seconds. I'll call you in five once you kick their butts, winky face," he said aloud.

 

Leo's eyes widened as he heard the message. "Spread out," he ordered, and the five teens took defensive positions. Mikey tried to keep stealing the leader role, but getting four death glares at once was enough to shut him up.

 

Just then the Foot arrived and surrounded them at all sides.

 

The fight against the Foot Ninjas went about as well as their spar against each other, which is to say badly. Leo was not at all used to the reach that the bō staff gave him, opposite that, Donnie was unused to the close combat that using a tantō brought about, and the less said about Mikey's swordsmanship the better.

 

However, Miwa and Raph weren't doing half bad against the Foot with their new weapons. It was nowhere near their usual ability to take them down, but it was a start. At the very least the training they'd been doing was paying off.

 

The other three quickly got fed up with getting their butts kicked, and Leo ordered that they switch weapons back, regardless of what their father said.

 

Leo and Donnie immediately got their weapons back, Mikey snatched his nunchucks back from Raph, leaving his brother without a weapon, and Miwa found her tantō shoved into her hands along with the sais.

 

Raph glanced longingly at his sais still in Miwa's hands, but instead of giving them back to him, she tossed him her tantō instead.

 

"I didn't take you for a quitter, Iyasa," she said tauntingly.

 

Raph scowled indignantly at that, and unsheathed the tantō. "I'm not," he replied in an affronted tone. "Just tell me how to use this stupid thing."

 

With their weapons still swapped, the two of them jumped back into the fight, Miwa shouting pointers at Raph as they went. Between the two of them they were able to fight fairly well. Good enough to take down their opponents at least.

 

Between their teamwork, and the others able to use their proper weapons, the rest of the fight was over quickly.

 

But just as they were finishing it, they spotted that some Foot Soldiers they hadn't noticed sprinting away from TCRI with canisters of mutagen in their hands.

 

With them gone, the rest of the Foot retreated, leaving the five teens alone in the alley.

 

The teens tried to follow, but the other ninjas soon vanished from sight.

 

"Guys, mutagen," said Donnie in a worried tone. "The Foot are stealing  _mutagen!"_

 

"Shredder with mutagen," Raph speculated. "Well that can't be good."

 

"But why?" Miwa had to ask. "They don't have Dorkman anymore to do science stuff, so how will they know what to do with it other than the very dangerous obvious?"

 

Almost on cue, the cell phone they found chose that moment to ring.

 

Donnie snatched it up and put it on speakerphone. "Where are you Timothy," he demanded.

 

"You shouldn't use my real name," Timothy replied in a hushed tone.

 

"Where are you?" Donnie barked again, ignoring request. "Did the Foot figure you out? Are you hurt?"

 

"No, I'm fine," he replied. "I'm in a Foot hideout now. They don't know I'm a double agent."

 

Donnie paled. "What! But you promised me-I mean-your friend Donatello that you'd stop this nonsense."

 

Donnie's siblings exchanged surprised glances at this. They hadn't been aware the two were friends. Donnie had been actively avoiding letting them meet out of fear Timothy would figure out who they were.

 

"I lied," Timothy replied bluntly. "When I heard Donnie say that his family could get killed by these guys there was no way I could back out. I'm taking these guys down."

 

Leo glared at Donnie, knowing that he must have told the Pulverizer some of their family's secret to garner this reaction.

 

Donnie paid his brother no attention, and focused on trying to yell some sense into his friend. "This is crazy!" he shouted into the phone. "Look, Pulverizer, things just got a lot more dangerous! The Foot have stolen some highly dangerous mutagenic chemicals from the Kraang, and they-"

 

"Plan to unleash a mutant army to destroy us all, I know," said Timothy not sounding at all worried.

 

Donnie's heart dropped. As an Ashigaru Sha, there was no way that Timothy would be privy to that information without some kind of catch.

 

"Tim, what did you  _do?_ " he asked, dreading the answer.

 

"Shredder's going to mutate just one Foot Soldier first, as a test," Timothy explained.

 

Donnie winced. "Tell me you didn't," he moaned.

 

"I volunteered," Timothy said, sounding resolute. "With any mutant powers I'm gonna get from this, I'll be better able to take down Shredder and the Foot. They won't even see it coming. I'll be a superhero, and then there's no way they'll be able to hurt my friend after that."

 

Donnie didn't know what was worse. His friend's misguided attempts to protect him, or the fact it was Donnie's own big mouth that had convinced Tim to do this in the first place. Now his friend could get turned into a who-knows-what, and he might not be able to save him.

"Absolutely  ** _NOT!_** " Donnie all but screamed into the phone. "Tell me where you are, we'll get you out of there!"

 

Just then they heard the sound of Fishface's voice come through the phone. "Are you ready, Ashigaru Sha?"

 

Across town, the Pulverizer hung up his phone on the purple ninja's protests. "I was born ready," he said with a grin to the fish mutant. With that the two headed to the cluster of motorcycles that would take them to where the mutation would take place.

 

____________________

 

 

Desperate to save his friend, Donnie practically shoved his siblings into the Shellraiser, and rushed back to his lab in order to use his computer to track Timothy's phone.

 

He hacked the GPS in record time, and pulled up the Pulverizer's location on the map.

 

"Got him," he yelled to his siblings, reaching for his bō staff so that they could go.

 

Only to find his bō staff was no longer there.

 

After a quick search showed that the wooden weapon was nowhere in sight, he shot a frantic look at his siblings. "Guys, where's my staff?" he asked.

 

Leo winced, and looked apologetic. "When Father found out the three of us had switched our weapons back, he took them away as punishment. Raph and Miwa can still use each other's since they stuck with the program, but the rest of us have to go without. Sorry, Donnie, I tried to tell him, but he wouldn't listen. He thought we were making it up since before now he didn't think any of us even  _liked_  the Pulverizer."

 

Donnie let out a scream of frustration, but he knew that arguing with his father would take too much time. Time Timothy didn't have.

 

"Never mind!" he snapped, running out to the Shellraiser. "Let's go!" With that, he jumped onto the Stealth Bike inside it, and sped away.

 

His siblings followed behind him in the Shellraiser, and they took off towards the warehouse Timothy was at. If any of them had lingering doubts that Donnie and the Pulverizer were friends, they were cleared up now. Donnie only got this worked up over people he really cared about.

 

With the bike's extra speed and maneuverability, Donnie soon pulled far ahead of the Shellraiser, and made it to the warehouse way before the others did.

 

Forgoing stealth, he vaulted the bike into the air, and crashed through the window, halting the proceeding just before Timothy could be mutated.

 

Leaping from the bike, Donnie tackled Timothy away from the giant mutagen container, and over to the far side of the room.

 

Dogpound, who had been watching the experiment with Fishface, snarled at the sight. "Get them!" he ordered the watching Foot Soldiers.

 

Instinctively, Donnie reached for his bō, only to find its holster empty. In desperation, he searched the area for something else he could use as a weapon and he spotted a broom leaning against a crate a few feet away.

 

He snatched it up, and twirled it in his hands to get used to the different weight. Then he began fighting off the Foot Soldiers that were coming his way.

 

But as he was doing so, he noticed Timothy slipping away from him to run back towards the mutagen container. Distracted by this, Donnie didn't see one of the Foot Ninja coming until he got kicked in the back.

 

He quickly dispatched the ninja, and ran after Timothy, and again managed to push him out of the way just before a glob of mutagen hit him. "Timothy, NO!" Donnie shouted. "What are you doing?!"

 

Timothy only gave him a stubborn glare. "I'm gonna be a mutant," he insisted. "Then I'll be strong enough to take down the bad guys, and protect my friends."

 

Donnie glared back at him. "Doing the mutation thing is notoriously unpredictable, AND REALLY  ** _STUPID!_** " he shouted.

 

Just then, Dogpound managed to grab Donnie from behind and throw him across the room. Donnie then had to roll to dodge the canine mutant's giant fist as he continued to pursue him.

 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Timothy once again running back towards the mutagen, despite Donnie's warnings.

 

Donnie quickly broke off from his fight with Dogpound, and tackled the boy away from the mutagen again, only for Fishface to kick him in the nose and send him flying.

 

While in the air, Donnie managed to grab hold of a chain hanging from the ceiling, and swing back at Fishface, and return the favor. The fish mutant went flying from the kick, and Donnie turned his attention back to Timothy.

 

"Now we're getting out of here," he said firmly, grabbing the other boy's arm to drag him out of the warehouse if necessary. But then he saw just how many Foot Ninja were standing between him and the door. "Hopefully," he added.

 

Just then the rest of his siblings burst in through the skylight, and landed ready for battle. Raph and Miwa immediately pulled out their borrowed weapons and started fighting, while Leo and Mikey had a similar realization they were unarmed that Donnie previously had.

 

While Donnie, Miwa, and Raph kept the enemy ninja's attention, Mikey and Leo hurried to find a makeshift weapon of their own. Leo managed to find a tire iron on the ground, and Mikey found a length of chain to swing around. They quickly adapted, and soon they were all kicking butt, and the Foot were going down.

 

But while the Hamato teens were fighting their enemies, none of them noticed Timothy slip away, and once again run to the vat of mutagen.

 

Once he got there, he pulled the cord to release the ooze, and grinned up at it as it came down towards his face. "This is gonna be-" he started to say, but then the ooze hit and he started screaming in pain.

 

Around the warehouse the fighting halted as they all turned to stare at the source of the scream.

 

Stopping dead at the sight Donnie whispered, " _No,_ " as what he'd been trying to prevent happened before his eyes.

 

Timothy floundered around the warehouse with mutagen coating his face, wailing that it burned. Everyone drew back as he wandered towards them, mutagen dripping from his body as the ooze took effect.

 

The Hamato teens had to take refuge on top of some crate to avoid the mutagen soaked boy as he came towards them begging for help. Donnie could only stare sadly down at his friend, knowing there was nothing he could do for him now, and it was only a matter of time before he changed.

 

Then Timothy finally collapsed in the middle of the warehouse, and (much to Donnie's horror) he seemed to melt into a large glob of goo and internal organs.

 

The goo creature stretched itself up, and roared at the Foot Clan angrily, and started slithering towards them, making the ninja scatter.

 

Angry at the experiment's failure, Dogpound ordered the Foot to block the exits, and he activated the bombs he'd placed around the warehouse in case something like this happened.

 

One of the explosives was attached to the crate the teens had taken refuge on, and they watched helplessly as the timer began ticking down from two minutes.

 

The Foot bolted out of the final door, and Dogpound locked it behind him, leaving the teens trapped inside with goopy Timothy.

 

Raph and Leo ran to the door, and tried to force it open. When that didn't work, Leo turned to Donnie and told him they needed a way out now.

 

But the genius' attention was focused on his newly mutated friend, whose goo body was currently melting a crate like acid.

 

"What about him?" Donnie asked.

 

But at that moment the goo monster turned his attention to them, and started towards them with a screech. His acidic arm blobs reaching out to them in desperation.

 

In a panic, Leo and Mikey threw their makeshift weapons at him, but all that accomplished was to have the acidic goop dissolve the weapons into nothing.

 

"He ATE Our Weapons!" yelled Mikey in a panic.

 

"And it looks like we're next," said Leo, as the glob that used to be Timothy started towards them again.

 

The five of them tried to get him to stop, yelling at him to snap out of whatever feral daze he seemed to be in. But the glob monster just kept coming towards them until they were backed into a corner.

 

In a fit of desperation, Donnie dropped his broom and tore his hood and mask off his head, looking up at the glob with his real face.

 

"Timothy, it's  _Me!"_  he shouted, as the goo with eyeballs blinked at him in surprise. "It's Donnie, remember! I'm your friend! You were trying to protect me! Let me protect you now, please!"

 

For a brief moment Timothy stared at him in shock, then his eyes seemed to recognize him and he let out a mournful sounding wail.

 

Taking a hesitant step closer, Donnie held his hands out and said in a calming voice, "I know, Timothy. I know it hurts. I'm sorry. I can help you, I promise. After all, you were trying to do the same for me."

 

Timothy whimpered, and seemed to relax marginally, but then he caught sight of his new reflection in the window, and it set him off again. He wailed in outrage and horror, and attacked whatever was closest to him, which just so happened to be the very friend he'd sworn he'd protect.

 

Mikey and Leo had to grab Donnie by his hood and yank him back so he'd avoid the attack. The ninja teens all had to dodge as Timothy kept trying to slime them again, and the timers on the explosives were still counting down with every passing second.

 

Leo ordered that they retreat, but Donnie refused to leave without his friend. Using the Stealth Bike, and a now empty mutagen tank, the teens managed to contain the blob monster, and bash their way out of the building just before it exploded.

 

The shockwave of the blast had them all falling off the bike and sprawling on the asphalt of the street outside.

 

Donnie managed to land next to the container with Timothy in it, and could only stare mournfully at what was left of his friend.

 

Within the tank Timothy's eyeballs stared back, looking lost and confused.

 

Donnie reached out a hand, and placed it on the tank. "I promise, Timothy. One day I'll turn you back."

 

The eyeballs only blinked and stared back silently as the teens loaded him onto the Shellraiser, and he was taken to his new home in Donnie's lab.

 

____________________

 

 

Unknown to the Hamato clan, when Dogpound reported the Foot's most recent failure, their Kraang captive heard their grievances, and offered a solution.

After all, if the factions of the Kraang and the Foot Clan couldn't put a stop to the teenagers separately, perhaps together they may have better results.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't save Timothy, but I did try to change his motivations for getting mutated. Donnie tries his best to stop him, and made a much bigger effort than he did in the show, but it still blew up in his face, and that's gonna come back to bite him later. As for the weapons thing, I think Miwa would be stubborn enough to stick with it despite the difficulties, and knows just how to egg Raph on to do the same. What do you all think?


	11. The Rescue Mission of Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In search of the courage required to ask his crush out, Donnie takes on the daunting task of freeing her father solo.

After Timothy's glob-like form took up residence in Donnie's lab, the genius began studying the mutagen with much more vigor in hopes of developing an antidote for the ooze.

 

Unfortunately, the hectic life of a teenage ninja left him with little time to focus on it.

 

A few days after the mutation of his friend, the teens had attempted to take down yet another Kraang plot.

 

The less said about that fiasco the better. Long story short, Michelangelo ended up having to save his older siblings and his mother from becoming zombie slaves to some mutant parasitic wasps that wanted to eat their flesh.

 

The youngest was still having nightmares about the event, apparently Tang Shen made a very scary zombie.

 

But there was also another constant distraction on Donnie's mind aside from his crazy life. His ever-growing feelings for April.

 

He had long since scrapped his flow chart, as while it helped him spend more time with April, it did not seem to be endearing him to her anymore than regular interactions would do. In fact the regular interactions seemed to work far better than anything he'd tried to predict on the chart (plus, some of his attempts to monopolize her time had seemed to annoy her more than endear him to her).

 

But still, despite his best efforts, Donnie still hadn't been able to work up the courage to actually ask April out on a date. He had tried and failed to ask her out several times, but every time he would either lose his nerve and blurt out something random and stupid instead, or one of his siblings would interrupt him before he could get the words out.

 

It was really starting to get annoying, actually.

 

So Hamato Donatello turned to the fall back plan of every younger sibling. He swallowed his pride, and asked Miwa, Leo, and Raph for advice.

 

Their reactions were about what he had been expecting, in that they spent the first few minutes outright laughing in his face, and teasing him about it.

 

But once that was out of the way, they realized he was actually serious, and decided to settle down and start being useful.

 

"Just to be clear before we do this, you are aware none of us have been on a date before, right?" Raph asked to start things off. "And I mean real dates with people we actually care about."

 

It was true. None of the Hamato siblings had seriously pursued a relationship before. There had been a few puppy love crushes over the years (Raph  _still_  got teased for his childhood crush on a girl named Joi), and people they knew had asked them to school dances and the like. But never had they been willing to pursue actual romance before.

 

The main reason of this is due to the secrets their family kept. Sure, the Hamatos had friends outside their clan (like how Raph has Casey, Mikey has a friend named Jason, and Donnie used to have Timothy), but there was always the barrier of secrets between them that kept the Hamatos from fully trusting outsiders. Especially now, when knowing even a partial part of the truth could lead that person into great danger. What happened to Timothy only proved that fact. It was hard to want a real relationship with a person if you couldn't be fully honest with them.

 

But then came April, who learned all their family's dark secrets, and still stayed. Even with the danger she hadn't been run off, but instead had integrated herself into a part of their lives, their clan, and their family.

 

If Donnie wanted a romantic relationship with her, then suddenly the idea didn't seem so farfetched.

 

So to answer Raph's question, Donnie said, "I know. But you guys must have some idea on how I'm supposed to do it."

 

"Here's a crazy idea," said Leo. "Why not just go up to her and say, 'April, will you go on a date with me?'"

 

Donnie glared at his oldest brother. "You think I haven't tried that?" he asked dryly. "That's what I've been trying to do for the last  _month_. But every time I try, it's like my brain freezes and suddenly I'm spouting stuff you'd expect Mikey to say instead of asking her out."

 

His older siblings winced, knowing that was about as far off what Donnie had wanted as you could get.

 

Miwa tapped her chin. "If you've been trying to ask so many times, then April probably already knows what you're really trying to ask."

 

Donnie looked at his sister in alarm. "But if she knows, why doesn't she say anything?" he asked. It had never occurred to him that April might already know.

 

"Probably because it's so hard," Miwa said. "That way when you finally get up the courage to actually ask her, it'll mean that much more. Well that, or she's not interested, and doesn't want to embarrass you."

 

Donnie glared at Miwa. "Gee, thanks, Sis. That makes me feel  _so_ much better," he deadpanned.

 

Leo quickly stepped in. "You also have to take into account the situation with her father right now," he said. "April might not want to worry about a relationship on top of the search for her dad. It just might not be the right time."

 

Donnie's shoulders slumped. "Yeah, maybe you're right," he admitted.

 

Seeing that their advice was only making their brother feel worse, the eldest two decided to beat a hasty retreat.

 

"Just ask her out," Leo said as he left.

 

"Yeah," agreed Miwa. "The worst that could happen is she'll say no."

 

With that they left the room, leaving Donnie feeling even worse than when this had started. "I'm never gonna be able to ask her now," he groaned.

 

"What makes it so hard to ask her out?" Raph asked.

 

Donnie looked up at his immediate older brother like he'd forgotten the red wearing teen was there.

 

 

"What makes it so hard?" Raph asked again, actually looking like he wanted to know the answer.

 

Donnie thought it over. "Well, nerves mostly," he admitted.

 

Raph nodded as though he'd expected as much. "Here's what you need to do," he said, jabbing Donnie in the chest with his finger. "You need to do something that's really crazy, stupid, and dangerous. Something that once you've done it, the nerves you get asking April out will be  _nothing_  in comparison."

 

Donnie quirked an eyebrow at his brother. "Speaking from experience?" he asked.

 

Raph turned a little red, and looked away. "Doing something like that is what helped me ask Joi to be my girlfriend."

 

Donnie looked at his brother in surprise, but before he could ask, Raph added, "And then she threw mud in my face."

 

At the genius' hopelessly confused look, Raph shrugged. "We were seven, and she thought I had cooties."

 

Donnie let out a snort of a laugh, and Raph glared at him for it. "The point is, I was able to ask her, when I didn't feel I could before. It works."

 

He then shoved past Donnie, and stormed out of the room, not wanting to see his brother laughing at him when he was trying to help his sorry ass.

"What was the stupid thing you did?" Donnie called after him.

 

Raph hesitated at the doorway. Finally he said, "I stole Miwa's stuffed tortoise, and tried to hold him for ransom. She found out and kicked my ass."

 

Donnie shook his head in disbelief, and wondered the seven-year-old his brother used to be had been suicidal. No one in their right mind came between Miwa and her plush tortoise. Even now she still slept with the thing (though she'd deny it of asked).

 

____________________

 

 

Later that day, Donnie was in the guest room with April, helping her do the makeup work required to keep up in school. Mikey was there too, since Donnie often tutored him for his classes, but right now the youngest wasn't paying much attention.

 

While they were working, April noticed she had a new email from an unknown source. Without even needing to click on it, the email opened and a sound clip began playing.

 

Mikey perked up at the garbled sound, and nodded his head to it. "Not bad," he said, thinking it was some kind of song. "Needs more drums."

 

Then the sound clip ended, and April and Donnie looked at the computer in confusion.

 

"What was that?" Donnie asked.

 

April shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "Some random email I got. It just started playing by itself."

 

"It sounds like some kind of telemetric sine wave subcarrier," Donnie said speculatively.

 

April and Mikey stared at him blankly.

 

"And what's that in English?" Mikey asked.

 

Donnie rolled his eyes. "It's an interference modulation used to encrypt transmi-" he started to say, but was cut off when Mikey put his hand over his mouth.

 

" _English_ , Donnie, or do you come with subtitles?" Mikey said.

 

Donnie scowled, and shoved Mikey's had away. "A  ** _secret message_** ," he said as if talking to a two year old.

 

"Who would be sending me a secret message?" April asked.

 

Donnie and Mikey exchanged glances and shrugged. "Maybe a secret admirer," Mikey suggested, prompting Donnie to smack him upside the head.

 

"I could try and decrypt it and find out for you," Donnie offered to April, ignoring his little brother's yelp of pain.

 

April grinned at him and passed the laptop over. "Sounds great, and with you commandeering my laptop, I have an excuse to stop studying. You're the best Donnie."

 

Blushing furiously, Donnie left the room with the laptop and headed for his lab. "It's good to be the best," he said dreamily.

 

____________________

 

 

Decrypting the message took a lot longer than Donnie had originally thought, but in time he was able to crack it.

 

A lot of time, he realized, when he looked at the clock and realized the rest of his family had gone to bed hours ago.

 

Knowing he wouldn't be able to sleep without first hearing the mystery message he'd worked so hard on, Donnie decided to play it before hitting the sack (just in case it  _was_ a secret admirer if nothing else).

 

"April, it's Dad," said the voice of Mr. O'Neil through the computer's speakers.

 

Donnie gasped and leaned forward, instantly wide-awake.

 

"I pray you get this message," Mr. O'Neil's voice continued. "I've been moved to a secret Kraang Facility. If you can, send help." The message ended, and a map appeared on the screen with a blinking red dot showing the location.

 

Realizing what this meant, Donnie leapt to his feet, and started to go wake his siblings and tell them what he'd discovered. But as he reached the door to his lab, what his older siblings had said earlier that day rang through his head.

 

Miwa thought that April was waiting for him to prove himself to her, Leo thought that her missing father made her unlikely to want a relationship right now, and Raph encouraged him to do something crazy to boost his confidence.

 

And Mr. O'Neil had just sent him a solution to solve all three.

 

With a nod of determination, Donnie copied the Kraang facilities location on his phone, grabbed his gear, and left to rescue Mr. O'Neil on his own.

 

Not long after he left, Leo trudged sleepily down to the basement for his almost nightly task of dragging his genius brother away from his lab so he could get a decent amount of sleep. More often then not he would fail miserably at this, and their mother would be awakened by their argument in order to put a stop to it. Tang Shen was the only one who could pull Donnie away from his projects without a fight, but that didn't stop Leo from trying.

 

But upon finding the lab empty, Leo frowned and went to check if Donnie had gone to bed on his own (as unlikely as that may be). When he found Donnie's bedroom also vacant, he gathered his siblings and April to see if they knew what was going on, careful not to wake their parents and worry them.

 

Realizing that the purple wearing ninja was missing, the five searched his lab, and found the message.

 

Miwa, Leo, and Raph paled when they heard the message, and realized what his brother was intending to do. They and Mikey hurried after him, leaving April to explain things to their parents should they wake up before they returned.

 

____________________

 

 

Following the instructions on the map led Donnie to an old abandoned car repair place called Ziga's Auto Body. Making sure he wasn't seen, he quickly picked the lock and went inside.

 

At first glance, the inside of the garage didn't look like anything out of the ordinary. There were some abandoned cars sitting on the lifts, and various tools scattered around. Everything you'd expect to see in a place that fixes cars.

 

But then a robotic voice rang out behind him, making Donnie turn in surprise. "It is one of the ones called 'the kids'," said a Kraang as it stepped out of its hiding place.

 

Donnie ducked as the brain bot tried to blast his head off. Using his bō, he quickly disarmed the Kraang and knocked him flat, before dropping one of the car lifts onto the robot.

 

"Looks like you could use a tune-up," he said cheerfully, laughing at his own pun.

 

He then had to dodge fast, as it turns out the Kraang had friends on his side. Three more Kraang bots came out of hiding places and began shooting at the genius ninja.

 

Donnie took cover behind the car he'd brought down, and searched the shop for a way out of this mess. Getting an idea, he ducked and rolled behind a red sports car nearby to get into a better position. But before he could implement his plan, one of the Kraang shot the lift controls, and Donnie found himself plummeting downwards.

 

Once the floor stopped shooting down, Donnie realized he'd found the secret Kraang facility. Below the shop was a long tunnel carved into the stone and iron supports holding everything up. A pair of Kraang guards turned the corner, and started coming towards his location, so Donnie quickly ducked out of sight, and slipped past them.

 

Using all the stealth training he possessed, Donnie hurried down the tunnel till he found a metal door. As he watched, the door opened, and another Kraang guard stepped out.

 

Setting his cell phone to ring, Donnie slid it towards the Kraang. The robotic face looked down at the chiming device, and didn't see Donnie coming till he was directly on top of him with his bō bashing the bot over the head.

 

"It's for me," he quipped, as he snatched the phone up from the ground.

 

The pink Kraang in the robot's stomach snarled up at Donnie angrily, but he just swung his staff like a golf club, and sent the pink alien flying till it hit a wall.

 

"And that's for you," he added, before turning his attention to the door blocking his path. Recognizing the lock as a retinal scanner, he picked up the head of the Kraang bot he'd just downed and pressed it to the scanner.

 

The door beeped and slid open, allowing the ninja inside.

 

Donnie looked around at this new space before him. It appeared to be the security room for the facility, with a control console in the center, and the walls lined with screens showing the various prison cells, most of which appeared to be empty.

 

Scanning the screens, Donnie quickly found what he was looking for. "Mr. O'Neil," he muttered to himself as he spotted the man sitting inside one of the cells.

 

Turning his attention to the console, Donnie quickly began hacking into it in hopes of freeing his crush's father.

 

In a few seconds, the console beeped, and all the doors in the facility opened.

 

Grinning at his success, Donnie hurried back out of the security room to where Mr. O'Neil was, heedless to the fact that there was something else in the facility with them, something that the Kraang had kept locked away for a reason.

 

Keeping a cautious eye out for more Kraang guards, Donnie made his way to Mr. O'Neil's cell. Finding the right door, he pulled it open, and looked inside. "Hello? Mr. O'Neil?"

 

The man looked up in surprise, squinting at the new light in his dark cell.

 

Donnie grinned and stepped inside. "It's me, April's ninja friend."

 

Mr. O'Neil beamed as Donnie helped him to his feet, and pulled the boy into a hug. "Thank goodness you've come."

 

Donnie shifted awkwardly in the hug, but figured that the man was just grateful to see another human being after being surrounded by aliens for months.

 

Once Mr. O'Neil got the hug out of his system, the two left the cell, and made their way towards the exit.

 

As they went, Mr. O'Neil applauded Donnie's ability to decipher his message, Donnie was modestly accepting it when out of the corner of his eye he noticed something duck out of sight.

 

Instantly on the alert, Donnie pulled free his bō and stared at where he'd seen the movement.

 

Mr. O'Neil also stopped, and noticed that his wasn't the only cell unlocked. "Why are the other cells open, uh-?" he said, trying to remember if the young ninja had ever given his name.

 

"Gifuto," Donnie supplied. "At least when out in the field. I'll tell you my real name when we're somewhere safe. As for the cells, ah, I must have opened them when I let you out, but… they were all empty."

 

Just then they both sensed movement behind them, but when they turned around there was no one there.

 

Just then an odd sounding roar echoed through the tunnels.

 

Mr. O'Neil paled. "I'm not so sure about that."

 

More movement from behind and another roar, and again there was nothing when they looked.

 

Donnie stepped in front of Mr. O'Neil protectively, holding his bō staff at the ready. "Okay, don't worry," he assured the man. "Whatever this is, I'm sure I can handl-WHAAOH!"

 

Before Donnie could finish his statement, a large black creature leapt down from the rafters behind them, knocked the two scientists forward, and roared at them with a mouth full of sharp teeth.

 

"On second thought, sir, you might want to worry just a little," Donnie amended, as the two of them backed away from the creature.

 

The creature then raised its hand, and began firing lasers at them from the gauntlets on his wrist, making the other two duck behind one of the tunnel's support beams for cover.

 

"What is that thing?" Donnie had to ask as laser fire peppered their hiding spot.

 

"You must have accidentally released one of the Kraang's alien experiments," replied Mr. O'Neil.

 

During a pause in the laser fire, Donnie carefully poked his head around the support beam, only for another blast to nearly take his head off.

 

Abandoning their hiding spot, Donnie and Mr. O'Neil bolted down the tunnel, away from the trigger-happy monster.

 

"It looks like some family of salamandra die, if I'm not mistaken," said Donnie as he ran.

 

"With that prepossess?" Mr. O'Neil asked as he ran beside him. "It's clearly a Pleurodelinae. A newt."

 

Said newt hurled a throwing star in their direction, which hit the wall in front of them and exploded. Donnie barely managed to knock Mr. O'Neil out of the way in time.

 

Donnie stared at where the explosive had been before he replied, "Newtralizer is more like it."

 

With that the two took off running down the tunnel again towards what both hoped was an exit.

 

As the went, Donnie said, "By the way, prefer if you didn't tell Tenshi (the ninja in the orange mask) I named something without him, he's kind of protective about that."

 

____________________

 

 

Meanwhile, Donnie's siblings were investigating the auto shop, trying to find where Donnie had gone. Thanks to Mikey's antics, they found the secret elevator in the lift, and hurried down it.

 

Coming upon the door with the retinal scanner, Raph tried to force it open, only for his attempts to muscle their way in end failure.

 

When Mikey suggested they use the downed Kraang bot by the door as a battering ram, Miwa rolled her eyes, and stepped forward.

 

"I don't know what Donnie would have done, but I know what I'm going to do," she said, holding up one of her exploding throwing stars, which Mikey had named Boom Stars.

 

When they saw that, her brothers shrank back so as not to get caught in the blast, Mikey dancing with excitement as they did. He loved it when the shuriken made things go 'Boom!'

 

Miwa activated the Boom Star, jammed it into the door, and hurried back to her brothers.

 

The star exploded, taking the door along with it.

 

Miwa grinned smugly, but it was quickly wiped off her face when the alarm began to sound, and Kraang with blasters came running towards them.

 

"So much for stealth," said Raph sarcastically.

 

"We've got company," Leo warned as he unsheathed his swords, and his siblings also readied their weapons.

 

As one they ran forward to take the Kraang out.

 

____________________

 

 

Meanwhile, Donnie and Mr. O'Neil were running in circles through the detention center, trying to find a way out while also avoiding the Kraang and the Newtralizer.

 

But they ended up cornered between the two, and could only watch as both parties drew closer to them, the Kraang blocking the hallway on one side, and the Newtralizer prowling forward on the other. Both sides with blasters ready to fire.

 

In desperation, Donnie grabbed Mr. O'Neil, and dragged him into a nearby cell, and slammed the door shut behind them.

 

"You are aware this is a detention facility," Mr. O'Neil said bluntly as they caught their breath. "You just locked us in."

 

"Uhh, affirmative," Donnie admitted with a wince. He looked back at the locked door. "I think I can get us out-"

 

He then jumped back with a cry of alarm when the Newtralizer suddenly slammed its face against the door's window and snapped at them with its jaws.

 

"-Eventually!" Donnie finished, looking freaked out at the monster.

 

____________________

 

 

Meanwhile, the other Hamato siblings had finished fighting the Kraang guards that were after them, and had made their way through the hole Miwa had made to continue their search for Donnie.

 

Coming upon the tunnel lined with cells, they were surprised at the sheer number of Kraang droid parts that littered the hall. Something had come through there and torn the androids apart, and they had a sinking feeling it wasn't Donnie.

 

Just then they heard the sound of crashing and something roaring farther down the tunnel.

 

"I don't like the sound of that," said Leo apprehensively.

 

"And if it's what did all this, we probably won't like the look of it either," Miwa added, eyeing the scrap that littered the hallway.

 

"Maybe if we ignore it, it'll go away," Mikey suggested.

 

The sounds kept getting louder and closer.

 

"Someone's not ignoring it," said Mikey, sounding worried.

 

Just then the Newtralizer swung down from the rafters and roared at them. Then it pulled out a missile launcher and fired at the teens, making them scatter for cover.

 

The missiles hit near where they'd been standing, which simultaneously blew the door off the cell Donnie and Mr. O'Neil were hiding in.

 

Looking out the door, Donnie saw his siblings lying in a heap.

 

"Do-Gifuto!" called Raph when he noticed his brother in the cell.

 

"Mr. O'Neil," added Leo when he noticed the man as the two left the cell.

 

"Big Beady-Eyed Lizardy Thing With  _Weapons!_ " shouted Mikey as he pointed at the Newtralizer in a panic.

 

The Newtralizer stomped towards them, roaring a he went.

 

"Gifuto calls it the Newtralizer," said Mr. O'Neil as they all started to back away.

 

That caused Mikey to freeze, and he turned and glared at his older brother. "You named something without me?" he asked.

 

But then a rain of laser fire cut off what was sure to be an explosive argument, and the all bolted for the exit.

 

As they ran, Miwa threw another of her Boom Stars at the giant newt, but the blast from it only knocked creature down and served to make him angrier.

 

They all ran through the door to the security room, and locked the door behind them.

 

Once they were relatively safe, Mikey rounded on Donnie with a betrayed expression on his face. "You named something without  _me?!"_  he repeated in a scandalized tone.

 

Miwa smacked Donnie on the back of his head hard enough to make the genius fall flat on his face.

 

"There, brain boy's been punished, now can we focus on the matter at hand," Miwa asked the still scowling Mikey.

 

Donnie picked himself up and glared at his sister, only to be knocked down by another head slap, this time from Mikey.

 

"Now we can focus on it," said Mikey with a grin. Then he glared down at Donnie as he picked himself up off the floor a second time. "But you and me are having words about this when we get home, young man."

 

Donnie rubbed his sore head and looked at his little brother in exasperation. "I'm sorry, okay, it just slipped out."

 

Just then the Newtralizer began banging loudly on the door, reminding them that he was still there.

 

"We gotta get out of this prison," said Leo as he started leading them towards the Boom Star hole in the door to the exit.

 

As the rest followed, Mr. O'Neil piped up, "Technically this is a detention center, the difference being-"

 

"Not now, Gifuto," Raph snapped, too used to Donnie's accuracy nitpicks to really think before saying it. Then he realized he had just snapped not at his brother, but April's Dad. "Oh… Sorry, Mr. O'Neil." He then turned to Leo, "Great, now there's two of them," he deadpanned to his older brother.

 

Suddenly Kraang bots came flooding out of the hole behind them, clearly intending to put Mr. O'Neil back in his cell, and the rest of them on ice.

 

The teens stopped running, and turned back to fight the robots, but no matter how many they knocked down, two more seemed to pop up in its place.

 

Just as things were starting to look bad, help came from an unexpected source, as the Newtralizer finally managed to blast his way through the door, and began attacking the Kraang from behind.

 

Taking advantage of the distraction, the teens and Mr. O'Neil bolted towards the exit. Just as they reached the red car on the lift, the Newtralizer came crashing into sight, having finished off the Kraang like they were nothing.

 

Donnie used Raph's sai to activate the lift, and sent them all shooting up before the Newtralizer could reach them.

 

Just when they thought they had gotten away, the Newtralizer burst out of the hole where the lift was and began attacking them again.

 

"Seriously, Gifuto, what'd you do to piss this guy off?!" yelled Miwa as she and her siblings circled the giant newt, trying to take it down.

 

"I let him out of his cell," Donnie replied as he tried to lead Mr. O'Neil to safety.

 

"Then shouldn't he be thanking you or something?" Mikey asked.

 

"Try telling him that!" Raph shouted from where he was grappling with the creature. He then jumped away as a tire came flying and smacked the Newtralizer right in the face.

 

Angrier than ever, the newt noticed Donnie trying to hide Mr. O'Neil behind the cars on the upper lifts, and jumped up to try and corner them.

 

But Donnie threw a smoke bomb in his face, and led Mr. O'Neil away safely.

 

Before he could go after them again, Mikey jumped down and spring-boarded off the amphibian's head.

 

Snarling in rage, the newt took off after the youngest, who lead him up to a top platform where the eldest three were waiting to ambush the mutant.

 

As one, Miwa, Leo, and Raph charged the Newtralizer, and with their combined efforts, managed to get some licks in, before a sweep of the amphibian's tail sent them flying off the edge.

 

The Newtralizer jumped down and prepared to finish the three of them off, when the sound of screeching tires came from overhead.

 

They all looked up to see Mikey drive a green car off the lift, and send it crashing down onto the Newtralizer's head. "Booyakasha!" the orange wearing ninja yelled as he fell.

 

"MIKEY!" yelled his older siblings, forgoing the aliases in fear for their brother.

But Mikey just poked his head out with a grin. "Don't worry," he said cheerfully. "I wore my seatbelt."

 

As Leo and Raph helped him out of the car, Miwa said, "All in favor of never letting Tenshi drive again, say aye."

 

"Aye!" was the unanimous vote from the three older brothers.

 

Mikey pouted.

 

Donnie only paused long enough to check the auto shop for security cameras in case it had caught Mikey's name, but fortunately there was only one, and it had been blasted in one of the earlier fights, so there was no fear that their identities were compromised.

 

With that, they all headed home, unaware that after they left the Newtralizer burst free of the car, and snarled in rage.

 

____________________

 

 

The scene when they arrived back at the dojo was nothing short of heartwarming.

 

April and her father were hugging the life out of each other, and both couldn't stop thanking the Hamatos for reuniting them.

 

Leo, Miwa, and Raph graciously gave all the credit for the rescue to Donnie, who turned red at their bragging on his behalf. Mikey just looked confused as to why his older siblings were suddenly being so nice to Donnie.

 

But his embarrassment was soon washed away, as April grabbed him into a hug. "Thank you, Donnie," she said happily.

 

Donnie felt like he was about to faint from happiness. The girl he was pretty sure he was in love with was hugging him, and he felt like he was floating on air.

 

April then pulled away to go back to her father, and that was the moment when Donnie steeled his resolve, and blurted out, "Will you go out on a date with me?"

 

Donnie quickly found himself the center of everyone's attention, and most importantly, he had April's undivided attention.

 

Suddenly feeling awkward, Donnie fidgeted and began babbling, "No-not that I'm asking as payment since we saved your dad, and all. I-we would have save him anyway, and it's just I-I-I've been trying to ask you for weeks now, and i-it just seemed like the right time…"

 

Donnie trailed off, and watched April's face in anticipation. Similarly, the rest of the room waited on baited breath to see what the redhead would decide.

 

April scrutinized Donnie for a moment, before breaking out into a wide smile. "Sure. There's a movie I wanna see this Friday. I'll pay for snacks."

 

This time Donnie really did faint from joy as it dawned on him that April had actually said yes.

 

Fortunately, Leo, Raph, and Mikey caught him before he hit the ground, and helped him back to a chair.

 

Miwa sidled over to April as they did so, and asked. "Worth the wait?"

 

April grinned, "Most definitely," she said, before running over to hug her father again.

 

Just as it looked like they were all going to start celebrating, Leatherhead appeared in the doorway holding a large white ball.

 

At the sight of him, Mr. O'Neil yelped, and attempted to shield April with his body, no doubt thinking the gator was another vicious mutant like the Newtralizer.

 

But April shrugged off her father's protection and moved to stand between her father and the mutant.

 

"It's okay, Daddy," she said. "This is Leatherhead, he's a friend of ours. He won't hurt you."

 

"Yeah," said Mikey, bouncing forward to swing his arm around as much of the alligator's waist as he could, "Leatherhead and us are tight. He's like my bestie."

 

The gator looked fondly down at Michelangelo. "I am honored you view me as such," he said to the youngest ninja, before turning his attention to Mr. O'Neil. "And it is an honor to finally meet you as well, Mr. O'Neil," he said. "Your daughter is a very kind person."

 

Mr. O'Neil still looked unsure, but April took his hand and said sincerely, "He saved my life, Daddy. He's been spending the last few weeks protecting me from the Kraang and the Foot. You can trust him."

 

Then, hesitantly, Mr. O'Neil reached out and shook hands with the mutant alligator. He still looked pensive about trusting him, but he wasn't outright rejecting him either.

 

"Why is it that you have come, my friend," asked Master Yoshi curiously. Usually the gator had more sense than to wander in while they had a stranger present.

 

Leatherhead held out the ball in his hands to them. "I found some Kraang searching the sewers during my patrol, after dispatching them I found that they were searching for this."

 

Mikey looked closely at it, and began examining his reflection on its shiny surface. "What is it? Some kind of crystal ball?" he asked.

 

April, on the other hand, drew away from the spherical device with a wince. "Whatever it is, it makes my ears ring."

 

"In a sense, Michelangelo is correct," Leatherhead replied. "It is a Kraang communication orb. With this we can patch into their communications and find out key information for their invasion plot."

 

Leo beamed at the alligator. "Then we can find out what they're up to and stop them before they even start, LH, you're a genius."

 

It was then the Hamatos and O'Neils discovered that mutant alligators could blush.

 

As the ninja clan began planning what they could do to take down the alien threat, Mr. O'Neil kept silent, and simply watched.

 

Unbeknownst to all of them, a mind control chip that was stuck in the back of his neck blinked on, awaiting its time to strike.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, let’s face it, if Donnie wasn't a turtle in the show, he'd have a lot less trouble asking April out, and she'd have far fewer reasons to say no. I'm not much for writing romance, so don't expect their relationship to start taking center stage, I prefer to keep things cute and subtle. Also for the record, originally it was going to be Mona Lisa that Raph had a crush on, but then Comic Con confirmed that she would be showing up in season four, so I switched it to Joi, as a reference to a character in the fifth season of the 2003 series. She and Raph kinda flirted with each other, but nothing really came of it.


	12. To Save the World Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Kraang's invasion plot is underway, but not of the Hamato clan has anything to say about it.

After the rescue of April's father, things had quickly fallen into a normal routine. The two O'Neils stayed with the Hamato family for their own safety, and things were starting to look up for the Hamato clan.

 

But that all changed when the communication orb in Donnie's lab suddenly started buzzing, and small pink dots danced across the white surface.

 

The genius stared at it in surprise, before shooting over to his computer to try and decipher what was making the Kraang device go haywire.

 

Drawn by the noise, April, Donnie's siblings, and their parents also gathered around (though Leo was peeved that it was cutting into the final episode of Space Heroes), Donnie only spared them enough attention to tell them to call Leatherhead, because whatever the Kraang were up to cause this, it had to be big.

 

The mutant alligator arrived just in time to see the final result of Donnie's hacking and decoding. The genius managed to tap into a mass message spread across the Kraang communication lines. Hitting play on the translated version, Donnie played the message for them all.

 

"The final phase of the plan known as Kraang's Invasion shall commence in the unit of time that is six hours," a Kraang voice droned through the speakers. "The Technodrome shall arrive from Dimension X through the portal."

 

"Are you sure this is the translated version?" asked Mikey, feeling a bit lost from the Kraang babble.

 

His siblings rolled their eyes, "They said that in six hours something called the Technodrome is coming through that portal," Donnie explained. "This is the final phase of the Kraang invasion."

 

"We can not let that abomination come through the portal," snarled Leatherhead. "The Technodrome is one of their most advanced and deadly weapons, nothing on Earth could stand up to its power."

 

"Wait, but I thought April was the key to the Kraang plot," Leo said, jerking his thumb at said redhead. "And they don't have her."

 

"Unless they found a way around what they needed her for," said Miwa darkly. "Or they have some plan to get ahold of her in the next six hours."

 

April looked nervous at that.

 

Donnie frowned. "If that Technodrome comes through that portal, well, it sounds like the end of the world."

 

"So what do we do?" asked Raph.

 

There was a long pause. Then Leo set his shoulders, and looked at his assembled team. "Guys," Leo said with determination, drawing all of their attention to him. "We've got to find a way to shut that portal down. It's up to us."

 

"To save the world?" asked Mikey looking doubtful.

 

"Leonardo is right," said Yoshi looking grim. "When you first got involved in this plot, I feared you were not ready. But I have come to realize you were not only ready to become heroes, it was your destiny."

 

Tang Shen smiled at her children. "And if the fate of the world must rest in somebody's hands, I can think of none better than yours, my children."

 

The five Hamato teens bowed to their parents, and began preparing for the battle ahead.

 

Before he left, Master Yoshi drew Leo aside to talk to him alone.

 

Leo looked curiously up at his father as Yoshi gazed back at him with a grave expression. "With the world at stake, the only thing of importance is that you complete your mission," he said with the utmost seriousness.

 

Leo nodded, looking resolved. "Yes, Sensei," he said.

 

"No matter what you have to sacrifice, or who," Yoshi continued, looking as though he wished more than anything he did not have to say such.

 

Leo's face fell at the implications of that statement, but he still nodded firmly to show he'd take his father's words to heart as he began planning.

 

Unknown to them, Kirby O'Neil had been watching the entire affair with a blank expression on his face.

 

____________________

 

 

The five teens spent the next hour preparing for their attack on TCRI. Leo planned and prepared for every obstacle he could think of, Miwa pulled her whole collection of Boom Stars into the hidden pockets on her belt, Raph packed an entire arsenal of weapons and smoke bombs into his clothes, Donnie made all the necessary modifications to equipment they'd need, as well as some new toys he'd been dying to try out, and Mikey grinned evilly as he pulled Metalhead out of storage, and explained an idea he had to Donnie.

 

Having taken Miwa's suggestion that the Kraang might have something planned for April to heart, it was decided that Leatherhead would stay behind, and protect the redhead and her father. The gator was reluctant to stay behind instead of crushing Kraang, but he had come to take his responsibility of protecting April very seriously, so he didn't complain much.

 

Finally, they were ready. After one last hug goodbye to their parents and April, Leo looked over his siblings with a determined expression on his face. "Ninjas," he said, "let's save the world."

 

The rest of them nodded in agreement, and the five teens ran out to the Shellraiser and drove off to what could be their final battle.

 

Once they had left, and the door of the dojo shut behind them, April glanced over at Yoshi and Tang Shen. "Um, Sensei, do you mind if I ask you a question?"

 

"Of course not," said Yoshi, looking down at the girl.

 

"Why aren't you going with them?" April asked bluntly.

 

Yoshi's face darkened slightly. "Why do you ask?" he deflected.

 

"Your own children are out there risking their lives, don't you think they could use your help?" said April. She knew from both her friends' bragging and what she had seen of it herself, that Hamato Yoshi was one of the best martial artists there was, and having him at the others' side would have been a huge advantage in the upcoming fight.

 

Yoshi refused to look at the girl. "I am their teacher. My role is to prepare them for the challenges they face," he said, though the excuse sounded weak even to his own ears.

 

But April was having none of it. "But Sensei, you said yourself that this time the fate of the world is-!"

 

"Yamene," snapped Yoshi, glaring down at the girl. "I do not have to explain myself to a child!"

 

And with that he turned his back on her, and stormed deeper into the house.

 

April fumed at his dismissal, but before she could stew on it for too long, Tang Shen placed a gentle hand on April's shoulder.

 

"Do not judge my husband too harshly, my dear," she said softly. "He has his reasons for staying, and I assure you that he is as worried for our children's safety as I am."

 

April scowled. "Then why doesn't he do anything about it? He's a ninja master, what is he so afraid of?"

 

Tang Shen bowed her head, and replied softly, "Losing me."

 

April's ire was immediately replaced by confusion. "What?" she asked.

 

"He stays behind while our children fight in order to protect me," Tang Shen explained seriously. "Come, I will show you why."

 

The Hamato Matriarch then led April into her room, and removed the blouse that she wore so the teenage girl could see her back.

 

April gasped in horror at the sight of the large and ugly scars that stretched across the woman's back. To her, Tang Shen had always seemed to be a pillar of beauty and motherly strength. Something she hadn't had since she'd lost her own mother when she was six. In the months after her father's kidnapping, April had come to view Tang Shen as a second mother to her, and to see that something had hurt her like this was a shock to the system.

 

"We have told you how Oroku Saki murdered our entire clan, and attacked our family home in Japan before my sons were born," said Tang Shen, as she pulled her blouse back into place. "But I do not know if my children ever told you that it was only I who felt the sting of his blades that night."

 

April looked enraged as she heard who was responsible for her mother figure's injuries. "And I thought he was supposed to have a thing for you," she seethed. "What a monster."

 

Tang Shen had to smile a little at seeing the girl so protective of her. "His attack on me wasn't intentional," she assured her. "During the fight, my Yoshi was downed by a blow neither of us had seen Oroku use before then. Oroku had been about to kill him, but I jumped between them and took the blow instead."

 

April's eyes widened, and she felt her respect for Tang Shen rise when she heard that. "How did you survive?" she asked. "I've seen the guys come back from fights with him. The Shredder hits hard."

 

"Indeed," Tang Shen said ruefully. "But I believe his surprise at seeing me willing to sacrifice myself for Yoshi caused him to hesitate in his strike, and it was not as deep as it could have been. I am also told that since it was my back that had been struck rather than my chest, the damage done was not as devastating as it could have been. Still, had it not been for my Yoshi, I would have bled out from my injuries long before help arrived."

 

Tang Shen's face then darkened. "But though I survived, the damage my back sustained from the blow has left its toll on my body. I am afraid I cannot fight like I used to when I was young."

 

April's eyes widened in disbelief. "You can  _fight?"_  she asked incredulously, only to blush when she realized how rude the question was.

 

Tang Shen laughed. "Did you think I was merely a housewife?" she asked April teasingly. "I too am a member of this ninja clan, and I was raised and trained in the art just as Yoshi was, though I have never taken it quite as seriously as him."

 

Her smile then shrank. "But even with all my training, this old body just doesn't have what it takes to keep up in a serious fight for very long, leaving me  _vulnerable_ ," Tang Shen's mouth twisted as she said the last word as if it left a bad taste in her mouth.

 

April nodded in understanding. "So Sensei stays behind to protect you, because he doesn't want you to get hurt again."

 

Tang Shen gave a nod. "Yes, as much as I sometimes wish he wouldn't. Nearly loosing me that night terrified him to his very core, and still he blames himself for the injuries I sustained. The only way he feels he can redeem himself is if he ensures that such a thing never happens to me again."

 

April surprised the woman by giving her a hug. "Don't worry," April said reassuringly. "The guys'll stop the Kraang. And once they do, it's Shredder's turn."

 

Tang Shen hugged the girl back. "I know you are right, my dear," she said. "Worry though I do for my children, I  _know_  they will succeed… They have to."

 

____________________

 

After her talk with Tang Shen, April better understood why Yoshi had refused to leave the dojo. If the worst happened and the end of the world came, then he would be Tang Shen's only defense against it.

 

Still, it didn't help shake the fact that April felt she, at least, should be doing  _something_. Her friends were out there saving the world, and she was stuck hiding in the dojo. And worse than that, the heaviest hitter they had, Leatherhead, was stuck there with her for her own protection. April wasn't stupid enough to think that even with her training she'd stand a chance if the Foot or the Kraang came after her again, but she felt that she should at least contribute something productive in this fight.

 

As she mulled this over in the living room, her father came up to her looking confused. "Hey April," he said when he saw her. "Where is everybody?"

 

"The Kraang are making their move," April explained. "They're all making their way to TCRI."

 

"TCRI? Oh no," Mr. O'Neil said sounding worried, and making April look up at him in concern.

 

"What's wrong?" she asked.

 

"The Kraang know that the kids are coming for them," her father replied.

 

April looked at him in confusion. "How do you know this?" she asked. But she pulled out her cell phone to call her friends and warn them.

 

"Don't," said Mr. O'Neil, stopping her from dialing. "The Kraang are monitoring all phone lines, and they've cracked the encryption your boyfriend has placed on your phones. We have to warn the kids in person."

 

April looked up at her father, unsure.

 

"I'm your father, April," said Mr. O'Neil placing his hand on her shoulder. "You have to trust me."

 

April smiled up at him, but before she could reply, a new voice rang out behind them.

 

"But you are not my father, and  _I_  do not trust you," Leatherhead snarled as he stepped into the room and stalked towards them. "But I  _do_  know only the Kraang refer to my friends as 'the kids'."

 

April looked at the mutant gator in surprise. "LH, what-?" she started to ask.

 

But before she could continue, her father pulled a metal rod out of his coat, and swung it at Leatherhead. When the rod struck him, the gator roared in pain as electricity sparked from it and coursed through his body.

 

April let out a shriek, and tried to pull her father's arm away from the mutant. "Dad! What are you  _doing? **Stop!"**_

 

But Kirby O'Neil only swung his rod at the mutant again with a blank expression on his face. The other hand that wasn't holding the rod reached out and gripped April tightly on the wrist, and held her in front of him as a human shield, when Leatherhead tried to attack him despite the pain from the electric rod.

 

April immediately began struggling to get free. "Dad, stop it! You're  _hurting_ me!" she yelled as she beat uselessly at her father's chest.

 

The pain from the shocks had made Leatherhead collapse to the floor. Even so, he still he snarled up at the man, but was unable to attack for fear of hurting April.

 

Mr. O'Neil swung at the gator a third time, but this time a flash of movement came between them. Before any of them could blink, Hamato Yoshi was there, disarming Mr. O'Neil with a quick strike of the hand, and breaking his hold on April with the other. Then before anyone could even realize what had just happened, the ninja master karate chopped Mr. O'Neil on the shoulder, and the other man went down like a sack of potatoes.

 

April rubbed her wrist as she looked down at her father. "Wha- why was he acting like that?" she asked looking distraught.

 

Tang Shen hurried over and comforted the girl, while Yoshi helped Leatherhead back to his feet.

 

Leatherhead recovered from his shocks, and was clearly fighting the urge to go on one of his famous rampages. He then reached over and roughly flipped Mr. O'Neil over so he was lying face down, and pulled back the collar of his shirt.

 

April gasped as she saw the little pink dot blinking on the back of her father's neck.

 

"A Kraang mind control probe," Leatherhead growled angrily. "I should have seen it." He looked at the others and explained, "The Kraang could never use them on me effectively because of my thick skin, but I have seen them make others do their bidding with one of these planted. Your father had no control of his actions."

 

April let out a whimper, and buried her face in Tang Shen's chest. Was there anything in her life the Kraang didn't feel they needed to twist for their own gain?

 

Gently, Yoshi reached down and pulled the probe free from the man's neck. "Perhaps when Kirby awakens we may get some answers, and put a stop to this madness," he said darkly as he crushed the probe between his fingers.

 

____________________

 

 

At TCRI the Kraang were gathering for their invasion plan to commence. Many were stationed in the lobby of the building, awaiting their orders.

 

Suddenly, headlights shone through the glass doors of the front of the building. That was the only warning the Kraang had as the Shellraiser suddenly bust through the glass and ran over several of the disguised Kraang bots.

 

Not about to take this intrusion lying down, the Kraang opened fire upon the battle vehicle.

 

Their shots peppered the vehicle, but did not seem to be doing much damage aside from causing smoke.

 

Signaling a ceasefire, a Ms. Campbell robot stepped forward to see if the occupants were still alive.

 

Just as she got close, the hatch on the roof of the Shellraiser spun open and a metal fist rocketed out, slammed into Ms. Campbell's jaw, and sent the robotic woman flying back.

 

The Kraang only spared a quick glance at the downed robot. But by the time they looked back up, Metalhead was shooting towards them, his fist reconnecting with his wrist, and slamming into the nearest Kraang bot.

 

"BOOYAKASHA!" shouted Donnie's voice through Metalhead's speakers.

 

Once the Kraang he punched was down, Metalhead's laser gun popped out of his wrist, and he began shooting down the surrounding Kraang.

 

The lobby of TCRI was soon filled with the sounds of Kraang getting pummeled as the short robot laid waste to them, effectively distracting the alien brain squids.

 

____________________

 

 

Meanwhile, five shadowy figures flew through the skies over New York, whooping and cheering as they went.

 

Needless to say, the five loved Donnie's latest invention for them. Sets of bat wing-shaped hang gliders with fans attached so that the ninjas could fly through the sky.

 

With the gliders, the teens flew up to the top of the TCRI building, scattering a flock of pigeons as they landed.

 

With a smirk, Raph caught one of the birds, and gently pet its feathers until the pigeon calmed down. Then, with the bird resting on his finger, he held it up to cover the roof security camera effectively hiding their presence as the five snuck past it.

 

Once they were clear, Raph let the bird go with a pat to the head, and turned to see his siblings smirking at him.

"What?" he whispered.

 

"Nothing, Princess," said Miwa teasingly. "Are you gonna call up little woodland animals to clean your room next?"

 

Raphael had always had a talent when dealing with animals (except for horses for some reason, and cockroaches for obvious reasons), and his siblings never turned down a chance to point out how his skill had similarities to those of Disney Princesses.

 

Their brothers snickered, and Raph turned red. "I can throw you off this building, you know," he hissed to his sister.

 

This did nothing to deflect their amusement, so Raph just huffed, and they continued on their way.

 

After dispatching two guards, the five slipped into the rooftop entrance, and into the building.

 

____________________

 

 

Back at the Renaissance Dojo, Mr. O'Neil groaned as he slowly came to.

 

Clutching his head, he sat up and tried to gather his thoughts.

 

He gasped as what had happened came flooding back to him, and his eyes shot open.

 

Standing over him was his daughter, her friends' parents, and the mutant alligator that had stopped him from nearly doing something terrible.

 

His first concern, of course was for his daughter. "April, I am so,  _so_  sorry! Are you alright? Please tell me I didn't hurt you?" he asked, looking at the girl worriedly.

 

April said nothing. Instead, she threw herself into Kirby's arms, and hugged him. "I should be asking you that," she said softly. "Are you okay, Daddy?"

 

Mr. O'Neil winced as he remembered what he had been about to do. "I-I'll be alright," he said. "I'm  _so_  sorry, Sweetie. The Kraang- I just- I couldn't control myself. I  _wanted_  to stop, but nothing I did seemed to-"

 

"The Kraang's mind control technology is designed to completely steal control from its victim," said Leatherhead, sympathy showing in his growling tone. "What happened was not your fault."

 

Kirby still didn't look convinced, and continued to hug his daughter and whisper apologies.

Tang Shen came forward, and pressed a calming cup of tea into one of the man's free hand, and encouraged him to have a drink.

 

Mr. O'Neil sent the woman a grateful look, and sipped at the warm liquid, feeling the effects wash over him.

 

Once he was calm enough, Yoshi asked, "Why don't you tell us what happened?"

 

Mr. O'Neil winced, and put the teacup down to rub the spot on his neck where the probe used to be. "It appears the Kraang have formed an alliance with your enemy, the Shredder. I was- I was supposed to deliver my daughter to the Foot for them." As he said that, he hugged his daughter tighter.

 

"If the Kraang are after her, why would you give her to the Foot?" Tang Shen asked.

 

"I think it was supposed to be some sort of trap," explained Kirby. He looked up at Yoshi and added, "A trap for you, that is. It was supposed to lure you to Foot Headquarters to fight the Shredder while the Foot delivered April to the Kraang."

 

Yoshi's expression hardened as he heard this. Seeing this, Tang Shen reached over and took Yoshi's hand. The couple shared a silent conversation before Yoshi nodded his head and made his decision.

 

"Leatherhead, can I trust you to stay and protect my family and the O'Neils," Yoshi asked the mutant alligator.

 

"With my life," Leatherhead promised solemnly.

 

Yoshi nodded in acknowledgement, his face dark as he turned back to Kirby. "If the Shredder wants a fight with me, then a fight he will get," the ninja master said. "Tell me where I must go?"

 

Kirby looked surprised, but replied, "I-I don't know where his headquarters is, but I can tell you where I was supposed to take April…"

 

____________________

 

 

At TCRI, five shadows snuck along the rafters of the top floor until they had a good view of the portal.

 

"What the heck is that thing?" Miwa asked as she caught sight of what was standing by the portal.

 

Standing with its back to them was a twenty-foot tall stone figure with lines set into its form glowing like lava. At first glance they had thought it was just a statue, at least until it turned its head back and forth, and started pacing in front of the portal.

 

"My guess is that's the security upgrade the Kraang got after we broke in last time," Leo whispered back, as it was clear the statue monster was guarding the portal.

 

Mikey stared at the giant with wide eyes. "We bugged them that much?"

 

"Look on the bright side," said Raph with a smirk. "It means the Kraang sees us as a real threat."

 

"Don't worry," Donnie said. "With any luck we'll be gone before that rock monster even knows we're here."

 

Miwa snorted. "Yeah right, we'll be spotted in the first five minutes."

 

Leo pulled out the Subspacial Endoparticle Disrupter that Miwa had stolen from the Kraang a few weeks back.

 

"You can bring down the force field right?" Leo whispered to their resident genius.

 

Donnie nodded and held out his Kraang storage device. "With Leatherhead's help, I came up with a virus that should shut it down. I just need to upload it into the Kraang's computers over there." He then pointed at the console he'd need across the room.

 

Leo nodded. "Okay, go take care of that. Raph, you go with him, and watch his back."

 

"And hurry, dudes," said Mikey, pointing at the portal. "That thing's getting all glowy and is making weird noises. In all my comic books, that's what evil doomsday machines do when they're about to start up."

 

Donnie nodded and Raph gave Leo a salute as they slipped along the rafters towards the computer.

 

Once they were over the computer, the two dropped silently to the ledge next to it, and Donnie quickly set about uploading his virus.

 

Knowing Miwa had been right, and it was only a matter of time till they were spotted, Raph drew his sais and stood guard on his brother.

 

As predicted, in a matter of minutes a Kraang spotted them as it was floating by and called an alarm to its fellow aliens.

 

At once the Kraang in endoskeletons pulled out their guns, and started shooting at the two.

 

Raph was able to deflect the shots with his sais, and began taking down the robots using shuriken, and various other projectile weapons.

 

But the Kraang were small potatoes compared to what happened next.

 

Raph could only stare with wide eye as the giant rock monster they'd seen came stomping up to them, each step it took shaking the ground.

 

"How much longer on that virus, bro?" he asked as the rock creature raised his fist to crush them.

 

"It just needs a couple minutes to upload," said Donnie, too focused on the computer to notice the danger they were in.

 

The rock monster brought his fist down in a crushing blow, and Raph had to tackle his brother out of the way for them to avoid it.

 

"Work faster!" the red wearing ninja snapped as he got back up and moved to draw the monster's attention away from his brother.

 

Donnie stared after him in surprise for a brief minute, before diving back to the computer to speed up the virus.

 

____________________

 

Down in an abandoned subway tunnel, Tiger Claw hid in the shadows along with two Foot Ninja and some of Stockman's Mouser robots (which he'd left behind when fleeing the Foot), waiting for the brainwashed Kirby O'Neil to come and deliver the girl the Kraang desired.

 

As much as it made his fur stand on end to work with those alien menaces, Tiger Claw would concede to his master's strategy that an alliance with them would be useful in their fight against the Hamato Clan. Especially if this trap they had set up panned out.

 

Besides, once the Hamato Clan was out of the way, the little aliens would be of no further use to them, and the Shredder had granted Tiger Claw permission to dispose of them as he wished.

 

As for their current plan, there was one thing that he noticed.

 

"O'Neil is late," he said more to himself than anyone else. "He should have been here with the girl by now."

 

One of the ninja with him nodded in agreement. He then held up his hand like he was about to say something, but before he could he was pulled into the shadows with a yelp.

 

Seeing this, Tiger Claw and the other ninja immediately went on the alert, and the Mousers shifted into attack mode.

 

The small robots started forward, scanning the area for what had dragged the other ninja away. But shuriken came flying out of the shadows, and embedded themselves into the robot's heads, making them fall over and spark uselessly.

 

Reaching down, Tiger Claw plucked one of the shuriken from a robot. Seeing the Hamato crest emblazoned on it, he growled, "Hamato Yoshi."

 

He turned back to his remaining man to bark an order at him, only to find the ninja slumped unconscious on the ground.

 

Tiger Claw pulled out his guns, and kept both trained on the shadows.

 

"Impressive," he called into the darkness. "I assume you found out what the alien's did to the girl's father. But it is no loss, since it was not she that the Foot Clan wanted anyway."

 

"Your master would endanger the life of an innocent just to pick a fight with me, and you allowed it to continue," called a deep voice from the darkness that Tiger Claw knew had to belong to his master's hated enemy. "Have you no sense of honor?"

 

Tiger Claw scanned the shadows, his enhanced senses for once not helping him find his prey. "The plan worked, did it not," he said without remorse.

 

Suddenly, the tiger sensed movement from the corner of his eye. His quick reflexes allowed him to jump back just in time to avoid a strike from a figure in a hooded robe.

 

The mutant immediately shot at his attacker with both his pistols, making the robed figure dart and dodge, while throwing more shuriken until he successfully disarmed both of the tiger's weapons.

 

Without missing a beat, Tiger Claw pulled out a sword, and attacked the man, who blocked the blow with a walking stick.

 

What followed was a vicious battle between man and mutant. Both fighters were exceptionally skilled, and were making sure not to let any weakness show.

 

Tiger Claw was relentless with his sword, but Yoshi's walking stick always seemed to be in exactly the right place to block his blade, and deliver his own strikes.

 

Eventually, Yoshi managed to strike out with one of his hands, and strike at a pressure point on the tiger's body.

 

Tiger Claw roared in fury, and attacked again in a blind rage, allowing Yoshi to strike the giant cat again and again.

 

Finally, Tiger Claw collapsed to ground as the multiple pressure points that Yoshi had struck took their toll.

 

Yoshi picked up Tiger Claw's sword, and aimed it at the mutant's neck. "Where is the Shredder?" he demanded in a low voice.

 

Tiger Claw sent a dark smirk up at the ninja master. "You willingly go into the Shredder's trap, even though you have no reason too."

 

"The Shredder has threatened my family for the last time," Yoshi said coldly. "It is time we end this once and for all."

 

"As you wish," came a menacing voice from the shadows.

 

Yoshi leapt away from Tiger Claw, and held up his walking stick and the mutant's sword defensively.

 

The tiger mutant weakly got to his feet, and limped away dragging the other two unconscious ninjas with him. This was his master's fight now.

 

The sound of evil laughter rang through the tunnels. "Hamato Yoshi," said the voice of his old rival, still hidden by the shadows. "I am so glad you accepted my invitation, even if it was not delivered through the proper channels."

 

Yoshi glared at the shadows, keeping his eyes peeled for his hated enemy. "You would sacrifice an innocent girl just for this?" he shouted.

 

"She was a means to an end," said the Shredder from his hiding place. "And as Tiger Claw said, it worked, drawing you out of hiding and into my trap like the rat you are."

 

Yoshi seethed. "And your plan to hand her over to the Kraang?" he demanded. "Do you realize what you could have  _done?_ "

 

Suddenly, Yoshi was sent flying forward from a blow from behind.

 

Quickly getting back to his feet, Yoshi saw the Shredder standing before him in all his armored glory. "Yes. I would have taken your family away, like I did all those years ago. Perhaps I will let you live long enough to see me destroy them before I put an end to  _you,_ once and for all," he said without a hint of remorse.

 

Furious, and knowing the Shredder meant every word of those threats, Yoshi pulled down his hood and glared at his former friend. "Look closely at this face, Shredder.  _For it is the last thing you will EVER **SEE!** " _he shouted before attacking at blinding speed.

 

____________________

 

Back at TCRI, Raph once again had to leap out of the way in order to avoid the stone giant's massive fists.

 

Donnie was still stuck working on his virus, and the red ninja wasn't sure how much longer he could play distraction for not just the giant, but for all the Kraang who were shooting at them as well. His siblings were helping by throwing shuriken from their hidings spots in the rafters, but the throwing stars could only do so much.

 

"Booyakasha!" shouted Mikey as he suddenly swung through the air like Tarzan, using his kusarigama chain as a rope.

 

Converting the chain back into a nunchuck, Mikey landed a flying kick on the giant's face strong enough to actually make the giant stumble back a step.

 

"Tag you're it, Traag!" yelled Mikey as he landed back on the ground.

 

"You're calling him Traag?" Raph had to ask as he held a downed Kraang body in front of him to deflect laser fire. He'd been expecting Mikey to name the rock monster something sillier, like Stone Biter, or Easter Island Head.

 

"Well, he  _looks_  like a Traag," Mikey replied as he taunted the newly christened Traag into chasing him, leaving Raph to only have to deal with the Kraang. A much easier task when compared to the giant.

 

With a series of taunts and jeers, the youngest led the giant on a merry chase around the room, always staying one step ahead of the mammoth arms and stomping feet.

 

At least until Traag managed to back him into a corner of the room, leaving the boy with nowhere left to dodge.

 

"Uh," Mikey said nervously as he stared up at the towering figure above him. "Best two out of three?"

 

The giant seemed to scowl at the ninja. Then he opened his mouth, and lava spilled from it, falling directly towards Mikey's face.

 

With a scream, Mikey dove between Traag legs, and was barely able to dodge the lava as it pooled onto the floor where he'd been standing. But the giant simply turned around started going after him again.

 

Only for yet another ninja to drop onto his head from the rafters.

 

Miwa had been staying in the rafters to watch Leo's back, but decided it was time for her to join the fray. When she landed on Traag's head she jammed a pair of activated Boom Stars into the creature's stone eyes, before back flipping off the giant and peppering him with more Boom Stars on the way down.

 

Traag flailed his massive hands, trying to dislodge the stars, but before he could have any success, the stars all exploded, making the giant fall to pieces on the ground.

 

Miwa and Mikey cheered, and slapped high fives at their victory.

 

But before they could celebrate too long, they noticed that the cannon structures of the portal began pointing upwards and buzzing, showing that the portal was about to activate.

 

"Hurry up, bro!" yelled Mikey at Donnie.

 

"It's almost there!" Donnie called back, having done all he could with the computer, and was instead helping Raph fight the Kraang. "Full force field shutdown in five seconds."

 

"I don't think we have five seconds!" Miwa shouted as the cannons started blasting pink light at the ceiling.

 

"WATCH OUT!" shouted Leo from his hiding place.

 

Miwa and Mikey looked back, and jumped away just in time to avoid one of Traag's massive legs.

 

As they watched, the rest of Traag reassembled himself before their eyes, until the twenty-foot giant was once again looming over them.

 

Miwa quickly threw her last two Boom Stars at the monster's knees, blasting them off again. Then she and her little brother began putting as much distance between him and them as they could before the giant could pull his legs back once more.

 

Just then there was a buzzing sound, and the force field covering the portal vanished.

 

"NOW!" Donnie roared at Leo.

 

"Say goodnight, Kraang!" said Leo as he aimed and fired the Disrupter. With his perfect aim from the rafters, and the fully charged weapon, there was no way he could miss.

 

And he didn't.

 

The blast from the Disrupter hit the portal, and the machine glowed brightly for a moment, before the tell tale sound of  _'Zwee-Choo-Pop'_ , and the portal winked out of existence.

 

The Kraang and Traag actually stopped their assault on the ninjas in order to stare at where their portal used to be as if they couldn't believe it was really gone.

 

The five ninja teens used that opportunity to run for the exit.

 

"We did it!" cheered Mikey as they went.

 

But just as they reached their way out, a horrible metallic screech sounded from overhead.

 

The teens paused halfway out of the building to listen.

 

"I don't like the sound of that," said Leo, looking towards the roof.

 

But before anyone could say anything more, there was an explosion of rubble overhead as the ceiling caved in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Needless to say, things are not going the way they did in the show, but is it a good change, or a bad one? You'll just have to see.


	13. To Save the World Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They've taken the Technodrome out of the sky, but the danger still lingers.

The previous fight between Tiger Claw and Yoshi was child's play compared to the battle that was currently being waged in the subway tunnels.

 

Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki were two of the best martial artists of this day and age. The clash between them would have been epic to any who was watching, but it was a deadly game of wits and skill between the two participating.

 

With the dilapidated nature of their battleground, neither had the home field advantage, and it was not uncommon for one of them to stumble slightly over the unfamiliar terrain. Whenever one of them did, the other didn't hesitate to take advantage by either vanishing into the shadows for a sneak attack, or straight out sucker punching his opponent.

 

But no matter what either of the ninja masters threw at each other, neither of them would stay down.

 

But the greatest pain they tried to inflict upon each other wasn't with their weapons and fists, but with their words.

 

Every word out of the Shredder's mouth was either an accusation of what he perceived Yoshi had stolen from him...

 

"You took Tang Shen from me!"

 

"She was never  _yours_!"

 

… Or it was taunts about how he would hunt down Yoshi's family after the battle was done.

 

"When I am through with you, I will destroy that pathetic O'Neil girl and the boys you call students. I will make Karai  _my_ daughter, as she was always meant to be!"

 

"You will not lay a finger upon them! Even if I have to cut your hands off myself!"

 

But Yoshi wasn't above yelling his own barbs at his opponent in hopes of gaining an edge in the fight.

 

"You never had  _anything_ but your hatred! And if you defeat me, You Will Have  ** _NOTHING!"_**

 

The answer to this was only an angry snarl, as Shredder knew deep down that Yoshi was right.

 

With the way they were fighting, their battle could have gone on forever. But then the Shredder made the mistake of stepping on a rotted floorboard, and his ankle got caught. Taking advantage of the stumble, Yoshi landed a solid kick on Shredder's chest, and sent his adversary flying back.

 

Before the Shredder could recover, Yoshi was there with Tiger Claw's blade at his enemy's throat.

 

Shredder glared at him. "Finish it," he snarled. "Or are you to  _weak_."

 

Yoshi's expression hardened, and he pulled the blade back to deal the final blow.

 

But before it could fall, a loud rumbling above their heads made both the warriors pause and glance up to see what was happening.

 

Without warning, the ceiling above their heads collapsed down on them, making both ninja masters scramble away until they were safe from being crushed by the rubble.

 

The only problem was, they had both dodged to opposite parts of the tunnel, and now had a solid wall of rock and metal separating them from continuing their fight.

 

Even through the wall of rubble, Yoshi still heard the Shredder's scream of rage as he was once again denied his revenge.

 

Yoshi brushed the dust off his robes, and glared at the new wall in front of him. He'd had the opportunity to take out his family's greatest enemy for good, and now it was lost thanks to this disaster.

But the glare quickly turned to worry, as he realized that mixed in with the rubble a long metal turret, which was clearly from a large Kraang laser cannon.

Kraang weaponry much like the ones his children had been trying to take out. And if this cannon was crashing down in here, then what could have happened to cause it.

Yoshi looked up at the cracked ceiling, before running through the subway searching for an exit out of the tunnels.

He needed to find out what had happened to his children immediately.

But when he finally reached the surface, the sight that met his eyes was a disaster area where the TCRI building used to be.

He rushed back to the dojo, hoping beyond hope that his children would be waiting there for him when he returned.

 

_____________

 

From the air, the five Hamato teens stared down at the devastation below them.

 

When the ceiling off TCRI had started to cave in on them, the five had managed to dive out the exit, and activate their gliders to get out of the way.

 

The act of which saved their lives, as from the sky they'd watched what looked like a half of a giant metal ball and other debris fell on top of the TCRI, crushing the building, and most of the surrounding area. When it finally reached the ground, it created a crater where the entire block used to be, with the mangled half ball sitting in the dead center.

 

"Donnie what happened?!" Leo shouted.

 

Donnie had his cell phone out, and was examining the readings, and trying to avoid looking at the disaster below.

 

"We weren't fast enough taking out the portal," he called back in dismay. "When we destroyed it the Technodrome was already halfway through. Zapping the portal out of existence like we did didn't send it back to the other side. Instead it sliced through the Technodrome half that was here, and left the other half in Dimension X."

 

"And with that kind of damage, the ship couldn't stay in the air," Miwa shouted as she realized it.

 

Donnie sent his sister a sad look. "I'm afraid so," he said.

 

Mikey stared at the ground below them, watching the people run in terror, and rescue vehicles come screaming towards the scene to help the survivors in the wreckage. "So this is our fault?" he asked looking devastated.

 

His four older siblings remained silent, knowing there was nothing they could say to comfort him.

 

They'd had to do it to save the world, but that didn't change the fact that all this  _was_  their fault, and wouldn't have happened if they had been faster.

 

They drifted in the air in silence, before Raph noticed something alarming.

 

"Guys! I think the Technodrome still has some juice in it!" he yelled at his siblings.

 

They all focused their attention back on the downed ship, and saw exactly what Raph had meant.

 

The Technodrome was pulsing.

 

The screens on its hull were flashing in a steady beat, and the weapons on the turrets of it were sparking and looked red hot.

 

Donnie paled as he got a hunch about what was happening. He quickly shot his glider towards the alley where he'd had Metalhead park the Shellraiser after the distraction in the lobby was no longer necessary.

 

Concerned, his siblings followed after him, and soon they were all crowded in the battle vehicle as Donnie began typing frantically on his onboard computers.

 

When Donnie's suspicions were confirmed he let out a horrified gasp. "Oh no," he said.

 

"What, what is it?" Leo asked.

 

"According to these readings," Donnie said pointing at the computer screen, "the damage done to the Technodrome did more than just make it fall out of the sky. It's making all the energy that's still inside it build up to dangerous levels. If something doesn't stop it soon-"

 

"What?! What'll happen?!" asked Mikey frantically, shaking Donnie as he did so.

 

Donnie shoved his younger brother away. "In simple terms, go boom! And take out the entire city along with it."

 

The other four exchanged horrified glances as they heard that.

 

Leo's eyes hardened. "Looks like this mission isn't over yet, guys," he said firmly. "We need to stop this thing now."

 

"I'm all for it, Fearless. But how are we going to take out that huge thing?" Raph said, pointing out the obvious. "I don't think the Disrupter is powerful enough to destroy that too. Where is it, anyway?"

 

Leo blinked and realized he no longer had the weapon in his hands. "I think I left it in TCRI," he admitted, vaguely remembering dropping it in his haste to escape. "And you're right, it wouldn't be. Donnie?" he asked turning his attention to the genius and asking what they could do.

 

Donnie frowned. "It might be possible to reroute the power of the Technodrome so that it doesn't explode, but in order to do that… well…"

 

"We'd have to be inside the ticking time bomb to do it," said Miwa, guessing what Donnie didn't want to say.

 

Donnie nodded reluctantly. "It's the only way I can think of that could work."

 

The ninjas sat in silence for a minute, knowing that if they went in there, there was a good chance they wouldn't come back out.

 

Leo's eyes steeled themselves, and he opened the Shellraiser's door. "I'm going," he declared to the others. "We've come this far on our mission, and I intend to see it through."

 

He glanced back at his siblings, an unreadable expression on his face. "You guys should go back home and warn Mother, Father, and the rest. I can't ask you to do this with me. I'd much rather you all be safe."

 

The four of them stared at their leader in shock.

 

The Raph growled and stormed over to the blue ninja. "What kind of idiots to do you take us for?" he demanded, jabbing Leo in the chest with his finger. "If you think I'm going to just sit back and let you go on this suicide mission alone, then you've got another thing coming! I'm going with you whether you like it or not, Fearless."

 

"Yeah, no hogging all the fun, little brother," said Miwa, stepping over to join them, smirking as she did so. "Crazy stunts are my forte, remember."

 

"I don't know how you expect to reroute that advanced alien technology without me, anyway," added Donnie, standing from his computer station. "You're going to need my brains if you wanna do this."

 

Mikey jumped up eagerly. "So what are we waiting for?" he asked, holding out one of his hand. "We still have a city to save, so who's with me?"

 

One by one, Raph, Miwa, and Donnie piled their hands on top of Mikey's, and looked over at Leo expectantly.

 

Leo stared at the four like he'd never seen them before, before letting out a weak laugh. "And you guys accuse  _me_  of being cheesy," he said with a small grin.

 

Their leader then placed his hand at the top of the pile, and looked each of his teammates, his siblings, in the eye and said, "Whether we live or die doing this, I just want you guys to know, I couldn't think of a better team to do it with, or a better family. Let's go."

 

"BOOYAKASHA!" they all yelled as they threw up their hands.

 

And with that they rushed from the Shellraiser and headed off to save the city.

 

_____________

 

Getting to the Technodrome was easier than expected. The entire area around the crater was absolute chaos, and no one noticed five strangely dressed teens making their way towards the cause of it.

 

The inside of the Technodrome was another story. The entire place was similar in appearance to the buildings the Kraang had been using, with white and metallic walls, with pink lines running along everything. But the biggest problem they had was that the entire place was built like a maze, and gravity from room to room tended to shift.

 

Fortunately, the crash the ship had made seemed to have taken out most of the Kraang, and the few left were easy to pick off.

 

But that didn't help them get any closer to finding what they needed to stop it from exploding, and they were quickly growing frustrated with their lack of progress. Donnie keeping them informed on how much time they had left was not helping with that either.

 

Finally they stopped in a hallway they knew they'd been to before thanks to the downed Kraang android in the middle of the floor with their shuriken imbedded into it.

 

Raph snarled, "We've been going in circles!"

 

"Which way now?" Miwa asked Leo.

 

Their leader looked back and forth down the hallway in confusion and desperation. "I-I don't know, everything looks the same."

 

"Guys," said Donnie looking at the ticking clock on his phone, "we only have fifteen minutes and eleven sec-"

 

"WE KNOW!" the rest of his siblings yelled at him.

 

Mikey was also examining the hallway. "Maybe we could-"

 

But before he could finish, a door down the hall from them opened, and more Kraang came pouring out along with a very big laser cannon.

 

"The ones known as 'the kids' will do that which is called 'pay' for destroying the Technodrome," said the Kraang who appeared to be the leader.

 

"Run!" Leo ordered, and the teens bolted back down the hall.

 

Behind them they could hear the sound of the cannon powering up, and there was no way they'd reach the exit in time.

 

Suddenly, Mikey turned and opened one of the doors. "Follow me!" he called over his shoulder.

 

Seeing no other options, his siblings ducked through the door after him.

 

Once they were inside, Mikey noticed a keypad on the wall and on a whim pressed a random musical-sounding sequence into it.

 

"MIKEY!" his siblings yelled, thinking he had set off an alarm or death trap again, as well as forgetting to use his codename.

 

But instead, machine guns popped out of the ceiling back in the hallway, and started shooting at the Kraang.

 

Once all the Kraang in the halls had either fled, or been shot down, Mikey pressed at the buttons again and the guns vanished.

 

The teens stood in silence for a few seconds as they processed what had just happened.

 

"Uh, Tenshi, how'd you do that?" Leo had to ask, all the while looking at his brother like he'd grown a second head.

 

The youngest glanced at his siblings and shrugged. "It just made sense to me," he said. "So I did it."

 

Just then another Kraang burst into the room through another door, and leveled its blaster at them.

 

But before it could shoot, Mikey hit another two buttons, and the sliding doors the Kraang was standing in slammed closed repeatedly, crushing the Kraang body into scrap metal, and making the alien inside pop out and flee in terror.

 

Mikey could feel his siblings staring at him as he hit the keypad a fourth time to make the doors stop.

 

"It's like you're some sort of genius at this stuff," Raph said in wonder.

 

Donnie thought back to all the times they were in a Kraang facility, or he had been working on a piece of Kraang tech. Now that he thought about it, aside from set off a good few alarms, Mikey's random button pushing and nonsense behavior had often been surprisingly helpful, though he'd been too busy stressing out over it at the time to realize that fact.

 

"I think Iyasa might be on to something," Donnie said, and explained his epiphany.

 

When he was finished, the others exchanged glances as they too recalled instances where Mikey had been helpful where the Kraang were concerned. Opening and closing the door on the creature that had attacked him and Miwa, choosing the correct color of the wire Donnie needed to cut on the Kraang bomb, and his ability to guess the Kraang's whole invasion plot to name a few.

 

"So you're saying that I'm good with Kraang-y things?" Mikey said in surprise.

 

"That seems to be the pattern," Donnie replied.

 

"Well, time to test it out," said Leo thoughtfully. "New plan guys, Tenshi you lead us to where you think we should go."

 

The others looked dubious about this plan, but it was the best they had at the moment, and they didn't have much time left.

 

Mikey looked around and tapped his chin. "If I were some super big power source thingy, I'd be…" he then pointed at the door opposite the one the Kraang had come out of. "That way."

 

With that he took off through the door, and his siblings had no choice but to follow him.

 

Rather than lead them in a straight line, the youngest led the other four through a series of twists and turns, ducking trough random doors, and changing direction seemingly at a whim, leaving the older ninjas hopelessly lost.

 

The others were just about to call it quits to this plan when Mikey led them through one last door, and they all had to stop and stare at the sight before them.

 

They were in what looked like the very center of the Technodrome. Far above their heads they could see the sky where the ship had been cut in half, but the rest of the chamber was as bizarre as it was intimidating.

 

In front of them was a narrow walkway towards the center of the room. In the center was a large console stationed around a giant pipe of mutagen that stretched upwards towards the open sky, and downwards into blackness. The pipe also had several giant spinning fan blades in constant motion above and below the console. One wrong step, and a person could fall and get cut to ribbons by the blades.

 

"The heart of the Technodrome," whispered Donnie in awe.

 

"Tenshi, you did it!" said Miwa, clapping her brother on the shoulder.

 

"Aw yeah!" cheered Mikey, "Dr. Find-enstein for the win!"

 

"Work your magic, Gifuto," ordered Leo.

 

The purple ninja nodded and hurried towards the console and began hitting buttons.

 

While he was working, a few Kraang showed up to try and take them out, but they were quickly dispatched and sent falling into the fans below.

 

Donnie frantically worked at the Kraang computer, knowing better than his siblings just how little time they had left, and watching it tick down on his phone as he worked was not helping his stress levels one bit.

 

Finally, he found a solution, but it was not the one he would have wanted.

 

Donnie stared in horror at the screen before him, before frantically checking everything again to make absolutely sure there was no other way.

 

Finally he lowered his hands from the computer, and couldn't bring himself to look up at his siblings. "I have good news and bad news, guys," he said in a low tone once he reached this final verdict.

 

His siblings looked at him in concern behind his back. Whenever Donnie spoke in that tone of voice it usually meant the bad news largely outweighed the good.

 

"What's the good news?" Leo asked looking worried.

 

Donnie sighed. "The good news is that I found a way to save New York," he said. "While there is no way to reroute the power so that the ship doesn't explode, the Technodrome does have an onboard teleporter that was largely undamaged by the crash. We can use that to send this thing back to Dimension X. It'll still explode, but it won't take the city with it."

 

"And the bad news?" Miwa asked slowly.

 

"If we do this, there's no way for us to escape," Donnie said matter-of-factly, looking each of his siblings in the eye as he said this so they could know how serious it was. "We'll be teleported to Dimension X along with the Technodrome, and get caught in the explosion. That is, if we don't suffocate on Dimension X's toxic atmosphere first."

 

The siblings exchanged horrified looks at this. They could save New York but they couldn't save themselves.

 

The genius noticed Leo's gaze harden. When the leader opened his mouth to speak, Donnie held up his hand to stop him.

 

"Before you tell us that we should get out of here, and you'll blow this thing up yourself, Leo, don't" said Donnie, correctly guessing what he'd been about to say, and forgoing the codenames since it didn't matter anymore. "We have roughly three minutes and counting left before this whole place goes up, and may I remind you just how long it took us to even get to this room in the first place. Even with Mikey leading us out, there is no way we'd be able to get out of this thing before the blast."

 

"So we're dead either way," said Miwa, trying to hide how dismayed she was and stay strong.

 

"So we might as well go out together," Raph said, not looking happy about Leo's willingness to sacrifice himself.

 

Leo's mouth snapped shut, and he glared down at the floor. It was clear to all of them that he was currently beating himself up for leading them to their deaths. For failing them…

 

Mikey threw his arms around Leo's shoulders, and hugged him tightly. "Don't blame yourself for this, bro," he said softly. "You did your best, and we had to do this to save the city. You're the best leader we could ever have."

 

Seeking to comfort him, Miwa joined the hug on Leo's other side, and Raph placed his hand on his older brother's shoulder, even Donnie reached over and took hold of Leo's hand, not fully willing to leave the computer in case he needed to input the commands quickly.

 

Leo kept silent, and drew as much strength from his siblings as he could. He knew they were waiting for him to give the final order, but right now he just wanted to stay like this till the end.

 

But he still had a team to lead, and a city to save. And like his father said, that was the important thing, no matter what the cost.

 

"Do it," he ordered softly.

 

His siblings pulled back, and he looked Donnie directly in the eye. "Save the city," he said. "We didn't come this far just to walk away now."

 

Donnie nodded solemnly, and began inputting the commands into the computer.

 

Leo bowed his head, accepting the inevitable. Miwa placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him, even though all could see she herself was terrified as well.

 

"If this is the end," Mikey said tearfully. "I just want you guy to know that I love you.  _And it was me who ate the last of the girl scout cookies_ ," he babbled the last bit quickly to get the guilt of his chest.

 

Raph glared at his baby brother, and raised a fist into the air.

 

Mikey winced expecting Raph to smack him, but instead the hothead pulled him into a strange cross between a headlock and a hug. "I love you too, little brother," he said softly.

 

Mikey managed to give Raph a small smile at the rare display of affection. But then a stream of data swam across the computer next to them, and caught his attention.

 

Mikey's eyes widened as a thought occurred to him. "Wait a minute-!" he whispered.

 

Raph looked at him in confusion, but before he could ask, Donnie announced, "30 seconds till teleportation. After that we'll have a minute before this thing explodes on us." He turned to look at his sibling, and gave them all a wistful smile. "It's been real, you guys. I wouldn't have missed all this for the world."

 

Before anyone else could say their goodbyes, Mikey wrenched himself out of Raph's grip, and threw himself at the controls, mashing at the buttons furiously.

 

"Mikey what are you-?" Leo started to ask, but then the world vanished around them in a shower of sparks.

 

_____________

 

Outside the Technodrome, the armed guard was just now approaching the wrecked ship. At first the main focus had been to rescue and evacuate the civilians around the scene of the crash in case it turned out to be dangerous. But once it was clear that whatever this half ball was, it didn't seem to be attacking, and the authorities began closing in on it with weapons and tanks at the ready, prepared to find out what this thing was, and what it was doing here.

 

But before a single officer could set foot on the wrecked space ship, there was a flash of light, and the whole thing vanished off the face of the Earth.

 

One of the watching officers turned to his partner and asked, "Was it just me, or did that look like an effect from Space Heroes?"

 

His partner gave the officer a weird look. "You've gotta stop watching so many cartoons."

 

_____________

 

Meanwhile, the Technodrome half reappeared in Dimension X right next to the half that got left behind.

 

Kraang ships immediately started to swarm towards their returned machinery, hoping to repair it. But before any of them could reach it, the Technodrome exploded in a shockwave that leveled several floating islands, and sent the Kraang ships spinning out of control, and crashing.

 

When the smoke cleared there was nothing left of the flying war machine but scrap metal, and floating chunks of rock.

 

Kraang Prime, the leader of all the Kraang watched this from a safe distance away. When he saw the devastation wrought in what should have been his kind's greatest triumph, he let out a bellow of utter rage.

 

Somehow, some way, those kids would pay dearly for this.

 

_____________

 

A few blocks from TCRI, Metalhead stood outside the Shellraiser and observed the displacement of the Technodrome.

 

With as much as his limited AI would allow, the short robot wondered when his creator would return to him.

 

Just then, a bright flash and a shower of sparks appeared and dropped several large somethings onto the roof of the Shellraiser.

 

Metalhead immediately drew his weapons in case of hostility, but quickly put them away once he saw who it was.

 

On the roof of the Shellraiser, the five ninja teens could only lay there winded from the drop, and in shock as they processed what just happened.

 

"We're… we're alive?" Leo managed to say.

 

"I… think so," Raph replied, slowly sitting up.

 

"Hurts too much to be dead," groaned Miwa rubbing her back from the painful drop.

 

Donnie also pushed himself into a sitting position. "Mikey, wha-what did you do?"

 

Mikey groaned as the events of the day started to catch up to him. "I thought I could make the teleporter thingy beam us somewhere different then the Technodrome, so we wouldn't have'ta go boom," he said. "It made sense at the time."

 

Miwa felt a grin start to spread across her face. "I'll say you succeeded," she said.

 

Leo also started to grin, "Then that means-"

 

The five siblings shared elated grins, before throwing themselves at each other in a massive group hug.

 

"We DID IT!" cheered Leo. "We WON!"

 

"We're  _ALIVE!_ " yelled Raph, just happy for that fact.

 

"Eat it Kraang, the Earth is ours!" whooped Miwa.

 

"Mikey, you are a  _genius!"_  shouted Donnie, and coming from him that really meant something.

 

" _BOOYAKASHA!_ " Mikey bellowed.

 

Then the youngest broke free of the hug and pumped his fist in the air. "Who saved the world?" he yelled.

 

"We Saved the World!" his siblings cheered back.

 

"I said  _who saved the World?"_

 

**"WE SAVED THE WORLD!"**

 

From below, Metalhead watched the teenagers celebrate on the roof of their vehicle, showing no hint of coming down anytime soon.

 

He wondered if he would ever be upgraded to understand humans.

 

_____________

 

The atmosphere back at the dojo was ecstatic.

 

After getting hugged by their extremely relieved parents, and Donnie receiving a kiss from a joyful April, the five ninjas told them everything that had happened, and in turn were told of what had gone down after they'd left.

 

Hearing that their father had gone toe to toe with the Shredder, and come out on top was the icing on the cake for the teenagers, and they all celebrated late into the night. Happy that their world was safe, and that they were all alive to see it.

 

Little did they know that under the city in a secret base, the surviving Kraang were reconvening to recover from this disaster.

 

They started up the smaller, and less powerful portal they had down there in order to contact their troops back in their home dimension.

 

The kids may have won this battle, but now the Kraang and their human allies were determined to win the war.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted it to be different from the show, and give the others a different challenge than what was in thse show. Also, the part where the guys appear on the roof of the Shellraiser was a nod to the 2003 series, where the turtles and Splinter are teleported out of their TCRI before it explodes, and land on the Battle Shell.


	14. Things Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world is saved, but their enemies don't stay down for long, and overconfidence can lead to dire consequences.

The euphoria of their victory over the Kraang lasted for weeks.

 

School was canceled for awhile as the city recovered from the Technodrome's crash. Despite the incredible damage it had done, everyone knew that if they'd let the ship explode things would have been a lot worse.

 

There was only person who wasn't celebrating. As much as Kirby O'Neil was happy he was out of the Kraang's clutches, he still had nightmares about the months he'd spent as their prisoner. He'd been traumatized about the whole affair, and felt he couldn't seek out professional help out of fear he'd reveal too much about the Kraang and the Hamato Clan (as well as the fact he would likely be locked in the Looney Bin for his claims).

 

He also wasn't fully convinced the Kraang were gone for good. Because of this, he'd become stricter about letting April out at night, and didn't approve of her leaving their apartment in the day unless at least two of the Hamato teens was with her (making it very awkward whenever Donnie tried to take her on a date). As grateful as he was at Leatherhead's stopping him while he was under the Kraang's control, he was still nervous about the large mutant, and was skittish whenever he was around, much less around his daughter.

 

Leatherhead did his best not to spook Mr. O'Neil (though his attempts tended to backfire on him), but he did agree with the man on his view of the Kraang. The alligator was also convinced that the Kraang were not gone completely, but had simply been beaten down for the moment. As such, he insisted they not let their guard down, and be ready when the aliens came back to try again.

 

Despite all this, the Hamato Clan couldn't help but feel that they were on cloud nine after their victory. If they beat the Kraang once, they could do it again easy.

 

Which is why when the Kraang Communication Orb went off in Donnie's lab, it was a wake up call that maybe their enemies weren't as defeated as they'd initially thought.

 

It took Donnie a few hours to crack the encryption on message their Communication Orb picked up, and in that time they'd called in Leatherhead, and informed him what had happened.

 

As Donnie got close to being done he glanced at his audience and said, "The encryption's tough to crack, but it seems like the Kraang are transporting some kind of cargo." He paused to type a bit more at the computer in hops of getting a clearer picture. "Using the Stealth Ship," he said in surprise as he found the diagram of the ship.

 

Leo looked at them seriously. "We've gotta find out what that cargo is."

 

"So we gonna use your sonar things again?" Miwa asked, remembering how they tracked the ship the last time they'd had to deal with one.

 

Donnie nodded. "Yup, using this," he held up a device he'd made out of an old gamedude. "It'll tap into the sonar devices, and feed us the coordinates on radar."

 

He then turned to April with hopeful eyes. "April, could you stake out a rooftop and feed us the ship's coordinates?" he asked, handing her the tracker.

 

"Me?" April asked, taking it. "But I don't know anything about radar."

 

"What about your Dad?" Leo asked.

 

April frowned. "My Dad? You guys know how paranoid he's been. He'll never go for this."

 

Donnie clasped his hands in a pleading gesture. "Please, April. Your dad's a scientist. We really, need his help."

 

April still looked reluctant, but agreed to go ask.

 

After she left, Donnie told his family about his latest invention, a rocket made out of an old theme park ride, which was stashed at Leatherhead's place. That would allow them to catch up with the ship no matter where it went. Unfortunately, the rocket was too small to fit Leatherhead, so the gator opted to search the Kraang facilities they knew about to see if he could find clues about what they were up to.

 

But just as they were getting ready to go, April called them up on the phone.

 

"I have some bad news guys," she said when they answered and put her on speaker.

 

Donnie's face fell. "Your dad said he wouldn't help?" he asked.

 

April hesitated over the line. "No, he said he'd help…"

 

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming on," said Miwa.

 

"Y-yeah," said April reluctantly. "Dad agreed to help read the radar, but only if Raph comes and acts as our bodyguard."

 

Raph had been sitting off to the side feeding Spike, but when he heard that his head shot up, and he looked at the phone like it had just betrayed him. "He _what?_ "

 

"I'm sorry," April insisted. "But when he heard that the Kraang were back he got really scared. I managed to convince him that we need to do this so they don't get a foothold in our world again, but he insisted we have a more experienced fighter than me there to watch our backs. And… he asked for you, Raph. I'm sorry."

 

Raph looked furious that he was being asked to sit out of the action for babysitting duty, but before he could say so, Leatherhead spoke up. "I would be willing to come and protect you, April," he offered.

 

"Yeah, Leatherhead doesn't fit in the rocket anyway," added Mikey with a grin.

 

"You guys have a  _rocket?_ " April asked incredulously. "Never mind," she added a minute later. "Sorry, LH, but my Dad, he's still kinda scared of you. Don't get me wrong, he's really grateful you got that mind control thing off him, but he-"

 

"-Sees me as a monster," Leatherhead finished, looking away from them all.

 

"He just doesn't know you like we do," April quickly assured him. "Give it time, he'll come around. But we still have to stop that Kraang shipment."

 

"But why  _me?_ " Raph demanded.

 

"I don't know," said April, and they could all practically see her shrug through the phone. "But he specifically said you, and it's the only way he'll do this."

 

Raph growled angrily.

 

Leo looked at his brother apologetically. "I'm sorry, Raph," he said. "But we  _really_  need this."

 

For a second Raph looked like he was going to explode about being benched. But at the last moment he let out a heavy sigh. "With our luck I'll probably still get a fight anyway," he said gruffly. "Alright, I'm going."

 

"Great," said April brightly. "Just come to my place, and we'll go to the roof."

 

Raph still looked grumpy, but he turned and headed for the door without another word, pausing only to pat his pet turtle on the head before he left.

 

After Raph had gone, Leatherhead left to search the Kraang labs.

 

The other teens left at the same time so they could reach Donnie's rocket in the sewers. Once there they waited for Raph to send them a text that they were in position before piling into the rocket to take off once they were sent the coordinates.

 

________________

 

Meanwhile, on the roof of April's apartment, Raph was stewing as both April and her father poured over the scanner to see if anything was appearing on radar.

 

As April wandered to one side of the roof holding up the scanner, Raph had to ask, "I know why you didn't want LH to play bodyguard, but I gotta ask, why me?"

 

Mr. O'Neil had the decency to look ashamed of his fear of the mutant gator, but he replied, "You just seemed like the best one for the job, Raphael. You're strong and, from what I've seen, an incredible fighter. I knew couldn't ask for Leonardo, as he's needed to lead your team. Michelangelo, well, I know he's a good ninja, but he seems too flighty for me to trust him to protect my April. I trust Donatello, but they may need his genius for this mission as well. Plus, he's dating my daughter, and I don't know if he'd be able to handle the job without getting distracted."

 

Raph glanced over to where April was holding the scanner up in the air, and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, when it comes to April, Donnie's big brain always turns to mush."

 

He then glanced at the older man questioningly. "But then what about Miwa?"

 

Mr. O'Neil shuffled his feet and looked embarrassed. "No offence to your sister, but, uh, she scares me worse than Leatherhead."

 

Raph looked up at the man then shrugged. "No offence taken, that just means you're smart. Honestly, Mi scares me too sometimes."

 

Mr. O'Neil couldn't help but let out a nervous chuckle at that.

 

April then walked back over to them and handed her father the scanner. "It doesn't seem to be picking anything up, but to be honest, I can't make heads or tails of the readings," she said.

 

Mr. O'Neil looked the scanner over and said, "You're right. It's not picking up anything yet, but-"

 

Whatever he was about to say was cut off as the scanner suddenly went crazy, and the three on the roof got the sense that something big had just passed over head. As they watched, the Stealth Ship's disguise flickered momentarily, allowing them to see it.

 

"Got it," said Raph as he sent his siblings the coordinates.

 

________________

 

Back down in the sewers, Donnie activated his rocket the second he received the coordinates.

 

The four teens were soon zipping through the tunnels at top speed before getting launched into the air at the end, and flipping out of the rocket. They then activated their gliders to stay airborne, but it was soon found to be unnecessary as they found themselves crashing into something hard and see-through.

 

After that it was no trouble busting into the ship. The three Kraang piloting it all looked up in surprise when they jumped in.

 

"It is the ones who call themselves 'the kids'," said one of the Kraang.

 

"Hey, you call us that, not us," snapped Mikey. None of the teenagers had liked it when the bad guys called them kids.

 

"We must alert Kraang," continued the Kraang as if he hadn't spoken.

 

Miwa snorted. "This is what we were worried about. It's just three Kraang, and they don't even have guns."

 

Leo nodded in agreement. "We could take these guys in our sleep."

 

"We could take these guys in our sleep and our eyes closed," added Mikey brightly.

 

Just as the four of them got ready to pound the blobs, a loud whirring sound came from behind them.

 

Instantly the four ninjas got on the alert, and wheeled around to face whatever had made the sound.

 

From behind them, a secret door in the ship opened, and a waft of fog floated out. As it began to clear, the teenagers' eyes widened as they saw what had been hiding in there.

 

"Aw, sewer apples," muttered Mikey, using a phrase he'd picked up from Leatherhead.

 

Stomping out of the fog was what looked like a blue gorilla body with circuitry wired into it.

 

"Where's the head?" Miwa had to ask.

 

As the gorilla suit passed the, it smacked each of the teenagers out of the way like they weighed nothing, and one of the Kraang floated over to where the head was supposed to be.

 

"Biodroid engage," the Kraang said as he settled himself onto the gorilla suits shoulders.

 

The Biodroid then snarled down at the teenagers and pulled a pair of buzz saws from its machinery.

 

"Okay, maybe we were a little cocky," admitted Donnie nervously.

 

"I wish Iyasa was here right now," Mikey squeaked.

 

The teens then had to scatter to avoid the Biodroid's massive fists.

 

The four of them soon found themselves in the fight of their lives. It turned out the Biodroid was just as tough as it looked, and the teens were hard pressed to avoid the saws and its fists.

 

Mikey ended up getting thrown against a control panel on the wall, then had to duck as one of the saws came shooting towards his head.

 

The saw broke through the control panel where his head used to be and made another door on the ship open, revealing what the mysterious shipment was.

 

"The Shipment!" shouted Leo when he saw it. "It's  _Mutagen_ -!"

 

But before he could say anything more, the Biodroid smacked him away.

 

Leo landed flat on his back on the ship's control panel, making the Kraang driving the ship squeal in surprise.

 

Pushing himself back up, Leo accidentally hit some buttons that made the ship fly lower and drop its camouflage.

 

He and Miwa tried to simultaneously kick the gorilla suit, but the Biodroid caught them by their ankles, and began swinging them around like helicopter blades. Mikey and Donnie both tried to free them, but instead were beaten back for their efforts.

 

"This thing's too tough!" Donnie yelled, as he rubbed his head from the most recent hit.

 

Mikey hopped back to his feet, and got a determined look in his eye. "I got this!" he called back. Switching his focus, the youngest ninja ran forward, and aimed a kick at one of the Kraang who were flying the ship.

 

The Kraang squealed like a piglet as it bounced around the ship like a pinball, eventually knocking into the control panel and making a hole in the floor of the ship open, and then smacked into the Biodroid just as the gorilla body was throwing Miwa and Leo. The now very dizzy Kraang got knocked back into its piloting position, and the two ninjas flew into the wall next to the shipment of mutagen.

 

The force of their impact knocked the mutagen loose from the shelves, and canisters began rolling all over the floor.

 

Donnie's eyes widened in horror as he saw the canisters roll towards the opening in the ship. "NO!" he yelled as he dove to catch them.

 

But he was too late, and the entire shipment of mutagen fell through the hole, and began raining down on the city of New York.

 

________________

 

On the roof below, Raph, April, and Mr. O'Neil watched the ship fly by in a wobbly loop. Clearly the fighting going on inside was keeping the Kraang from flying it properly.

 

Mr. O'Neil watched the ship with terrified eyes, and Raph glared at it next to him, wishing he were up there helping his family.

 

"Come on guys, bring it down," said April softly as she watched the ship fly in crazy circles.

 

Then as they watched, they saw an opening appear in the bottom of the ship as it wobbled by a third time.

 

"What are they  _doing?_ " Raph asked as he stood at the very edge of the roof and squinted at the opening, trying to see if he could spot his family inside. He pulled out his cell phone in hopes of texting his siblings that very question.

 

"Winning, I hope," said Mr. O'Neil fearfully.

 

Then they saw a familiar green glow start to appear from the hole.

 

"Oh no," Raph said as he recognized the glow.

 

The three of them watched in horror as canisters of mutagen started falling from the hole, and began raining down all over the city like glowing green stars.

 

________________

 

While skateboarding on a homemade halfpipe with his pet gecko, a boy looked up to see spots of glowing green falling from the sky. Awed by the sight, he didn't notice one of the spots was falling directly towards him until it crashed onto his head.

 

His pet gecko was the only witness to the screams as the boy writhed in agony from the ooze, and the change took effect.

 

________________

 

On a rooftop a few blocks away, another boy was feeding a flock of sparrows when the green lights fell.

 

Mesmerized, and hoping it was some sort of magical item like the ones in his games, the boy ran towards where he saw one of the lights falling.

 

The flock of sparrows took to the air as the sound of the canister breaking hit their ears.

 

________________

 

Deep in the sewers, one of the canisters had managed to fall through a drain and became cracked as it hit the ground. The mutagen dripped out onto a mushroom growing in the nearby, and the fungus immediately started to grow larger and a large eye opened at the top of its head.

 

________________

 

At Antonio's Pizza, the main chef of the restaurant was working late, trying to come up with a new type of pizza to please his customers.

 

As he worked he heard a loud crash outside, and went to investigate.

 

The source of the noise seemed to be a glowing canister sitting among the garbage that he knew hadn't been there when he took the trash out earlier.

 

Wondering if he'd perhaps found his new secret ingredient, the chef opened the canister, and sampled the substance inside, headless of the consequences until he felt his skin start to melt.

 

________________

 

In a different trash strewn alley, a curious squirrel wandered over to a cracked canister, and licked at the substance dripping out.

 

The bum who lived in the alley awoke from his sleep, and looked over at the small creature. He couldn't help but scream as the squirrel looked back with glowing green eyes.

 

________________

 

On the roof of the O'Neils' apartment, the three stood frozen as they watched the canisters rain down around them.

 

As they watched, April became aware that the green light was getting stronger where she was standing. Looking up, her eyes widened as she saw one of the canisters flying directly towards her head.

 

Raph and her father also noticed the incoming canister, and both darted towards the girl, Raph dropping his phone in the process, making it fall from the roof and shatter on the sidewalk below.

 

"April!" yelled Mr. O'Neil, reaching her first. He wrapped himself around his daughter protectively and braced himself.

 

" _MOVE!"_  shouted Raph, and he rammed the two out of the way.

 

The O'Neils were sent sprawling across the rooftop, and out of harms way. Raph had just enough time to feel relieved he'd managed to protect them before he felt the canister smash over his head.

 

April looked up in time to see the glowing green liquid spread over her friend's body, and could only watch as he started to scream in pain.

 

" _NO_ , RAPH!" she yelled, jumping to her feet, and trying to run over to him, but her father caught her arm, and held her back.

 

"Don't!" he yelled, hugging her to his chest. "There's nothing you can do!"

 

As the O'Neils watched Raph collapsed on all fours, green scales began spreading across his skin, his head became larger and his features began to shift. His clothes started to rip off as his chest and limbs became broader, and his mask tore free of his face as his head became too large to wear it.

 

April's eyes widened as Raph's new features became more recognizable to her. "A-A  _Turtle?!_ " she gasped as she saw the shell begin to grow out of Raph's spine and ribs.

 

After what felt like an eternity, the mutation finally stopped, and Raph was left laying in a huddled mess, gasping for breath with a shell-shocked expression on his face.

 

Then ever so slowly he sat up and stared down at his now large, scaly, green, three-fingered hands in horror.

 

April pulled herself free of her father and slowly approached the new mutant.

 

"Raph?" she asked as she got closer, taking care in case his mutation had messed with his sanity like it had done for other mutants.

 

Raph's head snapped up, and familiar green eyes stared up at her. But April quickly stepped back when she saw no recognition on his face, only pure unadulterated terror.

 

Keeping a safe distance, she tried again, "Raph, it's me, April."

 

Raph's expression didn't change, but he made no move to attack her or her father.

 

Cautiously, April tried approaching him again, but kept her tessen hidden behind her back should he try to attack. "Raphael?" she said softly, holding her other hand out to him in what she hoped was a calming manner.

 

But as she got closer Raph only seemed to get even more terrified. April froze when she saw him twitch like he was about to move, but instead of attacking her like she feared, his head and limbs vanished inside his new shell.

 

It was all too much for Mr. O'Neil, and he fainted on the spot.

 

April blinked as she realized what she had just seen, and after making sure her father was alright, she hurried over to crouch next to the shell. "Raph!" she yelled, and placed her hand on the shell.

 

Beneath her fingers she could feel the whole shell shaking in fear. But she got no response from her friend inside.

 

"Oh, Raph," she said sadly. What was she supposed to do now?

 

________________

 

Meanwhile on the Stealth Ship, the four ninjas were still having a difficult time fighting the Biodroid, made even harder when Donnie whacked it on the back and discovered that it had butt cannons.

 

Thinking quickly on how to possibly salvage this situation, Donnie noticed the other two Kraang on the ship were trying to repair the damage done to the control panel.

 

"Mikey! Drop those Kraang!" he yelled, pointing at them.

 

"Done and done! Throwing star time!" Mikey yelled as he did a backflip and releasing two shuriken at the same time.

 

The shuriken hit the Kraang's hover machines, and they were sent spinning away from the control panel.

 

Donnie ran over to their former position and released the hidden blade in his bō, and stabbed it into the controls. He used his staff to steer the ship through the buildings before making it shoot up into the sky. "How about we set a new course!" he yelled. "LIKE THE  _MOON!_ "

 

The other three finally managed to get the upper hand on the Biodroid. While Mikey and Miwa kept it pinned, Leo ran forward and stabbed the gorilla suit's controls, making it useless.

 

As the ship kept flying higher and higher the ninjas dove back out of it, and used grappling hooks to swing their way back to the roof tops, and land a few buildings away from April's apartment.

 

"We need to find those mutagen canisters before someone gets hurt!" said Leo to the rest of them.

 

The others nodded, but before they could go, they heard a yell of, " _Wait!_ " behind them.

 

They turned to see April running across the rooftops towards them. "Guys!" she yelled, "Guys! It's Raph! He's-! He's-!"

 

Leo turned to her to ask what happened, but he paled when he saw what she had clutched in her hands.

 

It was the torn remains of Raph's red mask.

 

Instantly the four of them were at the redhead's side, shouting over each other to ask her what happened.

 

April floundered in the middle of them, trying to answer the questions while still trying to wrap her own head around what had happened.

 

Seeing that this was getting them nowhere, Donnie shouted at his siblings to be quiet before turning his attention to his girlfriend.

 

"April, what happened to Raph?" he asked worriedly.

 

April opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to find the words. "He- I- he's this way, you gotta- just-just come on!" she stammered, leading them back towards her roof.

 

They arrived to see Mr. O'Neil passed out near to the giant turtle shell.

 

April bit her lip worriedly, and hurried over to the shell. "He still hasn't come out," she said looking lost, but the other four stared at the shell uncomprehendingly.

 

"Uh, April, what's with the big turtle shell?" Leo asked.

 

"Why is your Dad sleeping on the roof?" added Mikey.

 

"And where's Raph?" Miwa demanded.

 

Donnie glanced down, and saw the tattered remains of Raph's clothes, along with the shattered mutagen canister and its spilled contents on the roof next to the shell.

 

He felt his stomach plunge as it hit him what had happened. Looking at the large turtle shell, he slowly moved to stand next to it, and looked down upon it.

 

"This-this  _is_  Raph, isn't it…?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

 

" ** _WHAT?!"_**  Leo, Mikey and Miwa shouted in shock.

 

"He was feeding Spike before he left, so he had turtle DNA on him," Donnie continued as if in a daze. He hoped more than anything he was mistaken. That for once he was wrong, and April would call him an idiot for suggesting such a thing.

 

Despite all the mutagen that went flying around them, none of them had ever really thought they would get doused with it themselves. Such a thing always seemed reserved for the bad guys, or innocent bystanders. The thought that one of them may have lost their humanity was a very rude wake up call in that regard.

 

But any hope that he was wrong was dashed when April nodded, looking distraught. "One of the canisters was coming at me, he-he pushed me away and got hit himself…" she sent a worried look at the shell. "I don't think he recognized me after he… He just went into his shell, and-and now he won't come out." April then buried her face in her hands. "This is all my fault."

 

Donnie reached up and put a comforting hand on April's shoulder, but he and the other non-mutant Hamato siblings were too busy trying to wrap their heads around the fact their brother now actually had a shell to say anything.

 

Mikey managed to snap out of first. He walked over and sat himself down next to Raph's shell.

 

"Raph, bro!" he called at the shell. "It's me, Mikey! Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey!." He rapped his knuckles on the shell for good measure.

 

Donnie frowned down at his little brother. "I don't think that's helping Mikey. Turtles are skittish creatures by nature, and it's an instinctive response for them to hide-"

 

Miwa walked up and smacked Donnie on the back of the head to shut him up. "That's not helping," she hissed scathingly.

 

Mikey didn't pay them any attention, and kept his focus on Raph. "Come on, bro," he said comfortingly. "You're not scared of  _us_  are you? Donnie's just being too brainy for his own good again."

 

"What do you mean, 'again?'" Donnie protested, but shut up after another glare from his sister.

 

Seeing what the youngest was doing, Leo went and kneeled down next to him and placed his hand on the shell. "Since when is Hamato Raphael afraid of anything?" he asked in an attempt at a teasing tone while rubbing the shell comfortingly. "You know, aside from cockroaches."

 

The two of them kept talking in comforting voices, and were soon joined by the others doing the same. Finally there was some movement from the shell. It wobbled on the roof as Raph struggled to find his way back out. The five other teens tensed at the sight in case of an attack, but remained where they were.

 

As they watched, they saw a pair of round, green, three-toed feet came out of the shell, followed by equally green arms and hands. Then finally a large, bald, green head appeared on the shoulders.

 

"Raph?" asked Miwa when she saw her brother's new face. "Are you still with us?"

 

Raph slowly pushed himself into a sitting position, giving his siblings chance to get a good look at his new appearance. If they hadn't known it was him, they would have never guessed that this was their hotheaded brother in front of them. Almost all of his features had been changed to that of a scaly turtle creature. The only things he still had in common with his human self was his short stocky build, and his vivid green eyes.

 

"I…" he said, trying to answer Miwa's question, as well as form words with his newly shaped mouth. "I'm not sure… Did what I think happen…  _really…_ happen?"

 

His sister gave him a sympathetic wince. "I'm afraid so," she said.

 

Raph looked at his hands again, but didn't really seem to be seeing them. "I-I was hoping if I stayed in there long enough it would just be a nightmare," he said softly, looking extremely freaked out.

 

Leo placed his hand on the turtle's shoulder, and asked, "You okay, Raph?"

 

That broke Raph out of his stupor, as he turned and glared at his older brother with an expression that clearly said  _'What do you **think** , Fearless?!'_

 

Leo drew his hand back and looked sheepish.

 

Ever one to break the tension, Mikey chose that moment to lean right into Raph's personal bubble and get a closer look at his brother's new appearance. "Whoa," he said in delight. "Raph, you look awesome." He reached out and poked Raph's arm. He giggled at the texture he felt. "You're all green and scaly."

 

The others held their breath as they watched Mikey continue to poke him, but Raph's face just took on a familiar expression of irritation, but did nothing aside from that as he endured his brother's prodding.

 

Seeing that his brother still seemed to be somewhat sane despite his new appearance was a relief for Leo, but he knew it didn't mean it would stay that way. Standing and turning his attention over to Donnie, the leader asked, "Do you think you can make a cure, Donnie?"

 

Hearing that, Raph shoved Mikey's hand away and looked expectantly up at his genius brother.

 

Donnie stood as well and looked Raph over with a critical eye. "I can try," he said worriedly. "In fact, since Timothy was, well, you know, I've been trying to develop one. But mutagen is like nothing I've ever seen before, and there is still so much I don't know about it. If there is a cure, it'll take some time to make."

 

Raph started looking panicked. "How much time?" he demanded, jumping to his feet. He immediately wobbled from the change in balance his body was experiencing.

 

Mikey quickly jumped up, and he and Miwa caught Raph to help him steady himself, and were nearly knocked over themselves before they managed to right him.

 

"Man, Raph you're heavy," Mikey complained as Raph clung to him and their sister while he figured out how to put weight on his new feet.

 

"It's probably his shell," said Donnie thoughtfully. "The shell of a turtle is-"

 

"I will  _smack_  you again," Miwa threatened, not having any patience for Donnie's accuracy nitpicks right now.

 

Donnie glared back at her. "Well sorry," he said sarcastically, "but it's how I deal with  _stress!_ "

 

"A cure, Donnie?" Leo said, getting them back on track.

 

Donnie frowned, and did some calculations in his head. "Like I said, I've been working on one already, but so far I haven't made much progress due to lack of mutagen to study and work with." Then his eyes lit up with realization. "Like the mutagen that's been scattered all over the city!" he exclaimed.

 

Raph looked dubious, "So if we find some of it, you could turn me back?" he asked.

 

"It could only help," said Donnie. "Plus, getting that stuff of the streets should be a priority either way."

 

"Then lets go get some," Raph said, starting forward. But it was clear his sense of balance was currently shot, and Miwa and Mikey had to grab him again before he face planted on the roof.

 

Leo's expression turned stern. "We will, but not tonight," he said.

 

Raph looked over at him enraged. "What?!"

 

"Raph, you can barely walk," Leo said. "If you try to jump rooftops with us like this you'll only get yourself killed."

 

"But-!" Raph started to protest.

 

"We'll get it, Raph," Donnie assured him gently. "And when we do, I'll get started on a cure."

 

April stepped up and looked up at Donnie in determination. "And I'll you help in anyway I can," she insisted. "He got mutated protecting  _me_ , it's the least I could do."

 

Suddenly Donnie looked a lot more eager. "Don't sweat it, Raph, I'll get you back to normal in two shakes of a turtle's tail," he said confidently.

 

Mikey, who had still been examining Raph's new appearance, looked down at that remark. "Huh, he really does have a tail."

 

Raph turned scarlet, and jerked away from Mikey and his scrutiny. In doing so he started to fall over again, and Miwa had to brace herself against him to keep him upright.

 

Unfortunately, this did nothing to curb Mikey's enthusiasm. "Don't worry Raph," he said cheerfully. "I'll come up with a great mutant name for you."

The rest of them glared at Mikey for that.

 

"Mikey, you are not giving our brother one of your silly names," said Leo in exasperation.

 

Mikey ignored him, and waved his hands eagerly. "No, no, trust me. I've got some great ones lined up. How about the Terrorpin?"

 

His suggestion was met with deadpan glares.

 

"No," he said. "Then what about Shellshocker? No? Slash then? Turtle Titan? Tokka? Nightwatcher? Franklin? Griddex? Snapper McTortoise?"

 

Raph quickly got fed up with Mikey's suggestions. Using his new weight, he tackled his little brother to the ground and pulled into a headlock. "My name is  _Raphael_ ," he growled as he rubbed a noogie into Mikey's head. "You either call me Raphael, Raph, or Iyasa when on missions. Get it?"

 

"Got it," Mikey wheezed.

 

"Good."

 

A wave of relief washed over the others as they watched the scene. More than anything else this was definite proof that their brother's mind was still his own.

 

"Well, at least it seems that Raph's still Raph underneath that green shell," said Donnie in amusement.

 

"You say that like it's a good thing," said Miwa with a small, relieved smirk.

 

Leo on the other hand still looked concerned. "Yeah, but… how are we going to tell this to Mother and Father?"

 

Just like that there was complete silence on the rooftop as they all realized what Leo had just said.

 

Miwa summed up what they were all thinking in one sentence. "We are  _so_ grounded."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the part of the story that inspired me to write this fic in the first place. I added the parts where Raph's currently pretty clumsy in his new body, because I thought that would make sense. He's suddenly in a completely new form, and the difference in weight he has and the shape of his feet are probably throwing him off.


	15. It Ain't Easy Being Green

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Raph's mutation, things need an adjustment period. Unfortunately, the bad guys aren't going to give them one.

Within the Renaissance Dojo, Yoshi and Tang Shen were taking part in what had become an almost nightly ritual between the two of them to wait long into the afterhours for their children to come home.

 

Both were nursing a cup of tea that had long gone cold, and were waiting for any sort of news about their children's wellbeing.

 

Leatherhead had called in earlier to report that his search of Kraang facilities had come up empty. It seemed that the Kraang were smart enough not to reuse the places their enemies already knew about, making it that much harder for them find them.

 

But still, no word had come in from their children, and the couple was beginning to get anxious.

 

Then they both looked up as they heard the blessed sound of the key turning in the lock, and the soft chatter of five adolescent voices making their way towards them.

 

Tang Shen sent a beaming smile at Yoshi, feeling utter relief that her babies had returned to her safely.

 

But Yoshi was not so easily lulled into security. While he couldn't make out the words, he could hear the nervous mutterings of his children as they drew closer. They may have all returned home, but something had happened that night. Something that had spooked them, badly.

 

The two adults watched as the door to the kitchen slowly opened, and their five children filed in. Looking them over, there did not appear to be any outstanding injuries other than the usual scrapes and bruises one would get in a scuffle.

 

But then they noticed that Raphael had not fully entered the room, but instead remained in the shadows leaning heavily against the door. What was even more odd was the fact he was wrapped in a bulky, old-fashioned trench coat and hat that covered him completely.

 

Tang Shen's eyes filled with concern as she realized that something was clearly wrong. "What has happened?" she asked softly. "Why do you hide, Raphael?"

 

Their children shifted nervously, before Leonardo stepped forward into his leadership roll.

 

"We, um, we didn't do too well tonight," said Leo, looking ashamed. "The shipment turned out to be mutagen. We… failed to stop it, and instead the canisters kinda… fell all over New York…"

 

Tang Shen and Yoshi exchanged horrified glances at this. They had seen what that substance could do, both to human and creature. For so much of it to be out in the unknown was a terrible grievance.

 

"But that's not the worst part," Mikey piped up. "Raph-!"

 

Whatever the youngest had been about to say was silenced as Leo and Donnie clamped their hands over his mouth, making whatever he'd been about to say be muffled.

 

Raph gave a violent flinch from his hiding place, and his siblings all shot him a nervous glance.

 

Now their parents were very alarmed. "What happened?" demanded Master Yoshi loudly, making his children stare at him with wide eyes.

 

Tang Shen stood and made her way to her third oldest, and reached out to him, only for him to shrink back even deeper into the shadows.

 

 **"What Has Happened to Raphael?!"**  Yoshi demanded again, concern for his son flooding him.

 

The five teens exchanged glances, before Leo took a deep breath and said, "Raph… he-he got… hit by one of the canisters. He  _mutated_ , father."

 

Raphael gave another violent flinch, and at Tang Shen's quiet coaxing, slowly removed his coat and hat.

 

Yoshi and Tang Shen stared at the giant turtle standing in their kitchen with their son's eyes.

 

"Father… Mother… It's-it's  _me_ ," he said softly, knowing logically his parents wouldn't reject him, but fearing it anyway.

 

Tang Shen let out a tiny gasp, before throwing her arms around him. "Oh, my poor baby," she said as she held him tightly.

 

Raphael seemed to be in shock at the contact at first, before wrapping his arms around his mother, and hugging her back with an air of desperation.

 

Hamato Yoshi also came forward and placed a comforting hand upon his mutated son's shoulder. "What happened?" he said again, addressing his other children.

 

And so they told the adults everything.

 

Yoshi stroked his beard. "And you believe you can create antidote for your brother?" he asked Donatello as they reached that part in their tale.

 

Donnie nodded looking determined. "I'm sure that with enough mutagen and research I can do it, father."

 

Yoshi nodded. "Then finding the lost mutagen will be our priority for now. In the morning I will inform your school that Raphael has fallen ill, and cannot attend his classes until it is finished."

 

Raph looked up at this in alarm. "Wait, not that I'm complaining about getting out of school, but are you saying I've gotta be stuck inside until Donnie makes his anti-ooze?"

 

Yoshi looked down at him firmly. "Yes."

 

"But that could take months!" the turtle protested. "If I stay cooped up for that long, I'm going to go nuts!"

 

Tang Shen pulled back from her hug, and cupped Raph's face in her hands. "We only want to protect you, my son," she said soothingly. "If people see you as you are now…"

 

Raphael was torn. On one hand, he didn't want to stay cooped up in his house the entire time of his mutation. On the other, he could never say no to his mother when she looked sad like that.

 

He shifted so that he was standing away from Tang Shen. "I'm a ninja, aren't I?" he said stubbornly, addressing both parents. "People won't see me if I don't want them to."

 

Yoshi rose and eyebrow at his son. Then he reached out and lightly flicked Raph on the forehead.

 

Still trying to gain his sense of gravity for his new body, the flick cause Raph to wobble and swing his arms like a pinwheel to regain his balance. To his credit he recovered quickly and was able to stay standing.

 

But his father had proven his point. "Not as you are," said Yoshi firmly. "Your sense of balance is wrong, and you have no idea what your limits are. To go out into danger as such will only accomplish a swift death."

 

But Raph only scowled. "So I'll get over it. You guys can't just bench me because of this."

 

The rest of the family watched the argument silently, torn over which of them to side with.

 

Raph looked pleadingly at his father. "Please, just give me a chance to get used to… all this," he said gesturing to himself. "I can  _do_  this, father."

 

Yoshi stroked his beard thoughtfully, before finally nodding. "Very well, tomorrow you and I will begin work on training you to use your skills in this new form. If you can prove to me that you can still be a proficient ninja, even as a… turtle, then I will allow you to continue to patrol at night."

 

Raph's face broke into a wide grin. "I'll do it. Thank you, Sensei."

 

_________________

 

The next morning, Yoshi closed the dojo for the day, and spent hours in training with Raphael, helping him adapt to his new form, and enabling him to use his ninja skills despite his mutation. Thanks to this, Raph adjusted to his new form, and quickly picked up his old skills, though he had some trouble handling his sais with the change in his hands' size and number of fingers.

 

On the plus side, he found that he was much stronger and more resilient now than he was as a human, and his new shell only added protection, rather than be a hindrance like he'd feared.

 

But there were other things Raph had to get used to aside from figuring out how to move in his new form. None of his clothes fit him anymore, and it would be difficult to find new ones that fit his new proportions. His shell and now bulky arms were too big to fit in most shirts comfortably, and the shape of his feet and width of his legs kept them from fitting in most pairs of pants. As a result he mostly went around without anything on, since his shell kept him covered anyway, though he was able to find a belt for his sais, and some elbow and knee pads to wear.

 

He also found himself trying to deal with new instincts that came with being a turtle. He had scared his mother half to death when she came across him sound asleep next to a sunny window, and she hadn't been able to wake himself up until she had pulled him out of the sun. It wasn't until later that they realized that he had simply been basking under the sunlight, and it was something normal turtles did regularly. They had even seen Spike do it for as long as Raph had had him.

 

He also had to fight the urge to hide his head back inside his shell whenever something startled him. The first time he'd done that Mikey had thought his head had fallen off, and only stopped freaking out when he was able to pull his head back out.

 

To say nothing about the fact he now thought worms looked appetizing. He wasn't touching that with a ten-foot pole.

 

It was a rough adjustment period, but Raph was managing it. But despite all of Raph's progress, tensions were still high in the Renaissance Dojo.

 

His family tried valiantly to treat Raph like they always had, but despite their efforts his parents and siblings couldn't ignore the fact that things were different now, and they all reacted to it in different ways.

 

The worry that Tang Shen and Yoshi both seemed to have for their children had only increased where Raph was concerned. Before they worried about all their children for the physical threats of their various enemies, but they always had their anonymity to fall back on and be able to have lives outside the fight. But with Raph's mutation, even his very appearance now had to be kept a secret, lest someone mistake him for a monster or a science lab catch ahold of him. As much as Raph was relieved that the still loved him despite his mutation, he found their constant worrying to be stifling at times, made worse by the fact he couldn't go out to avoid them, aside from sneaking through the sewers to hang out with Leatherhead (who had taken his change in stride, much to the turtle's relief).

 

Miwa was the most hostile about the changes. But the target of her hostility was not Raphael (whom she seemed to be avoiding like the plague), but at April. She blamed the redhead and her father for Raph's mutation. Her reasoning was that if they hadn't insisted he play bodyguard for them, then Raph wouldn't have gotten mutated in the first place. And if April had just had the sense to dodge the falling canister, Raph wouldn't have needed to protect her. Out of respect for Donnie's feelings, she didn't openly antagonize the other girl. But her anger was evident in the barely veiled barbs she would say to April whenever she was around, leading the redhead to start avoiding her.

 

Leo was doing his best to ignore Raph's mutation, and always acted like he was walking on eggshells whenever his immediate younger brother was around. Unfortunately, his actions only served to annoy Raph, and it make him more irritable than he already was. Another problem was that Leo would sometimes study Raph when he thought the turtle wouldn't notice, looking at him as if assessing a threat. Most mutants that they had met could not be considered completely sane, and had been prone to violent outbursts. Even Leatherhead, who was a trusted ally and friend, was prone to go on rage educed rampages if triggered, and Leo was very worried that his brother might end up the same way. Raph was not at all happy to see his own brother looking at him like he was some sort of loose cannon that could go off any minute. These problems were creating tension and arguments between the brothers, and it was only serving to increase Leo's paranoia over whether or not the mutagen had affected Raph's mind, and making Raph angrier as a result. Thus leading to a vicious never-ending cycle.

 

Donnie, unlike his other siblings, already had some experience in having someone he cared about getting mutated, and was much more sympathetic towards Raph' plight. After a thorough explanation that what he felt was sympathy,  _not_  pity, Raph was far more receptive to his attempts to help to help him. At first Donnie had also wondered if the mutation had affected Raph's mind, but unlike Leo, he knew how to put those feelings to rest. Included in the many tests he ran on Raph in hopes of making a retro-mutagen, he had a subtle psychology test done. After making Raph take the test a few times over the course of his studies, he concluded beyond reasonable doubt that Raph's mind had not been affected in the change, and aside from being stressed about the situation, he was still the same big brother Donnie had always had.

 

Mikey, out of all of them, was the only one to treat their mutated brother like he always had. The youngest didn't shirk away from mentioning the mutation, in fact he enjoyed making turtle jokes towards his older brother in order to tease him into one of their tussles. But no matter what, Mikey continued to act like the same goofy kid brother to Raph that he had always been, and saw Raph's mutation as simply a cool new addition to their team. As such, Raph more often than not found himself sticking with his baby brother in order to get some dose of normalcy in his now very screwed up life (no matter how annoying it sometimes could be).

 

Still, Raph's stress levels were at an all time high, so he did something he had been trying to avoid doing since hitting puberty.

 

He went to seek comfort from his mother.

 

Whenever Raph was feeling particularly awful, he would seek out Tang Shen for comfort (even though it wasn't considered 'cool' to do so), which before she had always been willing to provide.

 

So, when Raphael the mutant turtle approached his mother, he didn't miss the way she started in surprise at the sight of him.

 

"Don't tell me you're afraid of me too," he said miserably.

 

Shen, realizing how her reaction had looked, shook her head emphatically. "It is not that, my son," she said quickly, pulling him into a hug. "I have simply not gotten used to your new appearance yet."

 

Sensing his need to talk, Shen led him over to the kitchen table, and watched as he twiddled his thumbs as he thought of what to say. A thought occurred to her, and a smile broke across her face at it.

 

Seeing the smile, Raph looked at her quizzically, and she explained, "It just occurred to me that you now resemble a kappa, my son," she said fondly. "One of the yokai from the old stories."

 

Raph's face pinched as he remembered hearing the legends when he was a child. "You're not going to start feeding me nothing but cucumber, are you?" he asked dryly.

 

Shen laughed. "No more than usual," she assured him. "It is just the thought of you as a kappa brings back old memories." Her smile turned wistful, and she looked down at her hands as the memories flew through her head. "An old friend of mine used to insist that kappa were real, even claimed to have met some once. But that was a long time ago."

 

Raph could tell by the look on her face, she was talking about someone who had probably been killed by the Shredder, and he hurried to change the subject. "So you don't think I'm some monster?" he blurted out.

 

Shen's head snapped up to look at him in surprise. "What?" she said. "Of course not." She reached over and stroked Raph's cheek as she said, "You are my son, Raphael. And  _nothing_  will ever change the love I have for you and your sister and brothers. Not even this, I assure you."

 

Raph turned away from her hand, and glared at the floor. "Now if only Leo and Mi would see it that way," he said with a bitter snort.

 

Shen reached over, and pulled Raph's face so he was looking her in the eye. "Remember that this is a big change for  _all_ of us," she told him gently. "They will come around, just give them time."

 

She then pulled Raph into another comforting hug, which he accepted gratefully. But with him wrapped tight in her arms, she failed to see the doubtful look upon the turtle's face.

 

Somehow, he doubted it was as simple as waiting for Leo and Miwa to warm up to the new him. It was far more likely things would get worse before they got better.

 

If they ever got better, that is.

 

_________________

 

And so, the first few days after the disaster of a mission passed by with everyone feeling tense and uncomfortable around each other, and especially around Raph. Each night the non-mutated Hamato siblings went out to search for the missing mutagen, but so far they were not having much luck. New York was a big city, and there were only so many places they could search a night.

 

Donnie decided to make a tracker to find it easier, and by the time he was done Yoshi had declared Raph to be adept enough at his new form to go with them.

 

This got mixed reactions from the siblings. Leo and Miwa looked reluctant, while Raph was eager to go out and  _do_ something again, Donnie and Mikey were just hoping the night didn't turn out to be another disaster.

 

The night started out fairly dull, with the teenagers digging through a trash strewn alley that Donnie's tracker had led them too.

 

They finally managed to find the mutagen on the roof of a nearby building, but by that time everyone was restless, and cranky from the search.

 

So it was really no wonder when Leo and Raph started arguing again.

 

It started when Leo remarked about the mutagen, "It's a good thing we found it before some Random Joe got himself mutated into a monster."

 

Though it wasn't directed at him, Raph's eyes narrowed at that remark, feeling that it rang too close to home. "Yeah, because being mutated is clearly the end of the world," he said bitterly, glaring at Leo as he did so.

 

Sensing the oncoming fight, the other three shrank back, but didn't try to interfere. These days the best way to handle the arguments was to let both boys burn themselves out.

 

Leo looked over at Raph disapprovingly. "It's our fault the canisters got dropped, Raph. It's our responsibility to make things right."

 

Raph looked furious as he let out hollow laugh. "Oh yeah?" he asked. "How? How is any of this going to make things right? How is it going to make this-" he gestured down at himself, "-right?"

 

The turtle didn't miss the way Leo's hands twitched towards his swords, and Raph drew his sais in response. Their siblings shrank back further in case the argument turned into a full-blown fight.

 

"Stand down, Raph," Leo ordered as he gripped the hilts his own weapons, but didn't draw them. He was trying to regain control over the situation, and was getting more wary about the turtle every second.

 

That was exactly the wrong thing to say, and Raph could see how tense Leo was getting. The sight of which only enraged him further. Did his own brother really think he was some sort of threat? "Why! Afraid of the  _Monster!"_ he spat angrily, using Leo's own words against him. He finished the statement with a firm shove with the hilts of his sais, sending his brother back into the others.

 

The hothead was expecting Leo to get back up and try and boss him around again, or maybe attempt to scuffle with him.

 

He did not expect Leo's eyes to widen in fear, and for all his siblings to jerk away from him looking alarmed.

 

The sight of this broke through the haze of anger Raph was in, and he had to take a step back from the frightened looks his siblings were giving him. "Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked.

 

"Dude, your  _eyes!_ " Mikey said, staring at him with his own wide eyes.

 

Raph glanced to the left where a shiny metal vent was sticking up from the roof. He was horrified to see that instead of his own green eyes staring back at him, his eyes had turned white and blank, giving him an uncanny appearance.

 

The sight of the loss of one of the few features he'd retained from his human form, and seeing his own siblings scared of him on top of days worth of tension was the last straw for Raph. Without another word, he dropped his sais and bolted away from his siblings, heedless of how they called for him to come back.

 

He needed some time alone right now.

 

Unfortunately for him, his siblings seemed determined not to give him that alone time, and they started chasing after him.

 

He tried several times to lose them, but nothing seemed to shake them from his tail. But that just made the turtle all the more determined to ditch them.

 

However, whether or not Raph would have ever shaken his siblings would forever remain a mystery. Just as he was turning a corner around a rooftop entrance, he was hit in the face with blinding powder in a surprise attack.

 

While Raph was coughing on the dust, the Foot Ninja who had tossed the powder took the opportunity to club Raph over the head, making him fall to the ground unconscious.

 

The other Hamato siblings arrived just in time to see two Foot Ninja begin to drag him away.

 

"STOP!" roared Leo as he and the others drew their weapons to fight.

 

But suddenly more Foot appeared out of the shadows, and stood between them and Raph.

 

"Get out of the way!" Miwa snapped as she took one of them down, her brothers following suit.

 

But the ninja she downed only got back up, and his eyes glowed an uncanny red color as he stared at her with his head cocked. Several other nearby Foot Soldiers did the same thing while making a noise similar to that of the Mouser robots.

 

"What?" Miwa had to ask, her eyes wide.

 

Suddenly, the Foot Ninja sprang forward, and began using her own moves against her.

 

Miwa was hard pressed to avoid or deflect the attacks while still using nonlethal force. Around her, her brothers were in a similar situation, trying to win a fight against these odd Foot Ninja who seemed to become better fighters the more they fought against them.

 

And while they were doing this, they were all too aware of that the first soldier was getting farther away with their unconscious brother.

 

Eventually, one of the Foot managed to back Donnie into a corner of the roof, and raised his weapon to deal a deadly blow.

 

In desperation, Donnie slammed his bō into the side of the Foot Soldier, sending the ninja flying over the edge of the building.

 

Horrified that he might have just killed someone, Donnie looked down at the fallen body. It was then that he noticed that the Foot Ninja was not bleeding, but was instead sparking and showing mechanical parts much like the Kraang androids.

 

"They're robots!" Donnie called to his siblings, releasing the hidden blade in his staff and stabbing through another Foot with it.

 

Seeing the soldier spark and shut down was all the proof the others needed, and they stopped holding back. Using lethal force, they began making more progress with the Foot, but it didn't change the fact that the robots were improving with every hit they received.

 

"They must have adaptable programming!" Donnie called to the others. "The more they observe, the more they learn, and the better they get."

 

"Then how do we stop them?" Leo called back.

 

"Take them out before they adapt," was all Donnie could say.

 

Easier said than done, as more of the robotic soldiers kept popping up like cockroaches.

 

While being tossed aside like a rag doll, Leo saw the Foot-Bot with Raph drag their brother into a waiting van and drive off.

 

"No!" he yelled, trying to run after it, but a Foot-Bot only grabbed him and pulled him back into the fight.

 

Having enough, Leo shook the Foot-Bot off and leapt closer to where his siblings were fighting. "Retreat!" he ordered. "We need to get Iyasa back!"

 

The others nodded, and Mikey threw down a smoke bomb, making the robots pause from the lack of visibility.

 

When the smoke cleared, the teens were gone.

 

_________________

 

When Raph awoke to find himself hunched in a small, pyramid shaped cage, he did not react well.

 

"ARE YOU FREAKING  _KIDDING_  ME!" he yelled as he began fruitlessly kicking his feet against one of the cage walls. "AS IF THIS WEEK WASN'T BAD ENOUGH!"

 

But the bars on the cage wouldn't budge, and Raph forced himself to look around to find out where he was.

 

His cage was in the middle of a creepy looking room. Large windows lined the walls, showing the night sky above, and a broken stained glass window was above the door at the far end of the room. In the center of the room was a walkway that led up a set of steps to where a menacing looking stone throne stood with its back to him. On either side of the walkway was a large tank of water with a glass path over it to step on. And lining the walls under the window were more glass tanks showing a rock garden within them.

 

"Where the heck am I?" Raph asked aloud.

 

Suddenly, the latch at the top of his cage popped open, and the pyramid suddenly fell flat around him.

 

Raph leapt away from the cage, and looked around cautiously. He reached behind himself for his sais, but found they were missing from his belt. It was then that he remembered he'd dropped them when he'd run from his siblings.

 

"Could this night get any worse?" he muttered to himself with a groan.

 

Just as he said that, smoke bombs were thrown around him, making him cover his eyes and cough. When the smoke cleared he found himself surrounded by Foot Ninja.

 

"I had to ask," he grumbled as he shifted into a fighting position.

 

The Foot Ninja all came at him at once, and Raph was hard pressed to fight them off with just his fists. That didn't stop him from giving it his all in pummeling them.

 

But no matter how many of the Foot he took down, they seemed to just get back up and come at him even harder than before. Figuring out that they were robots when he managed to punch one's head off didn't really help in his fight against them.

 

Finally they had him pinned on the ground with a knife at his throat, and Raph could do little more than struggle uselessly to get free.

 

"Enough!" came an order in a deep, familiar voice.

 

Raph paled at the sound of the voice, and barely noticed the Foot-Bots pull away, leaving him sprawled in the middle of the walkway.

 

Suddenly flames started burst from the tanks with the rock garden, casting the entire room in an eerie glow.

 

Raph wheeled around to see the throne at the head of the room turning slowly to face him.

 

The Shredder sat in the throne, looking down at him with an unreadable expression. "You fight well," he said to Raph. "I could use your strength in my war with those who were hunting you."

 

Raph felt his jaw drop as he realized what was happening.

 

Apparently the Shredder and his goons didn't recognize him in his new mutant form, and had seen him running from his siblings. They had mistaken him for an enemy of theirs and misinterpreted the situation entirely.

 

And now his family's greatest enemy was trying to  _recruit_  him…

 

The Shredder paid no attention to his shocked expression, and continued his sales pitch.

 

"It matters not to me that you are a mutant," he said to the turtle bluntly. "I find those like you far more useful than the average soldier."

 

As if to prove his point, the door at the other end of the room opened, and in walked Tiger Claw, Dogpound, and Fishface.

 

Raph eyed them nervously. He could see the Shredder's attempts to reassure him his mutation didn't matter had doubled as an intimidation technique. Not only was he trapped alone in the enemy's lair, but he was also completely surrounded and outnumbered.

 

Things were not looking good, and he was so busy trying to see a way out to really listen to the rest of the Shredder's bid to gain him as a new hench-mutant.

 

What finally brought him back to the situation at hand was when the Shredder stopped in front of him, and held out a hand. "So tell me, turtle, will you join my fight against Hamato Yoshi and his wretched clan, or refuse and be destroyed?"

 

Raph stared at the hand being held out to him, wondering what the heck he was supposed to do about the situation he'd found himself in.

 

The answer to that question was obvious to Raph, so he gritted his teeth and looked the Shredder right in the eye before giving his response.

 

_________________

 

When the other four Hamato teens escaped the Foot-Bots they had gone directly to the Shellraiser, and Donnie started using his onboard computers to track Raph through his new cell phone.

 

While he worked, the other three sat in an uncomfortable silence.

 

Mikey was hugging Raph's sais to his chest like a pair of teddy bears. "Do you think Raph's alright?" he asked in a small voice.

 

Leo opened his mouth to try to give his baby brother some reassurance, but he couldn't bring himself to say something that might be a lie.

 

"We don't know, Mikey," said Miwa quietly, looking furious at their failure to save him.

 

Donnie paused in his typing and shot a glare at the oldest two. "I feel I should point out that this probably wouldn't have happened if you two hadn't been alienating him ever since he mutated."

 

Leo and Miwa looked like they were going to protest, but the disapproving look that Donnie was giving them shut them up.

 

"Raphael is a mutant now," Donnie said bluntly, forcing them to hear the truth. "And until I develop a retro-mutagen, he's going to  _stay_  a mutant. I know it's weirder than some of the stuff we've had to put up with recently, but you're going to need to get over it and accept the fact that one of our brothers is a turtle. So deal with it."

 

"Why is it such a problem anyway?" Mikey asked curiously. "Raph's still Raph, he's just a little greener than he used to be."

 

" _Is_  he still Raph?" Leo burst out, asking the question that had been plaguing him since that night on April's roof. "How do we know that the mutagen didn't affect his brain or-or something? I-I don't want him to hurt himself, and I know he'd never stop blaming himself if he accidentally hurt someone else!"

 

Donnie sent his big brother a deadpan glare. "Aside from the  _obvious_  fact that he acts the same as he always did, you could have just asked me," he said bluntly. "I've been monitoring Raph's mental patterns along with my other tests, and I can assure you he's the same mentally as he's ever been. He's not about to snap and going on a killing spree. But you guys avoiding him and treating him like a loose cannon is only pushing him to react negatively to you."

 

Leo looked extremely embarrassed and ashamed of himself. But Miwa still looked furious for some reason.

 

Despite of the anger on her face, Mikey asked her, "Why are you avoiding Raph, anyway, Sis? You don't think he's some monster too, do you?"

 

Miwa stayed silent and glared at the ice cream lamp in the corner like she was trying to set it on fire.

 

Wanting the answer to that question as well, the other two boys turned their attention to their big sister, silently forcing her to respond.

 

Miwa turned her glare on them before saying in a low voice, "It's our fault!"

 

The boys exchanged glances, but Miwa kept going. "It's all our fault our brother is now a  _freak!_ " she said through gritted teeth. "We were stupid, cocky, and careless, and  _he_  paid the price for  _our_  screw up! If we had just-" she broke off and slammed her fist against the wall of the Shellraiser in rage.

 

"I thought you blamed April for that?" Donnie had to ask, looking worried.

 

"I  _do!"_ Miwa burst out. "It's their fault for dragging Raph to that roof! It's our fault that the canisters fell on him! It's Raph's fault for being the damn hero and getting hit instead of them! It's the Kraang's fault for having the mutagen and being the evil little slime balls that they are! It's just- It's  _everyone's_  fault, and I don't know who I should blame!"

 

When she finished her tirade, she buried her face in her knees, and hunched in on herself.

 

Mikey's eyes widened as he realized what was wrong. "So you've just been blaming everyone, and it's making you all yucky inside."

 

Miwa scowled into her knees and nodded slowly.

 

Leo sighed and scratched his head. "It is our fault this happened," he said to his sister, hoping that he could reassure her in some way. "And you're right, it's partly the Kraang's fault too, but that doesn't change the fact that  _we_  screwed up on that mission. But no matter whose fault it is, that doesn't change the fact that we need to fix it. Starting with getting our brother back."

 

As if on cue, Donnie's computer beeped, letting them know it had found Raph's cell signal. "Got him," he said to the others.

 

"So let's go get him," said Mikey brightly as they jumped to their seats, and the Shellraiser took off towards Raph's location.

 

_________________

 

The signal led them to a dark, abandoned-looking church in the middle of the city.

 

"Are you sure this is the place?" Miwa asked as she looked at the building through Donnie's computer screens. Churches didn't exactly scream evil villain lair.

 

"It's where his cell phone is at least," said Donnie, also looking a little skeptical.

 

Leo unbuckled his seatbelt, and headed for the door. "Let's go."

 

They soon found that they were indeed in the right place, as they came across a Foot-Bot guard near the roof.

 

They quickly took the robot out, and gathered by a stained glass window with some broken panes. Slipping through them, they found themselves on a platform high enough to give them a view of Raph surrounded by the Shredder and his hench-mutants.

 

It didn't take long for them to figure out what was happening from what they heard. "Is Shredder trying to recruit him?" Mikey asked incredulously.

 

Just then the Shredder held out his hand to Raph and said, "So tell me, turtle, will you join my fight against Hamato Yoshi and his wretched clan, or refuse and be destroyed?"

 

"That answer your question," hissed Miwa.

 

The four hidden teens tensed as they watched Raph stare at the Shredder's hand, before answering him.

 

Raph took a deep breath, opened his mouth, and everyone's jaws dropped at what came out.

 

"Screw you," Raphael said bluntly.

 

If the situation wasn't so serious, his hidden siblings would have burst out laughing at that.

 

The Shredder immediately retracted his hand and snarled, " _What!"_

 

" _Screw._ ** _You_**." Raph repeated, enunciating each word. "Why would I ever want to follow the crazy freak who's trying to kill my Sensei? I would  _never_ betray my clan like that."

 

The Shredder's eyes widened at that declaration before narrowing dangerously. "Iyasa," he said as he finally realized just who was in front of him.

 

Raph's slipping into a defensive fighting position was answer enough.

 

Dogpound let out a bark of a laugh. "Looks like the brat got himself turned into a slow turtle freak."

 

"And yet I'm still better looking than you, Dogbreath," snapped Raph.

 

" _ENOUGH!_ " snapped the Shredder, drawing the blades on his gauntlets. Seeing this, his hench-mutants quickly moved to surround Raph on all sides.

 

"Despite your refusal, you will still be of use to me," said Shredder as he stalked towards his prey. "You  _will_  tell me where I can find your master. Before or after I start removing your limbs is up to you."

 

Raph only tensed and prepared himself for the coming fight.

 

But before any of them could make a move, a loud shout came from above them, "Booyakasha!"

 

They all looked up to see the other Hamato siblings leaping down to flank Raphael.

 

"If you wanna lay a finger on him, you'll have to go through us first," Leo declared.

 

"Guys?" Raph said in surprise.

 

"You left these, bro," Mikey said with a grin as he passed back Raph's sais.

 

Miwa sent him a smirk. "What? Did you think we wouldn't come?"

 

The look on Raph's face was answer enough that he really had doubted they would. They'd have to work on reassuring him after this.

 

The Shredder, on the other hand, was not at all happy that the Hamato clan had been led right to his secret lair. "Destroy Them!" he ordered.

 

The three mutants sprang forward to attack, but instead were met with purple smoke as the Hamatos threw down their egg bombs.

 

When the smoke cleared, the teenagers were gone.

 

Seeing this, the Shredder let out a roar of rage, and ordered his Foot-Bots to find them.

 

But beneath the city, the Shellraiser was already shooting towards home with all of its occupants on board.

 

_________________

 

"Okay," said Donnie as he was once again examining Raph in his lab. "Try again. Try to feel or think like you were when it happened."

 

After returning home, Donnie had dragged Raph down to his lab, both to make sure he wasn't injured, and to solve the mystery as to why his eyes had turned white when he was arguing with Leo.

 

Raph scowled in irritation, as they had been doing this for the last several minutes, but he closed his eyes and tried again.

 

Leo, Miwa, and Mikey were watching the proceedings with varying degrees of amusement.

 

When Raph opened his eyes again they were as white and unnerving as they had been on the rooftop. "Did it work?" he asked, not really feeling any difference.

 

"Yeah, dude," said Mikey, leaning forward to get a better look. "No offence, but that is freaky."

 

Donnie immediately shined a flashlight in Raph's eyes and began examining them. "Can you still see as well?" he asked. "Is there any discomfort?"

 

"Just from you trying to blind me," Raph snapped, shoving the flashlight out of his face. "What does this even look like, anyway? I didn't really get a good look."

 

Miwa handed her turtle brother a mirror, and he grimaced at his reflection. "For once I agree with Mikey. Freaky," he muttered at the sight of himself.

 

"But if I'm right, then it should also be useful," said Donnie cheerfully. The without warning, he pulled out a squirt gun, and sprayed water right into Raph's eye.

 

Raph yelped, and instinctively reached up to rub his eye, but his hand paused halfway up. "Wait, that didn't even hurt," he said sounding confused, his eyes returning to normal as he blinked.

 

Donnie just grinned. "It looks like you have some sort of second eyelid, and that's what we've been seeing. It seems to come down when you get angry, but it also should be useful for seeing well underwater too."

 

Miwa chuckled. "Not to mention it'd be a good intimidation tactic. Try fighting someone with eyes like that, and not flinch."

 

Raph nodded to what his sister said, but kept his attention on Donnie. "So it's not something to worry about?"

 

"It shouldn't be," Donnie assured him, making the turtle sigh in relief.

 

With that out of the way, Leo stepped forward. "Raph," he said, drawing his brother's attention.

 

Raph looked over at him with an unreadable expression.

 

"I-I want to apologize for what a jerk I've been to you lately," Leo said, scratching the back of his head as he did so. "I know this has to be hard for you, and my actions probably weren't helping with that."

 

"Same goes for me," added Miwa, looking down. "I'm sorry I've been avoiding you. I just didn't think you'd want me to be around with it being our fault this happened."

 

"But turtle or not, you're still our brother, and we're not going to let a few scales and a shell come between that," Leo continued.

 

Raph's face broke into a small smile at that. "Eh, forget it," he said, waving their apologies away. "If it was someone other than me this happened too, I'd probably react the same way."

 

"Yeah right, he'd be worse," said Mikey with a grin, making the others snicker.

 

Leo grinned at Raph. "And another thing, you're still part of this team, so you better so you better start dressing accordingly," he said.

 

And with that he reached into his pocket, and pulled out a new red mask to replace the one that had been ripped when Raph mutated, but longer and set to fit his new face.

 

Raph's eyes lit up at the sight of it, and he picked the mask up and tied it around his head.

 

With his mask on, his siblings all studied his appearance with a critical eye.

 

"What do you know," Miwa said thoughtfully. "That look actually seems to work for you."

 

"Certainly not as silly as I was expecting," agreed Donnie.

 

Raph picked up the mirror again, and examined his reflection. Seeing it, he shrugged. "I think I can live with this, at least until Donnie makes a cure."

 

"Dude," said Mikey with a wide smile, "You make a great Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle."

 

His words were met with deadpan glares. "Mikey, what have we told you about giving our brother a mutant name," said Leo disapprovingly.

 

"Especially a stupid sounding one like that," added Raph in agreement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So instead of Follow the Leader, we get Chase the Turtle. After Raph's mutation, everyone needed a bit of an adjustment period before they could work together properly again. But now Raph's got his mask back, and is ready for action again.


	16. Of Squirrels and Geckos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the family drama out of the way, Mikey notices one of his friends is missing, and discovers his brother wasn't the only mutant to come of that night...

After the fiasco with the Shredder trying to recruit Raph, things got better for the Hamato family. Their parents still worried about them, but the five teens were handling the changes better than they had before, and once again functioning as a proper team.

 

The hunt for the mutagen was still on, but there were other problems in the teenagers' lives than just the spilled canisters. The Shredder had told the Kraang and Purple Dragons about Raph's mutation and word had spread from there. Now all the bad guys in the city were on a turtle hunt.

 

Another problem surfaced when Mikey came home from school one day looking worried.

 

"What's wrong?" Miwa asked him in concern, the others listening in to hear the answer.

 

"You guys know my friend, Jason?" Mikey said.

 

"Yeah," said Leo. "He's that guy with the floppy hair you always go skateboarding with."

 

"The one who's always using retro slang," Raph added.

 

"Well, I think something's happened to him," Mikey said, the worry on his face evident. "I haven't seen him for days, not at school or anywhere else. And when I went by his house to ask his parents about it, they slammed the door in my face when I said his name."

 

Mikey's older siblings exchanged glances, that didn't sound good.

 

Mikey, meanwhile, tossed his school backpack aside and grabbed his skateboard. "Well, whatever happened, I'm gonna go look for him," said the youngest in determination.

 

"You want any help?" Donnie asked as Mikey headed out the door.

 

"If I can't find him myself, then yeah," called Mikey over his shoulder as the door shut behind him.

 

_________________

 

To start his search, Mikey went back to Jason's house. He didn't bother with the door this time, since he wasn't eager to get it slammed on his nose again (that had hurt). Instead, he scaled the wall of the apartment building, and peered into Jason's bedroom window.

 

Seeing no one there, he forced the window open, and slipped inside.

 

Jason's room didn't look any different than it had been the last time he'd come over. It was still a mess, and covered in skateboarding posters, comic books, and dirty clothes.

 

But a more thorough search revealed that a thin layer of dust was starting to cover everything, indicating that no one had been in the room for a while.

 

"Jay-Man, where are you?" Mikey muttered, using the nickname he'd given his friend.

 

Finding nothing to tell him where his friend had gone, Mikey slipped back out the window, and hurried to search their favorite haunts.

 

He tried asking around at the local skate park, their favorite pizza place, Murakami's restaurant, the comic book store they frequented, and nothing. No one had seen any sign of the skateboard-loving boy in days.

 

It was dark when Mikey arrived at the last place he was going to look before calling his siblings for help. The halfpipe that Jason had made from scratch, and loved to practice his moves on.

 

"JAY-MAN!" Mikey called as the halfpipe came into sight. "YOU THERE? COME ON, DUDE, WHERE ARE YOU?"

 

Mikey searched the area, trying to find any sign of his friend. Only to his dismay, the place seemed deserted.

 

But just as he was about to call it quits, his foot stepped on something glass that cracked beneath his shoes.

 

Looking down, Mikey's eyes widened in horror as he realized what he was seeing.

 

Next to his feet was the shattered and empty remains of a now familiar type of canister.

 

"Mutagen!" Mikey said in realization, backing away from the shards.

 

"You know what that stuff is?" came a voice behind him.

 

Mikey recognized the voice, and wheeled around. "Jay-Man!" he said happily.

 

But no one appeared to be there.

 

"Jay-Man?" Mikey called again, looking around in confusion.

 

"Uh, hey Mikey," said Jason's voice from under the halfpipe. "Long time no see."

 

Mikey frowned at how nervous his friend sounded. "Where you been, dude? I've been looking all over for you," he said as he walked towards the halfpipe.

 

"I, uh, something happened the other night," Jason said, still sounding nervous, but trying to cover it up with bravo like he always did. "Nothing big. But I've been too busy to go to school recently. My skateboarding's gotten  _way_  more righteous, dude, I'll be pro in no time."

 

While Jason was babbling, Mikey reached the halfpipe, and peered under it. But the wooden structure seemed dark and vacant.

 

"Why're you hiding?" Mikey asked, feeling confused, and a little hurt. "Do you think going pro means I can't see you anymore?"

 

"Uh, well," Jason said, his nervousness coming back. "I just don't want you to react like my parents did."

 

"React to what?" Mikey asked in confusion. His eyes then widened and he looked back at the empty canister, realizing what it could mean. "Oh no, Jason."

 

He looked back under the halfpipe, scanning it more thoroughly now. "Come out, dude," he pleaded, hoping he was wrong. "We're friends. I don't care if you, you know, look different…"

 

He waited, hoping his friend would scoff or laugh at what he'd just said, and come out looking like his regular old self.

 

But instead Jason said quietly, "So you  _do_  know what that stuff is."

 

Mikey then noticed movement clinging to the sloping underside of the halfpipe. As he watched, a small figure crawled out from under the structure, and stood before him.

 

Mikey stared at the short lizard-like creature with big bulging eyes, and his friend's favorite baseball hat. "Hey, Mike," the mutated form of Jason said, fidgeting under his gaze.

 

Mikey studied his friend's new form. He opened his mouth to try and say something encouraging, but what came out instead was, "You mutated from Lars?" he asked, remembering Jason's pet gecko.

 

Jason stared at him for a full minute, before bursting out laughing at his blunt statement.

 

The two friends soon found themselves sitting on the top of the halfpipe as Jason told Mikey his story.

 

"It all started a couple weeks ago," he began. "I was just skating my halfpipe with Lars, you know how he loves to ride on my shoulder when I skate. Then some crazy ooze fell out of the sky. Turned me into the last thing I touched. My gecko. I totally became a gecko person. At first I thought it was  _Excellent!"_ His face fell as he said what happened next. "But then my parents kicked me out, and I wound up on the street."

 

Mikey looked at his friend sympathetically. That explained why Jason's parents had slammed the door in his face when he asked about him. "That's rough man."

 

Jason shrugged, and gave Mikey a toothy grin. "It ain't all bad," he said. "Check out what being a gecko gets me."

 

With that Jason grabbed his skateboard and shot down the halfpipe, before vaulting off it and doing a series of crazy tricks on the nearby walls and garbage, making full use of his new flexibility and sticky fingers and tongue. He then landed on a handstand next to Mikey again. his skateboard stuck to the bottom of his feet.

 

"Pretty rad, right?" he said, before flipping himself upright again. "I can also do this." His long tongue darted out of his mouth and licked at his eyes. "I can't blink, so I gotta lick my eyeballs to keep them moist."

 

Mikey gasped in awe. "I've always wanted to lick my own eyeball," he said wistfully. He then proceeded to try, but his own tongue didn't even reach past his nose.

 

Jason laughed at his attempt, before turning serious again. "So you seemed to have some clue about the ooze stuff that did this to me is. Gonna share?"

 

Mikey quickly pulled his tongue back into his mouth, and looked anywhere but at Jason.

 

"Yeah, about that," said Mikey, knowing he had to be honest about this. Jason was his friend, and deserved that much. "It's, uh, it's kinda me and my family's fault the ooze fell out of the sky," he admitted.

 

Jason's jaw dropped at that. " _What?_ "

 

Mikey looked at his friend imploringly. "We totally didn't mean for that to happen," he said quickly. "We were trying to stop the mutagen shipment, but the Kraang had this big gorilla body that kept pounding us, and then… and then the floor opened up, and the mutagen fell out." Mikey hung his head as he finished speaking.

 

"So this is your fault?" asked Jason dangerously.

 

"Yes," Mikey said guiltily. "But it was an accident, I swear."

 

"You turned me into  _THIS!"_ shouted Jason, jumping to his feet, and holding his skateboard over his head as if to attack Mikey with it.

 

Mikey winced, and brought his hand up to block the oncoming blow.

 

But at the last second before the board came down, Jason burst out laughing, and lowered the board to his side. "Oh man, you shoulda seen the look on your face," he hooted while pointing at Mikey.

 

Mikey just gave him a relieved smile. He would never understand Jason's sense of humor.

 

"But seriously though," said Jason when he stopped laughing. "What the heck happened? And how's someone like you mixed up in all this, compadre?"

 

Mikey took a deep breath and told Jason all about how his family had saved April from the Kraang, and how they'd been trying to stop the aliens ever since. He left out the part about the Foot, and the vendetta against his family, which was a discussion for somewhere more private than a back-alley halfpipe.

 

Jason looked thoughtful when he was done. "Sounds to me like it's more these bogus Kraang guys fault all this happened, than it is yours, dude," he said.

 

"Maybe," said Mikey. "But we still need to find those mutagen canisters so Donnie can make an anti-ooze to turn mutants like you and Raph back to normal."

 

Jason glanced down at his suction cup fingers. "Do you really think your bro can change me back?" he asked. "I mean, I know he's a brainiac, but-"

 

"If anyone can do it, Donnie can," said Mikey confidently.

 

Jason just grinned at that. "That would be so gnarly." Then he cocked his head like he'd thought of something. "You said you and your sibs were looking for more of that ooze stuff, right? 'Cause I totally saw a can of some a few blocks from here by the movie theater."

 

Mikey beamed, and jumped to his feet. "Then what are we waiting for, Jay-Man, lead the way."

 

As they went Jason said, "You know, I don't really think that nickname fits anymore. You said you come up with great mutant names right?"

 

Mikey beamed him. "Yup, and I bet I can come up with the perfect one for you."

 

He hurried forward and started walking backwards so that he could frame Jason between his fingers. "Let's see. Rad Lizard! No wait, Skater-Mander! No that's lame," Mikey muttered as he thought the options over. Then his eyes lit up and he said, "Oh, I got it. Mondo Gecko!"

 

The newly named Mondo Gecko grinned at Mikey. "Mondo Gecko, I like it." he said as he licked his eyes.

 

_________________

 

Mondo led Mikey over towards the movie theater, and showed the ninja where a cracked canister of mutagen was hidden among a pile of trash.

 

Stealing an empty bucket from a nearby alley, they carefully rolled the canister into it, and looked down at the glowing substance.

 

"It's half empty, but it's still more mutagen then we had," said Mikey as he examined the cracked glass. He then grinned, and gave his friend a thumbs up. "You did good, Mondo."

 

Mondo preened under the praise, but before he could say anything a scream cut through the night.

 

The two exchanged glances before running towards the source of the scream.

 

Cowering by the glass doors of the theater was the homeless man that lived on the nearby streets.

 

Wondering what could be scaring him so much, the two followed his gaze to see a squirrel sitting on its haunches in front of him.

 

"Uh, Mike? Why is that dude afraid of that cute little critter?" Mondo asked.

 

"Because those things are  _evil_ ," said Mikey matter-of-factly, glaring at the squirrel.

 

Mondo covered his mouth to hide a snicker, remembering that his friend was more than a little Sciurophobic. "Oh right, I forgot you don't like squirrels, dude."

 

"They're out to get me, I'm telling you," Mikey whispered back indignantly.

 

Just then the squirrel noticed them standing there. With a piercing shriek, it opened its mouth too wide to be possible, and a long rope like tongue swung out and flailed at them.

 

Mikey and Mondo screamed and clung to each other at the sight.

 

The squirrel then retracted its tongue, and scampered towards the cowering bum.

 

Before Mikey and Mondo's very eyes, they watched the squirrel crawl up the bum's legs and launch itself towards his face. The bum screamed in fear, but the squirrel only took advantage of that to crawl into the man's mouth, and down his throat. The homeless man then collapsed boneless on the ground groaning, but unconscious.

 

Mondo and Mikey were still clinging to each other. "Okay," the gecko said, sounding freaked out. "I believe you. Squirrels  _are_  evil."

 

"I told you, dude," said Mikey, equally freaked out.

 

_________________

 

All the Hamato siblings sans Mikey were sitting in Donnie's lab, working on homework. Even though Raph was unable to continue going to school in his current state, his parents weren't about to let his grades fall behind, so the turtle had found himself getting tutored by Donnie everyday when his siblings got home from school. Their other siblings had started sitting in on the tutoring in order to get help with their own homework, and the time soon became a designated study session for the siblings, and only seemed to be helping their grades improve.

 

The study session was going fine, until Mikey walked in with a bum slung over his shoulders, and a mutant gecko trailing behind him holding a bucket.

 

Mikey's four older siblings stared at them in shock, before Miwa said, "Oh I can't  _wait_  to hear the story behind this."

 

Mikey placed the bum on one of Donnie's lab tables, and gestured towards the gecko. "Guys, you all remember my friend Jason, or as I now like to call him, Mondo Gecko."

 

The four of them did a double take, and stared at the gecko more closely. "Jason?" Leo repeated, looking ill.

 

"You too, huh," Raph deadpanned to the other mutant while munching on a bowl of popcorn he'd brought to snack on while studying.

 

"Yup, got hit by flying goo, and now I'm that much more awesome," said Mondo brightly.

 

"Okay, that explains the giant lizard in my lab," Donnie said sarcastically. "Now would you please explain why there is a homeless guy on my table?"

 

Said homeless guy rolled over and farted in his sleep.

 

"Well," said Mikey. "Mondo here told me he knew where another mutagen canister had landed, so we went to get it."

 

"Check it," said Mondo holding out the bucket.

 

Donnie reached over and took the bucket from them, and examined the contents. "Great," he said when he saw the ooze at the bottom, "but that still doesn't explain sleeping beauty over there."

 

"When we were getting the ooze, we heard this gnarly scream," said Mondo, picking up where Mikey had left off. "So we went to see what that was about."

 

"But when we got there, we saw Snoozy over there getting stalked by a vicious mutant squirrel," said Mikey dramatically. "It was totally like how the aliens inhabited host bodies in my  _Tales from the Cosmos_  comic book."

 

"And it totally freaked us out, man," agreed Mondo. "And then the squirrel crawled down the dude's throat, so we brought him here to see what's going on. Mikey told me you were a genius," he directed the last part towards Donatello.

 

The four older siblings exchanged dubious glances. "This isn't another 'squirrels are evil' story, is it?" Leo asked doubtfully.

 

"It's the truth!" Mondo protested.

 

Mikey glared hard at his big brother, as if daring him to say he was making it up.

 

Seeing that look, Donnie sighed and made his way over to his homemade x-ray machine.

 

Pulling the image up on his computer, his eyes widened, and his jaw dropped.

 

"Okay, I believe you," he said with a freaked-out expression.

 

The rest of them crowded around to look at the computer screen.

 

Displayed on the monitor was an x-ray of the man's chest and stomach, with the clear images of two squirrels curled up inside him.

 

"Whoa," said Leo when he saw it.

 

"Wait, why are there two?" asked Mondo. "We only saw the guy swallow one."

 

"Maybe he swallowed the other one before you got there," said Miwa with a shrug.

 

Just then the bum sat straight up on the table and started babbling nonsense.

 

"I think those freaky squirrels made him a little nutty," said Leo as he raised his eyebrow at the bum.

 

"Dudes, I got this. I can totally translate crazy," said Mikey with a grin.

 

"That explains so much," said Miwa snidely.

 

Mikey went over and cupped his ear to focus on the bum, as the man continued to babble. "He sayin', the squirrel licked some ooze and transformed into a mutant. It's been chasing me for days now, but I'm totally okay."

 

"If by okay, you mean totally insane," Raph pointed out angrily.

 

"Well, at least on one will believe a crazy guy if he talks about giant turtles and lizards hanging out at our dojo," Leo deadpanned.

 

"Hey," snapped Mondo, "I'm a gecko, dude."

 

Suddenly the bum fell back onto the table and started convulsing. Then with a mighty heave, he puked the two squirrels out and collapsed.

 

The teenagers yelped and jumped back as two squirrels sat chittering in the lab, covered in puke.

 

"That was also just like my  _Tales from the Cosmos_  comic," said Mikey. "Well almost. In my comic the aliens exploded out of the dude's butt."

 

"Dude, you gotta lend that issue to me," said Mondo.

 

The rest of the siblings just rolled their eyes at Mikey's comic book talk.

 

The bum groaned and sat back up. Rubbing his head, he looked around and caught sight of Raph standing next to him. "GAH, LEPRECHAUN!" he yelled, and bolted from the room.

 

Raph glanced at the others and said, "I'll show our friend to the door," before bolting after him.

 

In the hallway outside the lab they heard a loud thunk, and Raph grumble, "Who do you think you're calling a leprechaun," as he dragged the now unconscious bum away.

 

Meanwhile, the mutant squirrels wandered over to Raph's popcorn bowl, and began nibbling at the kernels.

 

"We gotta catch them," said Donnie as he pointed his mutagen scanner at the creatures. "They're emitting dangerous amounts of energy."

 

Leo nodded, and motioned for the others to creep towards the squirrels. "Move very slowly. We don't wanna startle them."

 

Just then, Mondo tripped over a power cord, and went sprawling towards the squirrels.

 

In response, the squirrels opened their two big mouths and flailed their tongues at the rest of them.

 

The teens who hadn't seen that before jumped back with yelps of surprise, but Mikey and Mondo both dove towards the small mutants in an attempt to grab them.

 

But the squirrels evaded capture, and began scampering all around the room, making the teens chase them, and more likely than not, knock into Donnie's equipment (much to the genius' ire).

 

Just as Raph was walking back in after taking out the bum, the squirrels scampered past his feet and out the door. The others were so intent on chasing the squirrels that they didn't pay attention to anything else until they'd collided with Raph and were sent sprawling to the ground.

 

Free of the lab, the squirrels were scampering all over the basement level of their home, and the teens had to do their very best to catch them.

 

Leo had enough sense to order Mikey to run and shut the door to the upstairs, so that the mutant critters wouldn't get let loose on the dojo, or the upper levels.

 

That left the squirrels with the storage rooms, and Raph and Miwa's bedrooms to hide in, and after leading the teenagers on a merry chase around the storage areas, hide they did.

 

Miwa scowled as she and Mondo stood in the threshold of her bedroom after seeing one of them dart in there. "Perfect," she growled.

 

Mondo started forward to start searching for the squirrel, but stopped dead when Miwa's tantō appeared an inch from his face.

 

" _No one_ goes into my room," she said in a dangerous voice while giving Mondo an evil look.

 

The mutant gecko quickly backtracked with his hands in the air. "Y-yes ma'am," he said nervously.

 

With that, Miwa put her tantō away and stormed into her bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her.

 

Mondo looked over at where Leo was searching among the boxes of stored equipment for the other squirrel. "Your sister is  _scary_ , dude," the gecko said. "I think I just lost twenty years of my life."

 

Leo sent Mondo a sheepish glance. "You think that's bad, you should try living with her."

 

Mondo paled and said, "No offence, but I think I'm better off homeless."

 

Just then the squirrel they were looking for shot past them, and the two boys took off after it.

 

As the squirrel started climbing a tall stack of boxes, Mondo used his sticky fingers to crawl along the wall until he was right on top of it.

 

As the Hamato brothers gathered to watch, the gecko launched himself off the wall, and dove towards the squirrel with a cry of, "COWABUNGA!"

 

The brothers winced as the whole pile collapsed, and a cloud of dust came up. When the dust cleared they could see Mondo lying sprawled in the overturned pile of boxes, his hands clamped down on the squirrel trapped underneath his hat.

 

"Got it," he groaned, as the squirrel struggled to get out of his hat.

 

"Nice work," said Leo, shoving a crate over top of the hat trapped squirrel to keep it from escaping.

 

Just then a crash and scream came from Miwa's room.

 

Raph didn't hesitate to turn and wrench open the door to her bedroom.

 

Inside Miwa was struggling with the squirrel, as the small animal was clinging to her face. "Get! This! Thing!  _Off!"_  she yelled, and with a mighty wrench she managed to fling the squirrel from her face.

 

And send it flying directly for Raph's head.

 

The turtle yelped, and tried to duck, but the squirrel was too fast. As soon as the rodent hit his face, it dove into his open mouth and scrambled down his throat.

 

Raph clapped his hands over his mouth and looked sick, and the others stared at him in horror.

 

"Seriously, Raph," said Donnie as he pinched his forehead in exasperation. "Why is it always you?"

 

"It's been a bad week," Raph said faintly as his siblings began leading him back towards the lab.

 

The siblings put the other squirrel inside a box in the lab, and Donnie did another x-ray, this time of Raph's stomach. The turtle in question was getting more freaked out by the second, insisting that he could feel the squirrel inside him nibbling on the popcorn he'd eaten before hand.

 

But what Donnie saw made his jaw drop. "No way!" he exclaimed.

 

"What?!" shouted Raph frantically.

 

Miwa, Mikey, and Mondo had to practically sit on Raph to keep him on the examination table and Leo hurried over to see what had Donnie freaked out.

 

Looking at the computer screen, Leo's eyes widened. "Two?" he asked.

 

"Two what?" asked Miwa, as she struggled to contain the wiggling Raph.

 

"This is unprecedented. According to my scan, there isn't one but  _two_  squirrels in Raph's stomach," said Donnie, examining the x-ray. "Our earlier theory that that man swallowed two squirrels appears to be false. But rather it seems these squirrels replicate inside a host. They divide like a single celled organism."

 

Mikey's eyes widened. "That's exactly what happens in my comic," he exclaimed.

 

Raph stopped struggling for a second to glare at his little brother. " _Really?_ You're bringing that up  _now?"_  he asked.

 

"So does this mean Raph's gonna be these squirrels' mama?" asked Mondo.

 

Everyone stopped and looked at Mondo in disbelief, and Raph turned greener than he already was. "Just kill me now," he moaned.

 

Then his stomach growled and his face twisted into a nauseous expression. The three restraining him jumped back just in time to avoid Raph hurling up another pair of squirrels. The two critters immediately arched their backs and hissed at the teens the second they hit the floor.

 

"Is it always like this with you guys?" Mondo had to ask as the squirrels hissed at them all.

 

"Mostly," Mikey said.

 

"This time it's been a bit grosser than usual," added Miwa. "Usually there's less puking."

 

Suddenly the lights began flashing in time to the squirrels' hissing, making the teenagers look around in surprise.

 

"Donnie! Some sciencey stuff would be a big help right now," said Leo worriedly as the squirrels before them started glowing green, and writhing on the floor. The box that contained the third squirrel also started shaking and glowing could be seen through the air holes of it as well.

 

"Glowing!" said Mikey in a panic. "Glowing's bad! Glowing is  _real_ bad!"

 

"These things are putting out a crazy energy signature," said Donnie, holding up his scanner. "It's messing with my analyzer."

 

Just then the lights shut off completely.

 

"We're doomed, aren't we," Mondo said redundantly. "Bummer."

 

Just then the squirrels once again bolted from the lab, and the teens took off after them, but the squirrels were already hidden by the time they got out the door.

 

"Alright guys, split up and search," ordered Leo.

 

"Split up?!" asked Mikey in alarm. "Okay, even if this wasn't exactly like my comic (which it totally is), it's still a staple for anything horror related that splitting up is the last thing you should ever do!"

 

"Yeah, I'm with the Mikester, dudes," agreed Mondo.

 

Miwa, Raph, and Donnie didn't look too thrilled about the idea either.

 

Leo sighed. "We'll split up into teams," he said, trying to find a compromise. "Miwa, Donnie, you're with me. Raph, you go with Mikey and his friend."

 

The others still looked reluctant, but they still went their separate ways.

 

"Split up to search in the dark for multiplying mutants," said Raph sarcastically as they broke apart. "Could we pick a more cliché way to get eaten?"

 

Donnie couldn't resist answering over his shoulder. "One of us could twist our ankle, or our cell phones could die, or-"

 

' _Smack!'_

 

Not appreciating the line of dialogue Donnie was giving, Miwa reached over and slapped Donnie on the back of the head, making him shut up and glare at her.

 

"Thanks," said Leo to his sister, gratefully.

 

As they searched, Mondo Gecko stuck close to the two ninjas he'd been paired with. He knew without a doubt if these squirrels turned out to be more dangerous than they already seemed to be, than he'd likely be the first one to die. As much as he liked to talk big, the truth was that Jason hadn't fought a day in his life, and had no clue how to function in a real fight.

 

That fact made the mutant gecko very nervous, and when he got nervous, he had a habit of running his mouth.

 

"So since you're their momma, do ya think you could convince these squirrely creeps to, you know, not eat us?" Mondo asked Raph.

 

Raph glared down at him, unamused. "Stop saying that, I'm not their mother."

 

"Nah, that won't work," said Mikey, who was just as nervous as Mondo was. "In my comic, the dude who had the aliens in him didn't get any favors from them, in fact he was the first one they ate."

 

Mondo instantly shuffled away from Raph and closer to Mikey as the turtle glared at his younger brother. "Enough with the comic book garbage," he snapped.

 

Just then they all froze as a hissing sound came from somewhere in the darkness.

 

Mikey paled as his eyes darted around trying to spot the source of the noise. "There was a sound just like that in my comic when the baby aliens transformed into giant alienoids.

 

Mondo gulped loudly, and held up his skateboard like a shield.

 

Raph just raised an eye ridge at his brother. "Wait, you  _read_ it in a comic. How can it sound the same?"

 

The turtle's eyes then widened in fear as he caught sight of something hanging off the ceiling just behind his brother and Mondo. "Oh Kami-sama!" he said as he backed away, drawing the other two's attention to it.

 

Mondo quickly scampered to hide behind Raph, but Mikey stood frozen looking up at the horror before him. "They've turned into-into-"

 

Clinging to the ceiling above his head, the now man-sized squirrel with a bulbous head, and veiny red skin snarled down at him.

 

" ** _-SQUIRRELANOIDS!"_**  Mikey bellowed as he dodged the mutant squirrel's attempt to bite off his head.

 

The Squirrelanoid pounce at them, and the three teenagers screamed.

 

On the other side of the basement, Donnie, Leo, and Miwa had to contend with the other two Squirrelanoids, as the ambushed the three ninjas in the dark.

 

Trying to get some distance between them and their attackers, the teens regrouped and tried to fight the three hostile mutants off.

 

But the Squirrelanoids were fast, and soon they saw an attack coming that none of the teens could deflect or dodge.

 

At the last second, Hamato Yoshi appeared and batted the mutants away with his walking stick.

 

The Squirrelanoids went sprawling. They quickly climbed back to their feet and snarled at their prey. But just as they were about to attack again, a sound behind them caught their attention.

 

All looked over to see the bookcase on one of the walls swing open, and Leatherhead entered the room through a secret passage.

 

Before anyone could react, the Squirrelanoids darted for the new opening, and shoved past Leatherhead and into the sewers.

 

Once they were gone, Yoshi turned and raised an eyebrow at his children. "I'm certain you have a very good explanation for all this," he said sternly. "Tang Shen and I were not able to watch our stories due to the power going out."

 

Yoshi then caught sight of Mondo Gecko cowering behind Mikey. "And who is this?" he asked.

 

The teens exchanged glances, and told Yoshi and Leatherhead everything that had happened that night.

 

Yoshi stroked his beard as he listened, and he had to ponder just how much trouble his children could manage to get into when they were, literally, only a floor below him.

 

"-And now they've gotten away into the sewers, and if they managed to get out to the surface…" Leo hesitated in finishing his sentence as he pictured the fiasco that would cause.

 

"Go then," said Yoshi. "Quickly. I will stay to defend our home, in case the beasts double-back."

 

Mikey paled. "Which means we have to go after them alone, in the dark sewer, without you?" he asked meekly.

 

Yoshi quirked an eyebrow at his children and their friends. "Yes," he said firmly. "Who among you wants to prove you are the bravest? The strongest of will? The worthiest of ninjas?"

 

The teenagers exchanged glances.

 

_________________

 

A few minute later, Leatherhead found himself trudging through the sewers with only Donatello's robot for company.

 

"Father," said Donnie's voice through the robot's speakers. "I feel there is some kind of lesson here, like, I don't know, like brains over bravery, or something…"

 

"I'd say the 'something' part is most accurate," came Yoshi's dry reply.

 

Leatherhead chuckled to himself at that. He couldn't really blame the children for avoiding the sewers as best they could. He had been able to smell the fear of these creatures on then when they had told their tale, and the sewers were not as familiar to them as it was to him.

 

Still, it would have been nice to have at least one of them accompany him, aside from the short robot.

 

Through Metalhead's speakers, he was listening to Michelangelo comparing the experiences they were having now to a comic he'd previously read, when suddenly a piercing shriek cut through the darkness.

 

Leatherhead, and the robot instantly went on the alert as both scanned the surrounding tunnels for these Squirrelanoid creatures.

 

Finally, they spotted one hunched in a dimly lit tunnel. But as they made their way towards it, Leatherhead became aware of a presence behind him, and he wheeled around.

 

But he was not fast enough, as the other two squirrel mutants ambushed them. While one grappled with the gator, the other ruthlessly attacked Metalhead, ripping the robot's head off, and using its heavy body to club the alligator over the head.

 

The last thing the alligator heard was the frantic sound of Mikey's voice over the dying speakers saying they were coming for him, before the world went black.

 

_________________

 

Back at the dojo, Mikey surged to his feet, and bolted for the sewer exit. "We gotta save Leatherhead!" he shouted as he ran, gabbing his skateboard for the extra speed it would give him.

 

His siblings were only a few steps behind him, pausing only to grab their weapons and some flashlights before heading into the darkness.

 

Mondo Gecko was left sitting in front of the TV Donnie had been operating Metalhead from, wondering if he should go after them, or stay relatively safe in the dojo with his friend's kick butt ninja father.

 

As if reading his thoughts, Master Yoshi said, "The life we live is admittedly a dangerous one, Jason. But if one never takes a risk, they will never gain the fruits of their labor."

 

Mondo hesitated. "It's not that I don't wanna go after them, uh, sir," he said, trying to be respectful. "But it's just, I've never really been in a fight before, much less with big brain-sucking mutant squirrels. If I go there with them, I'm monster chow for sure."

 

"Perhaps," said Yoshi. "But such seems to be the constant risk for this family, and those associated with it."

 

Mondo quickly realized what he was hinting at. This sort of danger was weird and scary to him, but it was par for the course for Mikey and his Clan. If Mondo couldn't take the heat and learn to adapt, he'd only end up slowing them down in the long run, and they couldn't have that.

 

Eyes narrowing in determination, Mondo licked his eyeballs, hopped on his skateboard, and took off into the darkness after the five ninja teens. "Hey dudes, wait for me!" he called as he hurried to catch up.

 

As he left, Yoshi smiled. It seemed that his son had found a good friend after all.

 

_________________

 

It didn't take the teenagers long to find Leatherhead and the remains of Metalhead.

 

Donnie spared a sad glance at his robotic turtle, before turning his attention to the injured alligator. After an examination to the bump on his head, Donnie said. "Leatherhead will be alright, slight concussion, but he'll live. Those things hit him hard."

 

Mikey let out a sigh of relief at the news.

 

"We can't just leave him out here, though," said Miwa. "What if those things come back to finish him off?"

 

"I could take him back," Mondo offered, finally seeing something he could do that was useful.

 

The others exchanged glances. "How?" asked Leo. "Leatherhead is huge, and heavy. It took all of us to drag him home last time."

 

Mondo held up a finger like he was about to make a brilliant suggestion, but then dropped it as nothing came to him.

 

Donnie, however, looked thoughtful. "Maybe if we could roll him onto Mikey and Ja-uh-Mondo's skateboards, Mondo may be able to push him most of the way home.

 

Seeing no other options, the teens placed the boards vertical to each other, and rolled Leatherhead so that he was lying on his back upon them. Like that, the gator was elevated just enough for Mondo to slowly wheel him along back towards the dojo. They sent a message to Yoshi that he was coming, and the gecko began the difficult trek back to safety, glad he'd been able to at least contribute something (and that he might be getting out of this without becoming monster chow).

 

The other five, however, weren't all that thrilled that they still had to search the sewers by themselves. Using Donnie's tracker to hopefully lead them towards the mutant creatures, they traveled through the dark sewers.

 

"Just throwing this out there," Raph said breaking the silence. "But what are we supposed to do when we find these Squirrelanoid monsters?"

 

"Don't worry," said Mikey ominously. "They'll find us."

 

Raph glared at him. "That doesn't answer the question, bonehead."

 

Leo sighed. He had been wondering the same thing. "I guess we try to capture them, somehow. Then just keep them contained," he said, though he looked lost as to how to do it.

 

"Maybe Donnie can use them as his retro-mutagen guinea pigs," Miwa added.

 

"While I find the use of live guinea pigs highly immoral, the idea does have some merit," Donnie reluctantly agreed. "I'd test it thoroughly before administering it to anything living, but I'd rather use it on one of them first, before I try to cure Raph, Timothy, or Jason and find out that it didn't work, or just made things worse."

 

Donnie's attention was then drawn to his tracker, as he held it before two different tunnels. "I'm picking up strong readings from both tunnels," he said.

 

"Then we split up," said Leo heading in the direction of one.

 

"Again?" Mikey protested. "Didn't you guys get-?"

 

Leo just gave Mikey his 'I'm the leader, do as I say' face. "We need to find these things, and we need to do it fast before they escape and wreak havoc on New York. I'll take Mi and Donnie, you two take the other tunnel."

 

Mikey scowled. "It's still splitting up," he said. "And we wont have even teams this time. And as the smaller team, we're toast. Game over, man, game over."

 

"Technically," said Donnie, trying to reassure his little brother. "From my tests, Raph's mutant nature makes him much stronger, and more durable than the rest of us, so I think it may make our teams pretty even."

 

"I don't know if I should take that as a complement, or be creeped out that you tested for all that," said Raph dryly.

 

"I know I feel insulted that he's saying one of you is as good as two of us," said Miwa with equal dryness.

 

Leo rolled his eyes at them. "This way, you two," he said, before turning and heading down one of the tunnels.

 

Miwa followed after him, and Donnie gave his remaining brothers an apologetic shrug before hurrying to catch up.

 

"Sure, you take the guy with the tracking device," said Raph in frustration before turning towards the other tunnel. "Come on, Mikey."

 

The youngest hesitated before following after his turtle brother.

 

As the two reached an open drainage area, Raph couldn't resist asking. "So, uh, how did they defeat the aliens in your comic book?"

 

Mikey sent him a knowing look. "Oh, so now you wanna know," he said tauntingly. "Well, first the aliens picked the crew off in the dark one by one. Suckin' their faces off until there was only one remaining survivor."

 

Raph gave his brother a freaked out look. "Sorry I asked. Especially since according to you and lizard boy, I'll be first."

 

Just then they heard a squirrel's chattering in the darkness, and immediately began searching the room for the giant rodent.

 

A few tunnels away Donnie, Leo, and Miwa were getting close, if the loud beeping from Donnie's tracker was any indication.

 

Leo shined his flashlight at every dark corner her could find, but the squirrels stayed stubbornly out of sight. "I don't see anything," he said in frustration.

 

Miwa then noticed a slight movement above their heads. Looking up she could barely make out a dark shape hanging to the ceiling, and reaching down towards Donnie.

 

"WATCH OUT!" she shouted, tackling him out of the way just before the creature's claws could reach his head, and the two went sprawling onto the sewer floor.

 

The Squirrelanoid snarled at the loss of its prey, and dropped to the ground before them, and looming over the two on the ground.

 

As the Squirrelanoid's long tongue shot out towards Donnie, Miwa jumped between them again, and sliced at the appendage with her sword. "Get away from him, you  _Bitch!_ " she shouted.

 

As she distracted the Squirrelanoid, Leo hurried over and helped Donnie to his feet. "Heads or tails?" he asked as they readied their weapons to jump in the fight.

 

"Heads!" Donnie replied, before leaping up and slamming his bō against the Squirrelanoid's head, while Leo slashed at the mutant's tail, and Miwa aimed a jab at its claws.

 

The Squirrelanoid went down, but was soon crawling back to its feet, and the sound of the fight attracted another of the creatures.

 

Leo noticed it coming around the corner, and knew the three of them wouldn't be able to take on two on their own.

 

"Donnie! Miwa! Move!" he shouted signaling for them to fall back. "Move!"

 

The other two followed the order without complaint.

 

The three bolted down the tunnel in the direction Raph and Mikey had taken, the two Squirrelanoids hot on their heels. They came upon the two in a dried out drainage junction, trying to avoid the third as it snapped at the two of them.

 

Unable to stop in time, the three collided with Raph and Mikey, sending them all falling into the dirty pit.

 

With their prey trapped, the Squirrelanoids began circling along the pit in preparation for attack.

 

"They'll crack our heads like nuts," said Mikey fearfully.

 

"Well, I'm not going down without a fight," Miwa snarled, and they all charged at the squirrel mutants.

 

The five teenagers fought hard, but the Squirrelanoids were very strong and very fast, and soon had them all backed into a corner, with the vicious mutants closing in.

 

"Alright, Mikey, I'm in," said Raph reluctantly. "How does the sole survivor beat the aliens?"

 

Despite the danger, Mikey grinned. "It was so  _awesome_! He baited the alien into an airlock, and then he-" Mikey broke off as he remembered a wrong turn he had once taken on the way to see Leatherhead. "Oh!" he said excitedly, before managing to flip out of the pit, and taking off into the tunnels.

 

"Did he just bail on us?" Raph asked in disbelief.

 

"I think he's got a plan," said Leo hopefully.

 

"He better have," said Miwa as the Squirrelanoids attacked again.

 

The four teens did their best against them, but even before Mikey had run off, they had been loosing. They soon found themselves sprawled on the ground with the giant rodents towering over them.

 

Just as they were about to strike, they all froze and sniffed the air.

 

"Yoo Hoo! Glow Heads!" came Mikey's voice over by the exit.

 

They all turned to see Mikey standing near the entrance to the chamber, munching on Raph's bowl of popcorn.

 

"Want some?" he asked, holding the bowl out towards the squirrels.

 

Instantly the Squirrelanoids bolted towards Mikey, and the youngest took off back through the tunnels, leading them away from his siblings.

 

The orange wearing ninja ran as fast as he could through the sewers, well aware of the snarling creatures following him, wanting the popcorn he was holding in his hands.

 

Finally, he reached where he was trying to go, and with a mighty leap he vaulted over a large pool of water to the far side of the room.

 

He glanced back to see the Squirrelanoids pour into the room, and screech at him.

 

"Come and get it!" Mikey called to them nervously, hoping that this plan was going to work. He tossed the popcorn into the pool of water. The plastic from the bowl acted as a boat, keeping the contents nice and dry.

 

As one the Squirrelanoids dove into the pool after it, and Mikey darted to the rusty valve next to him.

 

Twisting the knob to the right, the plug at the bottom of the pool opened up, creating a whirlpool that sucked the Squirrelanoids down into the depths.

 

"Booyakasha!" said Mikey, pumping his fist into the air.

 

With that, he turned to leave, but before he could even take a step, he felt something wrap around his ankle, and drag him into the whirlpool, wrapping more tightly around him as he went down.

 

Mikey barely had enough time to hold his breath as he struggled against what was holding him. Peering through the dirty sewer water, he saw that one of the Squirrelanoids had its long tongue tied tightly around him, and seemed determined to drag him down with it.

 

Nothing Mikey seemed to do could free him from the Squirrelanoids grip, and he quickly felt himself running out of air as he was dragged deeper down.

 

Just as he was sure he was going to drown, Mikey felt a large hand clasp around his wrist, and a sai pry through the tangles of the tongue. The youngest was only vaguely aware of this, as he was gripped tightly and dragged back out of the water.

 

Once they broke the surface, Mikey gasped greedily for air. Then he looked up to see Raph was holding his hand and hanging upside-down above him with Leo clinging to his ankle, Donnie holding Leo, and Miwa perched above straining to hold all of them up. "I got cha," Raph said.

 

"We all do!" Leo called down to them.

 

Above them, Miwa began heaving them up, and Donnie joined her once he was back on solid ground.

 

Mikey allowed himself to smile in relief at his siblings as he was pulled from the water.

 

Before he could say anything, one of the Squirrelanoids burst from the water with a shriek and launched itself at Mikey. The youngest looked back in horror at the creature, knowing he couldn't dodge in time.

 

But before it could get him, Raph pulled a shuriken from his belt, and threw it at the Squirrelanoid's head. The shuriken hit the creature in the eye, and it fell with another shriek back into the water and out of sight.

 

A minute later, Donnie, Leo, and Miwa finally succeeded in pulling Raph and Mikey back out of the now drained pit.

 

"Phew," said Leo once the two were safely on solid ground. "The septic tanks down below should hold those creeps."

 

"At least until I develop my retro-mutagen," added Donnie. "Though it doesn't look like I'll be using them as guinea pigs."

 

Raph clapped a hand on Mikey's shoulder. "I'm glad you didn't get flushed, little brother," he said.

 

"You and me both, bro," said Mikey with a grin.

 

"Still," said Miwa, maintaining a good distance from the two wet ninjas. "Neither of you are doing anything else until you take a bath. I don't even want to know what was in that water."

 

Mikey and Raph exchanged glances, and sniffed themselves before recoiling in disgust. "A bath sounds really great right now," Mikey agreed.

 

_________________

 

One Japanese style bath later, Mikey and Raph went to join their family and guests in their living room.

 

The second they walked through the door, Mondo Gecko pounced on Mikey and pulled him into a one-armed hug. "Mikester!" he cheered when he saw him. "I heard you're, like, the man of the hour. Took out those freaky squirrel things all on your own."

 

Mikey grinned. "I owe it all to comic books," he said proudly.

 

Raph nodded. "I hate to admit it, but it looks like all of Mikey's comic book reading paid off."

 

Leo nodded in agreement from where Tang Shen was looking over the scrapes he'd gotten in the fight. "And that was pretty clever to realize Squirrelanoids were attracted to the scent of food."

 

"Actually, that was pretty obvious," said Donnie as he was looking over Leatherhead's bump again to make sure he hadn't missed anything. "I can't believe  _I_ didn't think of it."

 

"Not everyone can be the brains of the outfit," said Mikey with a smirk, before turning his attention back to Mondo. "Sorry we dragged you into all this, Jay-Man."

 

"Are you kidding?" asked Mondo with a big grin. "Tonight was  _Awesome!_  Totally righteous, dude, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Plus," Mondo jerked his head towards Leatherhead, "your friend LH here is  _totally_  rad. He said I could crash at his place until the retro-mutagen gets made. How bodacious is that?"

 

Mikey looked over at the alligator. "Really, you'd do that for him?" Mikey said gratefully.

 

Leatherhead nodded. "Yes. The abandoned station I live in is large enough for more than just myself, and I believe I have gained enough control of my temper to allow me to have a roommate, so to speak."

 

Mondo nodded. "Totally dude, he says I gotta be, like, super careful and keep my distance whenever he goes into a mood, but otherwise I can totally hang with him. No more living on the streets for me," he said with a wide grin.

 

Mikey beamed. "That is awesome! You're the best, Leatherhead."

 

"So the Squirrelanoids are defeated, Jason's living situation is taken care of, and we got some more mutagen for Donnie to study," Leo summed up. "I'd say this was a pretty good night."

 

The others all voiced their agreement.

 

Yoshi, however, stroked his beard thoughtfully. "And have any of you considered, what if one of those creatures manages to escape?" he asked.

 

Raph gave his father a cocky grin. "No worries, Father, those giant nut-loving freaks are gone for good," he said while fist bumping Leo.

 

Mikey, however, frowned and hurried over to the bookshelf with his comic book collection on it. Pulling one out, he held it up and said nervously, "Um, actually a bunch of sequel comics came out, and the aliens come back."

 

The Hamato Clan stared at the comic that was entitled  _Tales from the Cosmos No. 2: Alienoids Return._  The cover depicting three aliens trying to pull a man apart while a woman cowered in fear.

 

_________________

 

Meanwhile, the Sewer Worker Leatherhead had scared when he first moved into the underground (which was caught on film, and alerted the Hamatos to the gator's presence), had finally been released from therapy, and was allowed back to work, convinced that the sewers were once again nothing to fear.

 

As he walked his rounds through the underground tunnels near the septic tanks, he noticed a bowl of popcorn sitting among the debris.

 

Picking it up, he noticed that the snack was surprisingly clean, and only slightly soggy.

 

Popping some into his mouth, he began enjoying the treat.

 

Little did he know that a pair of clawed hands were reaching out for him from the darkness…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup, I brought in Mondo Gecko early. It was mentioned a few chapters back that Mikey had a friend named Jason from school, and I don't see Mikey as the type of friend to do nothing if one of them just disappeared.


	17. You Can't Save Everyone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raph's absence from school has not gone unnoticed, and Casey grows suspicious of what exactly has happened to his friend. Meanwhile, Timothy grows discontent with his life in a fishbowl, and longs for something more...

Despite what some people may think, Casey Jones was not stupid.

 

Okay, so he may not have the best book smarts out there, and a few too many pucks to the head may have knocked some screws loose along with his teeth.

 

But when it came to his friends, Casey Jones knew what he was talking about.

 

He'd known almost instantly that his friendship with Nick was over when he accidentally hit him during that hockey game. He'd tried desperately to prove his intuition wrong, and make amends with his best friend, only for Nick to make it clear that he wanted nothing to do with Casey ever again.

 

Not long after that, Casey met Raphael Hamato, and he knew the instant he saw the other hothead that he'd either found his new best friend, or that they would hate each other's guts.

 

Fortunately for both of them, it turned out to be the former, and Raph quickly became an even better friend than Nick ever was. The hockey nut knew he wouldn't ever have to worry about Raph walking off on him over an accident like Nick had. Give him matching injuries as payback, maybe, but he'd still stick with him. Raphael would be his friend for life, or his name wasn't Casey Jones.

 

So when Raph went missing, Casey knew right away that something was up.

 

At first he tried the logical approach to get some answers by asking Raph's family about him, but they just kept stonewalling him by giving him some lame and clearly falsified story about how Raph was sick and couldn't see anyone.

 

Yeah right, and Casey Jones was a rat lover (which he wasn't, he was completely freaked out by the furry little creeps). Even if Raph  _was_  sick, he'd still answer his phone, which he hadn't done since he'd vanished. Plus, Casey had checked at all the hospitals. If Raph was sick enough to stay in bed that long, his family would have had to have taken him there at some point. But every single one he went to said that they hadn't had Raph for a patient recently.

 

Since the Hamatos were no help, Casey decided to do some digging on his own, and what he found left him even more worried for his friend than before.

 

Raph wasn't the only boy from their school to go missing. There were three others, all of whom had vanished around the same time.

 

The first boy to go missing was named Timothy, and he had disappeared a little before Raph. Casey remembered him from school, he was the chubby kid obsessed with superheroes, and wanted to be one himself. This led to him picking a lot of fights with bullies, and then getting beat up for his troubles. Casey hadn't initially thought much of his disappearance, thinking he might have gotten in over his head in a fight, and was in the hospital. They'd have heard if he was dead, so it wasn't that. Another quick call to the various local hospitals showed Casey that that wasn't the case. Timothy had apparently just dropped off the face of the Earth.

 

The other two boys to go missing had both vanished around the exact same time as Raph. One was named Jason, and he was considered a bit of a slacker as far as high school stereotypes went. He apparently loved skateboarding as much as Casey loved hockey, so it was not unusual for him to cut class to go out on his board. But the days soon piled up, and Raph's younger brother, Mikey, had been the one to alert Casey to his disappearance. The hockey nut overheard Mikey talking to a teacher, asking her if she knew why Jason hadn't been at school, and the teacher replied that she didn't know why, and his parents were talking. Sneaking into the school records (which he totally didn't get caught doing) confirmed that Jason hadn't been to school for the same amount of time as Raph, cementing him as missing kid number three.

 

The fourth to go missing was Martin Milton. Martin was the youngest to disappear, and Casey couldn't find out much about him. Apparently he'd lost one of his legs in an accident years ago, and didn't have any friends. The only other notable thing he could find was that Martin had an obsession with Role Playing Games and LARPing. Only the boy's parents seemed to be worried about him (or even care that he was missing), and that was just kinda sad.

 

So now Casey Jones officially had a mystery on his hands. Four boys had gone missing, and one of which was Casey's own best friend. One thing was for sure, he was getting to the bottom of this, and whoever made Raph disappear was going to pay.

 

But he wasn't going to get anywhere without some solid answers, and the only people who seemed to know anything for sure was Raph's family, and as stated before, they weren't talking to him, and nothing he did was getting him anything.

 

But there was one person he knew they were talking to. April O'Neil, Raph's other little brother's girlfriend.

 

Casey knew he'd have to tread carefully if he wanted to get information from her. April O'Neil was known in the school for being a smart cookie, and wasn't one to let herself be pushed around (not that Casey would ever try pushing a girl around, he was a better person than that). If Casey wanted to get anything from her, than he needed to get it without her (or her boyfriend, Donnie) knowing that was what he was after.

 

There was another reason that Casey thought she might know something, aside from her connection to the Hamato family. When snooping through the school records, Casey found out that she too had gone missing for a while, only to turn up again a few weeks later like nothing had happened. It was entirely possible she was connected to the other disappearances, and if she was, Casey was determined to find out how.

 

Lucky for him, he had the perfect way to do it.

 

But first he had to introduce himself to her, and if there was one thing he knew how to do, it was make an entrance.

 

Catching sight of the red-haired girl at her locker, Casey grinned and took aim with his hockey stick.

 

With a hard smack, he sent a spare puck flying at the girl, knocking her feet out from under her, and making her yelp as she fell to the ground.

 

As she lay there dazed, April glanced over and saw the puck roll to a stop by her head. "Are you kidding me?" she asked in annoyance.

 

"Nice job stopping my puck like that," Casey said in a cocky tone as he walked over and reclaimed his puck. "You've got some moves, Red."

 

"Um, you could start with 'sorry'," she snapped as she picked herself up, not looking at all amused.

 

"Sorry you got in the way," said Casey flippantly as he pushed the puck around on the floor. "What were you doing blocking the hallway like that anyway?"

 

This only seemed to rile her up more. "Blocking the-?" she said looking peeved. "Who do you think you are?"

 

"Is he bugging you, April?" asked the girl with pink glasses, purple hair, and goth clothing who had the locker next to April's.

 

April spared the girl a short glance. "If he is, I can handle it, Irma. But thanks."

 

The goth shrugged, and moved on leaving the two of them alone.

 

Once she was gone, Casey turned his attention back to April. "You signed up for extra cred, right?" he asked the scowling redhead. "Well rejoice, 'cause I'm the guy you're gonna tutor."

 

April scowled and rolled her eyes. "Oh great," she said sarcastically.

 

Seeing her reluctance, Casey decided to get serious. "Look, if I don't pass trig, they'll kick me off the hockey team. Nobody else wants to tutor me. They're all intimidated by my supreme awesomeness," he said.

 

And this was a very real concern of his. As much as he was set on finding Raph, if he could get his grades up to stay on the team along the way, that would be a real plus.

 

April looked unimpressed. "Uh, so this is you asking me for help?" she asked with another roll of her eyes and a scoff. "Charming."

 

Casey just leaned forward and gave the girl his best kicked-puppy look.

 

April fidgeted under his gaze, before finally giving a sigh of resignation. "Fine, meet me at the park at seven.  _Don't_  be late."

 

Casey backed off and grinned. "It's a date then, nice," he said, knowing what response that would get him.

 

Like he'd predicted, April gave him an aloof look, "Thanks, but I have a boyfriend. You'll have to settle for just tutoring."

 

Casey shrugged, and swatted his puck so that it shot down the hall, and knocked another kid off his feet. Casey cringed at the sight, and started to head over to make sure the kid wasn't hurt.

 

As he left, April called after him, "So what's your name, anyway?" she asked.

 

"Casey Jones," he said with a wink. For a second he had been tempted to give a fake name to keep April from telling Donatello about him, but he knew she'd just look him up on the tutor roster, and find out his lie anyway. He just hoped April didn't tell Donnie about him, or that the genius wouldn't figure out what he was trying to do.

 

____________________

 

"-And then he just swaggered away like he owned the school," April vented to Donnie later that day. The two were in Donnie's lab, working on their retro-mutagen formula while April told her boyfriend about her day. "And just when I convinced my Dad I didn't need a bodyguard everywhere. I  _had_  to be stuck tutoring some jerk jock."

 

Donnie glanced up at her with a pair of goggles strapped to his face, making his brown eyes look huge. "You want me to teach him some manners?" Donnie asked, as he let a drop of a chemical fall into a beaker.

 

Instantly the retro-mutagen attempt turned to ice, and shattered the beaker, making Donnie groan in frustration.

 

April had to grin at Donnie's antics. "No, I've got it. This guy acts tough, but with all the training Master Splinter's been giving me, I think I can handle it if he needs to be taught a lesson."

 

Donnie grabbed a broom and swept up the remains of the failed cure, nodding to her as he did so. "Alright. I trust you, April," he said. "But if you want someone to give him a ninja smack down-"

 

"I'll call Raphael," April teased, making Donnie flush at the insinuation. "I'm kidding. Of course I'd call you, silly."

 

Donnie blushed, and continued sweeping with a dopey grin on his face.

 

"I have to say, I am impressed," April added. "Most guys would get all jealous if they knew their girlfriend was going to be spending alone time with some other guy."

 

"Who says I'm not jealous," said Donnie with a shrug as he dumped the ice and shattered beaker into his waste disposal. "Because trust me, I am crazy jealous right now. But it's not up to me to tell you how to live your life, and I know you need this tutoring thing to get your grades back up after having to skip school for so long." He then turned to looked her in the eyes. "And like I said, I trust you, April."

 

April grinned and gave Donnie a peck on the lips. "That's sweet, thanks Donnie."

 

Donnie practically fainted on the spot, and April turned away to give him time to pull himself together.

 

As her eyes wandered the lab, she noticed the jar of goo and organs that used Timothy (AKA the Pulverizer) was making a chewing motion with his mouth.

 

"I think Tim is hungry again," said April as she started making her way towards the container.

 

At first the mutated glob had freaked April out, but over time she grew to pity the poor boy, especially after Donnie had told his reasons for attempting to become a mutant. Wishing you were powerful enough to protect those you cared about was something she could relate too.

 

As a result, April always went out of her way to try and talk to Timothy whenever she stopped by the lab in hopes of making his confinement more bearable until Donnie could find a cure.

 

She knew Donnie was doing the same whenever he was alone with Timothy, but the genius confessed to her that he wasn't sure how much Timothy was retaining what was said, or even how much he remembered of his human life. Apparently the tests he had run on the blob showed that Timothy was barely sentient, and could do little more than eat and stare out of his jar. He never said anything about it, but April could see that it hurt for Donnie to see his friend in this way.

 

All the more reason to create that retro-mutagen, and give this kid his life back. Donnie had been making it as much for him as he was for Raph.

 

As April approached the tank, she gave Timothy a friendly smile. "Hey there, you hungry?" she asked.

 

Timothy only blinked at her in reply.

 

April reached up to the can of cheesy puffs resting on the top of the tank, and shook some into it, making Timothy's mouth float up and eat them.

 

"We'll fix you up, don't worry," she said reassuringly, placing a hand on the glass.

 

Timothy's only reply was to blink at her again.

 

"Hey Timothy, guess what I have," Donnie said as he came up beside April.

 

He attached a speaker to the front of the tank, and hitched it up to some of the equipment he'd created to monitor Timothy's vitals.

 

"Ta-da," said Donnie as he stepped back. "It's a voice box. Now you can talk back, and maybe we can figure out how to make you more comfortable. How's it work."

 

Timothy's mouth moved, and the speaker cracked to life.  _"Speaking. To. You. Donnie."_  He said in a horrible scratchy voice that April barely resisted covering her ears to block out.

 

Donnie's face lit up regardless of the ear-splitting sound. "Hey, it works," he said brightly.

 

Timothy then turned his eyes towards April.  _"I. Like. April."_ He said as he stared at her through the glass.

 

April grinned. "Aw, thanks. I like you too. Don't worry Donnie'll make you all better in no time."

 

She then noticed the time, and hurried over to grab her things. "I've gotta go. It's almost time to tutor Hockey Boy," she said.

 

"By the way, is Hockey Boy anyone I know?" Donnie asked.

 

"Do you know any Neanderthals with a hockey stick?" she asked jokingly.

 

Donnie shrugged. "Not personally," he said, though the description did ring a bell.

 

"Then I doubt you know him," said April as she walked out the door with a wave. "See you later."

 

"See ya," Donnie called after her with a dreamy smile. He had to wonder how he'd gotten so lucky to get a girlfriend like her.

 

Realizing it was nearly time for evening training, he hurried from the lab to join his siblings in the dojo. It sounded like his father wanted them to work on their misdirection and camouflage tonight.

 

As he left, he failed to see Timothy glaring after him with hateful eyes, nor did he see the mutant's mouth slither out of the jar, and begin drinking down the supply of mutagen Donnie had been using to find a cure.

 

It wasn't until later, when the Hamato family heard a loud crash come from below them that they realized that something was wrong, but by the time they reached Donnie's lab, Timothy was already gone.

 

____________________

 

"Okay, now show me how you solve for X?" April said later that night as she coached Casey through trigonometry.

 

Casey swung back and forth on the swing set they were sitting on. "You just dig, right?" he said, more than a little lost on the whole subject. "'Cause X marks the spot."

 

April grabbed the swing, stopping his movement. "Have you ever opened this book?" she asked, holding up her trigonometry book in frustration.

 

Casey sighed. "School isn't really my thing," he admitted. "When I graduate, I'm either becoming a pro hockey player or an international bounty hunter."

 

April didn't look too impressed. "Those are quite the options."

 

Casey glanced at her, and shrugged. "Who wants a normal life anyway?" he asked.

 

April thought that over, and nodded in agreement. "Touché."

 

She had to give him that, her life hadn't been normal since her Dad had been kidnapped, and now she couldn't imagine her life without the weirdness. But aside from her father's fear of the Kraang, she didn't regret a moment of it.

 

Casey took a moment to study the girl on the swing next to him. Not for the first time, he thought of how April was a beautiful girl, and if she wasn't already dating his best friend's brother he would totally ask her out. But Raph had told him all about how April was Donnie's dream girl, and he wasn't about to ruin that for them.

 

So instead he decided to start asking the questions he hoped would help him find Raph. "Speaking of weird stuff, what'd you think of all the disappearances lately?" Casey asked in what he hoped was a subtle tone.

 

April looked up in alarm. "Disappearances?" she asked.

 

Casey nodded. "Yeah, the teachers are keeping it hush-hush, but, like, four kids from our school have gone missing. It's like they were there one moment, and then poof, they're gone. Not even their parents know what happened to them."

 

April looked worried now. "Who's missing?" she asked.

 

Casey pretended to think hard about it. "I don't know all of them, but I've heard about two of them for sure. One was that chubby kid who kept getting into fights with bullies, Tim-something. The and another was a skateboarding slacker named, er, Jackson I think."

 

Casey was careful not to mention Raph, so the girl wouldn't make the connection between him and the other hothead. Instead he watched the girl from the corner of his eye to gauge her reaction.

 

April had turned pale the more she had listened to his words. "Timothy and Jason," she muttered to herself.

 

 _Bingo_.

 

"You know them?" Casey asked, not having to fake his curiosity.

 

April looked uncomfortable, as she realized she had probably said too much. "Not-not personally," she said, refusing to meet Casey's eye. "My boyfriend, Donnie, he was friends with Timothy before he disappeared. He's really worried about him. And Jason is, er, was friends with Donnie's brother."

 

Huh, that was something that hadn't occurred to Casey before. All the missing kids had a connection to the Hamato family? Maybe. Time to test that theory.

 

Suddenly, April's head jerked up, "Wait, is one of the missing kids Raphael?"

 

Casey pretended to look confused. "Um, it's one of the Japanese quadruplets, I'm not sure which one," he lied. "And the last one is this younger kid who was into LARPing."

 

April frowned at that. "LARPing?"

 

"Live action role play," Casey started to explain. "It's when-"

 

"No, I know what it is," said April, cutting him off. "I just hadn't heard of anyone like that going missing."

 

Casey shrugged. "Apparently he was a weird kid without many friends, so no one really cares. Which is sad, when you think about it."

 

April still looked clueless. There went the theory about the victims being connected to the Hamatos. Maybe the other two being friends with Raph's brothers was a coincidence.

 

Casey hunched forward in the swing set, and kept a careful eye on April's face as he said his next bit. "Still, it's pretty creepy how these kids are there one day, and gone the next. Makes you wonder who else could disappear."

 

Now April really looked uncomfortable, but unfortunately for him, she did not say why. Instead she reached down to pick up her trig book. "It's getting late, looks like we'll have to pick up studying tomorrow," she said, not once meeting his eyes.

 

Casey got the sense that if he tried pushing anymore, April would clam up and possibly never speak to him again. So he resigned himself to waiting for another night to question her again. Instead, he launched himself from the swing with a whoop, and pretended to be happy the study session was over.

 

He'd get his answers eventually. He just hoped Raph would be alright until he did.

 

____________________

 

Donnie stared in horror at the large hole in the wall of his lab.

 

Behind him, the recently repaired Metalhead let out a series of beeps.

 

"Yup, it's a mess, Metalhead," Donnie agreed.

 

"What happened here?" asked Leo. They had all broken off from their training to come investigate the noise, and were all crowded in the lab.

 

"Timothy somehow escaped," said Donnie worriedly. Then he noticed a crumpled piece of paper and a broken picture frame on the floor.

 

Reaching down to grab it, he realized that it was from the photo of him and April on the park's swing set he kept on his desk in his lab. The photo was torn down the middle, showing Donnie's smiling face holding out his arms to push April on the swing, but the half of the photo with April on it was missing.

 

Donnie paled as he remembered what Timothy had said earlier, how he had liked April, though the question why he'd torn the photo with Donnie on it was leaving a sinking feeling in his gut.

 

"I think he went after April," Donnie said worriedly, taking off through the hole. "Come on, I'll fill you in on the way."

 

Since they had just come from training, all five Hamato teens were already dressed in their ninja garb and had their weapons on them, so they didn't hesitate to take off after Donnie into the sewers.

 

Following the trail of destruction Timothy left, the five soon found themselves running across the rooftops as Donnie explained his theory.

 

"I didn't know it, but I think Timothy got a lonely in my lab, and wanted to go see April since she's been helping me care for him when she's down there," Donnie explained. "She was always really nice to him because she felt sorry for him. And now it looks like he's gone after her."

 

"You let your girlfriend look after a pile of guts in a jar?" Raph asked in disbelief. "That's real romantic, Donnie."

 

Donnie scowled. "She offered," he snapped.

 

"How dangerous is this thing?" Leo asked as they ran.

 

"Well, he obviously doesn't know his own strength," Donnie said, trying to ignore the irritation at Leo calling his friend a thing. "He could end up hurting her."

 

Miwa had been trying to call April on her cell phone, but was getting no answer. "I think her phone is off," she said. While she still hadn't completely forgiven the other girl for Raph's mutation, she didn't really want something bad to happen to her. For Donnie's sake if nothing else.

 

Mikey, who was running next to her, tripped and nearly fell off the roof. Looking over at the rest of them with a sheepish expression, he said, "Uh, yeah, that's my fault. I was texting her too much, and she started turning it off when she needed to study so it'd stop distracting her."

 

The glare Donnie was directing at Mikey screamed that they would be having words about this later. "I know where she should be anyway. She went to the park to tutor some guy in trig."

 

The other four Hamatos screeched to a halt and looked at Donnie like he'd grown a second head.

 

" _You_  let your dream girl go out alone with some other guy?" Raph asked in disbelief.

 

Donnie fidgeted under his gaze. "I trust her," he said. "And she really seemed to not like the guy, so…"

 

Miwa gave her genius brother a grin. "Well I'm impressed, you always struck me as the crazy jealous type," she said.

 

Donnie pouted as he heard his own words thrown back at him. "Can we  _please_  go save my girlfriend now?"

 

"Okay," said Leo, getting back to business. "So they're either at the park, or April's headed back home. Donnie, Raph, and me will take the park. Miwa and Mikey, you two head to April's."

 

"On it," was the unanimous reply.

 

Little did they know, April was closer than they thought, and as they left, she passed through the alley by the building they'd just left.

 

"We didn't get much studying done," she said apologetically to Casey.

 

"Is studying all you do?" Casey asked as he pushed his bike along side her, partly for his mystery, and partly out of his own curiosity.

 

April hid a smirk. It wasn't like she could tell him she spent her free time taking down alien conspiracies and evil ninja clans. "Actually, another thing I do is take martial arts classes the Renaissance Dojo," she said.

 

Casey looked at her with new interest. "Really, I hear that place is tight. You wouldn't happen to be the girl that kicked Chris Bradford to the curb, are you?"

 

April laughed. "No, that was a frie-" she broke off, since she didn't know if Miwa counted as a friend. She could understand the other girl's ire at her over the mutation incident, but she wished Miwa would realize that what happened to Raph wasn't her fault. "-that was someone else," April finished lamely.

 

Casey quirked an eyebrow at her unusual response, and April busied herself with turning her cell phone back on to avoid his gaze.

 

At once the phone chimed, and April saw she had missed fifteen calls, and forty-seven texts.

 

Frowning, she opened the first text from Donnie and read it.  _'Where r u? Timothy has gone AWOL & might b after u. Call me ASAP.'_

 

April's eyes widened in surprise. "Timothy?" she muttered aloud.

 

" _APRIL!"_  came the screechy voice of the mutant in question directly behind her.

 

April wheeled around to see Timothy lumbering towards her, his mouth twisted into a demented grin. He had somehow sprouted gooey yellow-green arms and legs from his container, and was reaching out to her.

 

April reached for her tessen, only to start in surprise when Casey jumped in front of her protectively.

 

"What are you doing?" she asked.

 

"Whatever that thing is, it's pure evil and completely cool looking," Casey said in a cocky tone. "I'll handle this."

 

April scowled at his back. "And just how do you know he's pure evil?" she asked in an irritated voice. "He could just want a friend." Or at least she hoped that was the case.

 

Unfortunately, Timothy didn't take well to Casey's actions.  _"You. Punk. Kid. RAAH!"_ he snarled, as he glared at the boy.

 

"On second thought, I don't think he likes you," said April, secretly texting her location to the Hamatos behind Casey's back.

 

"We're even," said Casey in the same cocky tone.

 

Just then Timothy came barreling past them clumsily, and fell on top of some cars across the street. Apparently he was still uncoordinated on his new limbs.

 

Taking that opportunity, Casey dove towards an overturned dumpster, and began digging trough it for something he could use as a weapon.

 

Just as he caught sight of something he could use, the goo monster came up behind him and shoved him in the dumpster, before throwing it down the alley.

 

Undeterred, Casey climbed back out of the overturned dumpster clutching the tire iron he'd found there. He then ran at the goo monster with a cry of "Goongala!"

 

He smacked Timothy with the tire iron, but it did nothing but irritate the goo creature. In response Timothy smacked Casey into a wall, making him fall to the ground and not get back up.

 

The mutant then began stomping towards his fallen foe.  _"Now. I. Crush. You!"_  Timothy snarled as he raised his fist to do just that.

 

But before he could, something flew out of nowhere, and scrapped against the glass of his jar.

 

Timothy turned to see April catch her spinning tessen, and shift into a fighting stance. "Back off, Timothy," she said firmly. "I don't want to hurt you."

 

She really hoped Casey was just unconscious, and not too badly hurt. From what she could see, he wasn't moving and that worried her. Why would Timothy do something like this?

 

Timothy just grinned at her.  _"I. Like. April."_ He said, reaching out towards her.

 

At first April didn't move, until she saw the suction cup like openings on his hand drip liquid onto the concrete below, and melt through it like acid.

 

Seeing that, she instinctively jumped back and lashed out with her tessen.

 

Timothy stumbled back, and gave her a wounded expression.

 

"Sorry," she said apologetically. "But I don't think it would be a good idea to be touched by acid hands."

 

Timothy didn't seem to comprehend what she was saying.  _"But. April. Friend."_  He said, reaching out again.

 

"Yes, and friends don't melt friends with acid," April said, still trying to reason with him while avoiding his hands.

 

Just then Casey leapt back to his feet, and ran at Timothy with the tire iron again, this time with enough force to knock the walking anatomy jar back.

Enraged, Timothy snatched the tire iron from his hands, and melted it in his grip.

 

"Acid hands?" Casey said in an impressed tone when he saw the remains of his weapon. "Wow."

 

But before he could say anything else, Timothy punched him back down the alley.

 

"No! Stop!" shouted April as she aimed an attack at Timothy in hopes of stopping him, but he just turned and sent her flying as well.

 

April hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of her, and she struggled to get back to her feet.

 

" _April!"_  called Timothy when he saw what he'd done. He started lumbering towards her with his arms outstretched as if trying to help her.

 

But April scrambled back as she knew that if he touched her he'd just do more harm than good.

 

At the last second, Casey came out of nowhere on his bicycle. He grabbed April by the wrist and plopped her down on the back of his bike without even slowing down, and soon they were flying down the street away from Timothy.

 

But Timothy just took off running after them, and was soon gaining on them.

 

"For a big guy-thing he's fast," said April worriedly as Timothy got closer to them, and was once again reaching out for her.

 

"Let's see him outrun this!" Casey yelled, throwing the remains of his tire iron at the mutant.

 

The melted piece of metal slammed into Timothy's jar, and caused the mutant to stumble and fall to the ground. Then a truck came around the corner and crashed into him, sending the goo monster flying into a wall.

 

Casey whooped and stopped the bike to get a better look, but April stared at the spot where Timothy had crashed in concern. She knew Timothy wasn't in his right mind, and he hadn't really been trying to hurt them (or at least not her anyway, Casey he really didn't seem to like).

 

But her to her relief, Timothy climbed out of the wall, and started limping towards them again.

 

"Oh come  _on!"_  shouted Casey in exasperation when he saw that.

 

But just then two figures in dark clothing landed between them and the goo mutant.

 

Casey stared in surprise at the guy and the girl dressed as ninjas who stood protectively before him. "Who-?" he started to ask.

 

"It's her he's after," said the female ninja to him, gesturing to April, while also sending the redhead a glare when she started to protest. "Get her to safety, we'll handle him."

 

Casey wanted to protest, but then the goo monster, mad about being blocked from the girl he was after, picked up a large chunk of the wall rubble and threw it at them.

 

Casey had to jerk his bike forward to avoid the debris, and then kept peddling to get April out of there. As much as he hated running from a fight, April's safety was more important.

 

But just as he turned the corner, he overheard the ninja guy say to the goo monster, "What happened to you, Timothy? You turned into some kinda Mutagen Man."

 

Casey nearly crashed his bike into a car at those words, but managed to swerve away just in time (though April did yell at him to "Watch it!").

 

That  _thing_  was  ** _Timothy?!_**

 

And if  _that_  was what happened to one of the missing kids, then what did that mean for Raphael?

 

____________________

 

Miwa and Mikey had arrived first after getting April's text, and got there just in time to see Timothy fly into the wall and get back up.

 

They quickly jumped down from the roof, and Miwa ordered the kid April was with to get her away from there, not really paying attention to who he was. It was more for the boy's benefit than April's, since the last thing they needed was some civilian getting underfoot while they fought. After a pointed look April understood this, and didn't protest to being carted away like a damsel in distress.

 

Fortunately, the boy did as he was told, and soon he and April were speeding down the street on the kids' bike.

 

"Looks like Donnie was right about the him drinking mutagen," Miwa said, remembering the theory Donnie had given for how Timothy had done all this. Addressing the jar of guts she said, "Okay Pulverizer, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Either way, you're going back to the lab."

 

But Timothy paid her no mind, and turned to follow after April and the other kid. " _No. Must. Find. April."_ He said.

 

Mikey flipped over Timothy's head, and looked up at him curiously. "What happened to you, Timothy? You turned into some kinda Mutagen Man," he asked.

 

The newly named Mutagen Man snarled down at him, and Mikey back-flipped away with his nunchucks at the ready. Beside him, Miwa drew her tantō and shifted into a fighting stance.

 

But Mutagen Man slammed his large fists to the ground so hard that it shook beneath them. Taking advantage of the ninja's surprise at this, Mutagen Man slammed his fists into both of them, sending them flying.

 

Mikey smacked into a dumpster, which then fell over on top of him, and Miwa landed on the ground and was quickly pinned under Mutagen Man's gooey foot.

 

As the mutant began reaching towards her with acid dripping from his fingers, Miwa said nervously, "I guess it's safe to say you're over your crush on me?"

 

Mutagen Man just glared at her and brought his hand closer to her face.  _"Bye. Ninja. Girl."_ He said menacingly.

 

But before he could lay a finger on her, Leo came out of nowhere, and sliced the hand clean off. The hand then melted into a harmless puddle of goo on the street.

 

Mutagen Man jerked back at the loss of the appendage, and Miwa rolled out from under him.

 

"What took so long?" she snapped to her brothers.

 

"Traffic," said Leo sheepishly, and she rolled her eyes in response.

 

Meanwhile, Donnie and Raph were helping Mikey get out from under the dumpster. "You okay, Mikey?" Raph asked.

 

"Yeah. Thanks, dudes," Mikey replied gratefully, rubbing his sore back.

 

Donnie searched the area frantically. "Where's April?" he asked.

 

"Away from here," said Mikey reassuringly. "Some dude with a bike got her away safely."

 

Donnie sighed in relief before turning his attention back to Mutagen Man.

 

The mutant was furious at loosing his hand, and was snarling at them while flinging acid everywhere.

 

Seeing this, Leo began closing in on Mutagen Man with his sword at the ready, but Donnie leapt between them, protecting the goo creature.

 

"No! Don't hurt him," Donnie said frantically.

 

"What?!" Raph shouted.

 

"Donnie," said Miwa in a dangerous voice. "That thing just tried to melt my  _face_."

 

But Donnie stood his ground. "All he wants is to be better friends with April like we are," he said. "He doesn't realize the damage he could do."

 

But Timothy snarled at Donnie.  _"NO! April. Not. Ninja. Friend! Not. Donnie's. Girlfriend! April. Only. **My.**  Friend!"_

 

"What?" Donnie demanded, whirling around to face the mutant with a wounded expression. "Are you- are you trying to steal my  _girlfriend?_ "

 

" _Donnie. No. Good. For. April! Donnie. Lied. To. Me! Ninjas. Hurt. Me!"_  Mutagen Man snapped, pointing an accusing finger at them as his other hand slowly grew back.  _"Must. Destroy. All. Ninjas!"_

 

Donnie gave the mutant that used to be his friend a betrayed look as he reluctantly reached for his weapons. He hadn't known Timothy blamed them for his mutation. In fact they'd done everything they could to stop it in the first place, but Timothy had just been too stubborn. He had  _wanted_  to be a mutant, and nothing Donnie said could change his mind.

 

Ironic that he wanted to destroy them now, when the wannabe hero had gotten himself mutated in the first place in a misguided attempt to protect them.

 

Mutagen Man raised his fists into the air to bring down upon the siblings, but froze in mid-stride. The goo inside his tank turned from mutagen green to a sickly yellow color, and the canister collapsed to the ground as his limbs seemed to deflate like leaking balloons.

 

"What happened?" Leo asked, having expected more of a fight.

 

"He ran out of mutagen," said Donnie in relief. "Quick, let's get him into the Shellraiser."

 

A few minutes later, the teens had loaded the tank into their vehicle, and were driving back towards the dojo.

 

"Remind me why we're bringing Mr. Personality here back home with us?" Raph asked as they drove.

 

"What he did isn't his fault, Raph, it's mine," said Donnie to his turtle brother, while hoping he was right about it. "He's lonely, and if I hadn't told him part of our family secret, he wouldn't even be in this mess. I think the mutagen has messed with his mind so much that he can't tell the difference between us ninjas and the Foot, so now he sees us  _all_  as his enemies."

 

"I wouldn't mind it so much if he actually went after the Foot instead of us," Miwa said bitingly. "But the thing is he  _didn't_ go after the Foot, just us."

Donnie spared a glace at where the large canister was resting on the floor of the Shellraiser. Behind the glass, Timothy's eyes narrowed, and turned away from him.

 

Donnie sighed and turned his attention back to his family. "Maybe so. But more importantly, Timothy's DNA could be the key to retro-mutagen," he continued, not noticing that Timothy's mouth had slithered out of the tank, and had found the canister of ooze they'd found the other night. "I could cure him and you, Raph, if-"

 

Donnie broke off as he noticed the goo in the tank turn green again, and Timothy's mouth slither out of the now empty mutagen canister.

 

"Oh no," was all Donnie managed to say, before Mutagen Man regrew his arms, and broke back out of the vehicle. Before any of them could stop him, he was running back down the street shouting for April.

 

____________________

 

Outside April's apartment, Casey and April looked around cautiously, making sure they hadn't been followed.

 

"No sign of any organ monsters," said Casey, trying very hard to keep from freaking out.

 

Apparently he wasn't doing a good job, because April gave him a sympathetic glance as she made her way towards her front steps.

 

Okay, so Casey was freaking out, but not for the reasons that April was probably thinking. Fighting a giant, walking jar of goo and guts was weird, sure, but  _awesome_  enough that normally Casey would be ecstatic about it.

 

Finding out said jar of goo might be one the kids who went missing just like his best friend was another matter entirely.

 

Through the entire bike ride to April's place Casey had tried to rationalize it and convince himself that Raph might not have been reduced to a bucket of insides and slime somewhere.

 

Still, Casey couldn't shake the mental picture of some internal organs connected to his best friend's eyes floating in a glass tank in some mad scientist's lab.

 

No, that  _can't_  be what happened. Timothy is a pretty common name, that thing could be someone else, and even if that monster  _was_ the same Timothy, that boy had gone missing a few weeks before any of the others. His disappearance might not even be related to Raph's.

 

Oh man, did he hope not.

 

So, yeah, Casey believed that freaking out was a perfectly acceptable reaction to a revelation such as this.

 

Still, Casey had a reputation to uphold, and he couldn't let April know he was  _too_  flustered.

 

"So do all your study sessions go like this," he asked April, trying to be nonchalant.

 

April grimaced slightly. "You have no idea."

 

"So when's the next time you tutor?" Casey asked, because there was no way he was giving up on this now. "You can tell me about that crazy metal fan you're carrying."

 

April looked at him like he was nuts. "After all that, you still want me to tutor you?" she asked incredulously.

 

Casey gave her a grin that showed off his missing teeth. "What can I say, I like to live dangerously."

 

April shook her head in disbelief, before giving him a small smile. "Fine, you free Thursday? I can't do tomorrow, I have a date."

 

"Possibly," said Casey, shifting to get on his bike and ride away.

 

As he did so, April caught sight of her Timothy trying to come out of the alley beside her apartment, only to be grabbed and pushed back by Raph and Mikey.

 

As Casey moved to go past that way on his rout home, April called out, "Wait! Hold on!"

 

Casey turned and looked back at her curiously.

 

"Yeah, you don't want to go down this way," she said quickly, turning him away from the alley where the ninjas were fighting. "Because of, uh, toxic fumes! Why don't you take this side street over here? You can get home faster."

 

Casey was looking at her like she was nuts, but he shrugged and headed in the direction she had said. "Whatever you say, O'Neil. Later," he called as he biked away.

 

Once he was gone, April pulled out her tessen, and ran towards the alley where the others were fighting.

 

She arrived to see the ninjas bouncing off the walls and dumpsters like spring boards, trying to keep Timothy distracted and in the alley.

 

Jumping right into the fray, she landed a kick on Timothy's jar, before landing next to Mikey. "What'd I miss?" she asked.

 

"Well, Timothy, or as I like to call him, Mutagen Man, has been slurping up the mutagen we've been finding. Now he's gone totally loco, and is after you since he thinks you're out of Donnie's league," the youngest explained rapidly.

 

"Well, he's not wrong about that last part," said Raph as he dodged on of Mutagen Man's massive fists. April was indeed way out of Donnie's league, but at least the genius was closer to it than Timothy was.

 

Leo was trying to cut off one of Mutagen Man's hands again as he spoke, "He also kinda blames us for his mutating in the first place, so he wants to destroy us for that." He then had to dodge as the hand grew back, and tried to pound him

 

"Which is stupid," said Miwa as she aided Leo in his endeavor. "We were the ones who tried to  _stop_  him from mutating himself."

 

"Also," said Donnie as he came over to position himself next to April. "I'm glad you're okay."

 

April gave him a smile.

 

But then Mutagen Man realized that April was there in the alley with them, and immediately began reaching towards her again.

 

Donnie and April immediately slid into fighting positions, and smacked at the hand as it drew near.

 

"Try not to hurt him," Donnie ordered, as both of them moved deeper into the alley. "Lead him away from the street."

 

"Little tough when he's swinging acid hands at me!" shouted Raph, who Mutagen Man had decided to go after next.

 

The turtle flipped over a car parked in the alley, which only led to Mutagen Man lifting it up, and flinging it at the ninjas and April, making them all scatter to dodge it. The car exploded across the street, but fortunately didn't draw anyone to the scene. But it would only be a matter of time now.

 

It was clear that Mutagen Man was winning this fight. After realizing that April was set on attacking him too, he seemed to give up on any notion of being her friend, and smacked her into one of the dumpsters. He managed to grab Raph and Mikey in each of his hands, and his mouth tube had shot out to tie Leo up. Miwa was still free, and was trying to get a clear shot to free her brothers, but it was hard when Mutagen Man kept swinging the two in his hands at her like baseball bats.

 

" _Destroy. You. All!"_ Timothy snarled as he began crushing Raph and Mikey in his hands.

 

"Not if I can help it!" shouted Donnie as he leapt from above to land a blow on the mutant's mouth tube, causing him to roar in pain and release his three brothers.

 

Mutagen Man turned and snarled at Donnie for this, and punched him hard into a wall.  _"Hate. You. Donnie!"_ he yelled.

 

Hearing that, Donnie pushed himself up and looked at Timothy with a devastated expression. He had been hoping that the hostility his friend had been showing was the mutagen talking, but now he was beginning to think Timothy really meant it.

 

Leo landed next to him, and sent Donnie a stern look. "Donnie, we have no choice. I'm sorry, but whatever the Pulverizer, Timothy, was is gone now."

 

Donnie looked over at Mutagen Man, who was still beating up his other siblings and April.

 

"But if we destroy him, that'll be murder," Donnie protested. "He's still a person. What'll we tell his parents?"

 

"What about us?" snapped Miwa, knowing that this thing would not stop until they were all dead.

 

Mutagen Man's enraged roar only seemed to affirm what Miwa had said.

 

Donnie's gaze hardened. "We need to distract him," he called to his siblings. "Misdirection and camouflage."

 

His siblings nodded, and immediately vanished from sight, Raph pulling April along with him as he went.

 

Mutagen Man suddenly found himself alone in the alley, and his eyes searched the area, trying to find his adversaries.  _"Ninjas. Gone?"_

 

While he was distracted, Donnie rushed back to the Shellraiser, and pulled out another canister of mutagen and some chemicals. He just hoped his plan would work.

 

Meanwhile, the rest of the team were keeping Mutagen Man busy by slipping in and out of the shadows to attack, before vanishing again, and making him attack various places thinking they were there, only to find that they weren't.

 

When Donnie was ready, he stepped back into the alley holding a canister above his head. "Hey, Timothy!" he called. "Mutagen!"

 

The rest of the team wondered if their genius had completely lost it.

 

Mutagen Man's eyes focused on the canister, knowing it wouldn't be long before his mutagen ran out again.

 

He slammed Donnie away, making the genius drop the canister, its contents spilling on the alley floor.

 

"Don't drink it Timothy!" Donnie yelled, hoping that for once his friend would listen to him, and be spared what was in store.

 

But Mutagen Man simply slurped up the glowing ooze until there was none left.

 

Donnie's heart sank, but he couldn't bring himself to look away from what was coming next.

 

Once the mutagen was gone, Mutagen Man smiled briefly, before realizing something wasn't right.

 

The alley was filled with the sound of cracking ice, and the Hamato Clan watched as the ooze mutant writhed in pain as the contents of his jar started to pale.

 

For a brief instant, Timothy's eyes locked on Donnie's and he said,  _"Donnie! Something's. Wron-"_ but before he could finish the entire contents of the tank froze solid, leaving Mutagen Man motionless in a pose with him reaching out towards his friend.

 

Donnie climbed to his feet and approached the icy glass. "I'm sorry, Timothy," he said wishing with all his heart he hadn't had to do this.

 

At the last second before he was completely ice, Mutagen Man lunged towards the genius, only to become paralyzed inches from him, his expression frozen in mid snarl.

 

Donnie had ducked when he saw Timothy come at him, but once he stopped, the genius could only look sadly at what was once his friend.

 

They'd won the fight, but Donnie had never felt like more of a failure.

 

On that night, he resolved more than ever to find a cure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since April's already dating Donnie (and I don't think he'd be a jerk that breaks relationships), Casey's interest in her is a little different than in the show. He and Raph are best friends, and this soon to be vigilante wouldn't take his disappearance lying down. Fortunately, April doesn't really remember Casey from the time she saw him before, she was too busy worrying about Mrs. Campbell at the time to notice the guy Raph was having detention with. Also, we see what becomes of Mutagen Man. The way I see it, Timothy's fascination with April was part of a deluded fantasy made up in his currently warped mind. But when she doesn't act the way he thought she would, he reacts violently. He also has gotten bitter about his mutation, and can no longer properly tell friend from foe.


	18. It Sure Ain't the Chicken Pox

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When one of the Hamatos falls under the weather it's a race against the clock to make a cure.

The first sign that something was wrong was when Leo didn't show up for breakfast that morning.

 

Considering that Leo was usually the most punctual of his siblings, this raised a few eyebrows, but was no great cause for concern. No one was perfect, after all.

 

But once everyone else had eaten, and the eldest of the quadruplets still had not left his bedroom, that was when they all started to worry something might be amiss.

 

Concerned, Tang Shen excused herself from the table and walked to her son's room. When she reached it, she gently knocked on the door. "Leonardo," she called. "It is time to get up, my son."

 

The only response was a low groan, and the sound of rustling sheets.

 

Tang Shen frowned at the sound. Perhaps he was ill. She reached out and pushed her son's door open and entered the room. Seeing a lump of sheets on her son's bed, she went over and sat next to it.

 

"Leonardo?" she asked softly.

 

Leo shifted, and groaned. "I don't feel so good, Mother," he said miserably, not bothering to remove his sheets from his head.

 

Tang Shen reached out, and rubbed a gentle hand on her son's shoulder. "Let me see," she said, pulling the blankets away.

 

Back in the kitchen, the other Hamatos froze in their cleaning as they heard Tang Shen scream in shock.

 

They quickly dropped what they were doing, and ran for Leo's room.

 

What they saw made them stop in the threshold of the door and stare.

 

Leo was sitting up in bed looking ill, while Tang Shen had her hand pressed to his forehead to take his temperature.

 

But what had them staring was the fact that Leo's face was covered in small green zit like blemishes.

 

"Leonardo?" asked Yoshi in concern.

 

Leo tried to give his family a reassuring grin. "I'm alright. I'm just-" he broke off and clutched his stomach in pain.

 

Tang Shen looked up at them worriedly, "He has a fever, and these spots, I don't even know where they are from."

 

Being the closest thing they had to a doctor, Donnie hurried forward and began examining his older brother.

 

"Chicken pox?" Mikey suggested.

 

"You all had the chicken pox when you were five," said Miwa. "You don't get it more than once."

 

"And I'm pretty sure chicken pox aren't green," said Raph as he watched in concern.

 

"Hold up guys, this might be more serious than we think," said Donnie, who had pulled out a scanner, and was now using it on their leader.

 

After a thorough examination, Donnie presented them with his findings.

 

"Okay," he said to their gathered family. "The good news is the zits aren't going to hurt Leo. But they will keep spreading until they cover his entire body."

 

"So the bad news is that I'm going to look like a giant pickle?" Leo said, looking less than pleased.

 

"No, that was still the good news," said Donnie.

 

"How is that good news?"

 

"Because the bad news is that I have no idea where these symptoms came from," said Donnie, looking worried. "They're not like anything recorded in any medical journal I know of, and for all we know it could be come sort of Kraang disease you've caught from fighting them, or an allergic reaction to the slime that Timothy might have gotten on you when we fought him the other day. Without any idea of what this is, or where it came from, I have no idea how dangerous this is, or if it's contagious, and it's not like we could explain it if we took you to a doctor."

 

The rest of their family exchanged uneasy glances at this.

 

"Until we know if this is contagious or not, I believe it would be best to quarantine ourselves for now," said Yoshi, stroking his beard. "I will go cancel my classes for today."

 

Mikey let out an excited whoop. "Alright! No school."

 

"Always a bright side, huh little brother," said Miwa sarcastically. Knowing now was not the time to be celebrating that.

 

Mikey realized that, and looked sheepish.

 

"So much for my date with April tonight," Donnie muttered in disappointment as he began helping Leo from his bed. "Come on, Big Brother, I think we should move you to my lab, so I can do a more in depth analysis of this," he said. "And hopefully help you find a way to feel better."

 

Leo tried to get to his feet, but he quickly stumbled, and had to be caught by Raph.

 

"Come on buddy," said Raph as he held his big brother up by one arm, and Donnie took the other. "Let's make you all better."

 

As they left the room, something started to occur to Mikey, but the thought was gone before he could really think about it.

 

_________________

 

A few hours past, and everyone was growing more worried about Leo by the minute.

 

Like Donnie had predicted, the zits on Leo's face spread to the rest of his body, and were growing larger as they did so. What was even more alarming was that they were spreading to places that didn't usually get zits, like all along the inside of Leo's mouth and tongue. And as the bumps spread and grew, Leo felt worse and worse.

 

The worst part was that Donnie was as lost as ever when it came to finding the cause for whatever was happening, much less an antidote. They considered taking him to a hospital, but if it was an alien disease, then the doctors would just get in the way if Donnie managed to come up with a cure.

 

The only thing Donnie had figured out for sure, is that what ever it was wasn't contagious. But that still begged the question of what happened to Leo to get him sick and not the others.

 

Then things started getting weird (well weirder). The bumps covering Leo's body were already a sickly green color, but then the green color began spreading from the bumps to the rest of his skin, making Leo's prediction about looking like a giant pickle seem more likely.

 

This new development was enough to have Donnie start freaking out, and alert the rest of the family to what was happening, making them all crowd into the lab to see what was happening.

 

They arrived to see Donnie taking the now slightly green Leo's temperature, and looking very worried at the results.

 

"His temperature keeps climbing, and it's approaching dangerous levels," said Donnie when he saw them. "We need to find a way to cool him down."

 

Most of the family started bustling around to help, but Mikey stopped dead at Donnie's words. "Cool down," he repeated as if in a daze.

 

Seeing his expression, the rest of the family paused their hunt for icepacks and looked at him in confusion.

 

"My son, I sense there is something you would like to tell us," said Yoshi, raising an eyebrow at the youngest.

 

"I-I think I know what might be wrong with Leo," Mikey said looking incredibly guilty.

 

With that he ran out of the lab, and quickly returned holding a box of bath salts and a jar.

 

"My bath salts?" Leo asked when he saw them. He used the salts to help him relax when bathing, and had used one just last night.

 

Unable to look his siblings in the eye, Mikey put both objects on Donnie's lab table. "I kinda, um, I sprinkled a little mutagen on Leo's bath salts."

 

"WHAT! ARE YOU  _KIDDING?_  WHY?!" bellowed Miwa, Donnie, and Raph in unison, Yoshi and Tang Shen also watched, looking disappointed in him.

 

Mikey winced under their harsh gaze, and held up the jar. "I thought- I found this in Donnie's lab, an-and it says it'll make you super cool…"

 

" _No!_ It says you're supposed to keep it super _cooled!_ " snapped Donnie, turning the jar so Mikey could see the rest of the label, getting in the youngest's face as he did so. "As in  _temperature!_ This was a reject batch of retro-mutagen, Mikey. It's  ** _dangerous!_** _"_

 

"Well, You Could Have Made It A Little More Clear!" Mikey shouted back.

 

Donnie gave him a deadpan look, and turned the jar so that Mikey could see all the warning stickers attached to the back.

 

"Still not that clear," said Mikey dryly.

 

"It doesn't matter if it was clear or not," snapped Miwa, shoving Donnie aside, and jabbing Mikey in the chest with her finger. "The point is, Leo is really sick, and it's all your  _stupid_  fault!"

 

Instantly all indignation left Mikey's face and he looked devastated.

 

"I'd like to talk to Mikey alone for a minute," said a voice behind the crowd.

 

They all looked back to see Leo sitting up in the lab's hospital bed. Despite looking green both figuratively and literally, he was still giving them his 'I'm-the-leader-do-what-I-say' face.

 

"But-" Donnie started to protest.

 

"Now," Leo said in a voice that left no room for argument.

 

Reluctantly, the others all filed out of the room, Raph shoving Mikey with his shoulder as he went. Soon there was no one else in the room but Leo and Mikey.

 

At first Leo was silent, and just watched as Mikey fidgeted under his gaze. Somehow the silence that filled the room seemed a hundred times worse to Mikey than when the others had been there yelling at him.

 

Finally Leo patted the spot on the bed next to him, and Mikey hesitantly sat down next to his sick brother.

 

"Why'd you do it, Mikey?" Leo asked quietly.

 

Mikey winced as if he'd been yelled at. "I didn't think it would make you sick. I really didn't," he burst out. "I really thought it would help you, and-and I just wanted to help!"

 

Leo raised an eyebrow at his little brother. "That didn't answer the question, Mikey," he said firmly.

 

Mikey hung his head. "Yeah, I know," he said pitifully. "The reason I put the mutagen on the bath salts is because I thought it'd help you cool down. You know, be chill, relaxed, mellowed out. Everything's been so jacked up lately. You know, with Raph turning scaly, and Pulverizer going nuts on Donnie and April, and Sis still blaming April for all of the above. I know all that stuff is stressing you out, bro, being our leader and all."

 

Leo's eyes widened with realization. "So you thought giving me some 'Super Cool' mutagen would help me relax?" he asked.

 

Mikey nodded. "I just thought it'd help you loosen up a little. With all of us being such a mess, we've been forgetting that it affects you too. I wanted to help," he said sadly. "But I just screwed things up even more."

 

Despite feeling ill, Leo had to smile slightly as he heard his baby brother's reasoning. He reached out and placed a hand on Mikey's shoulder, and the youngest didn't even protest to being so close to the green mutagen zits.

 

"Hey, it was an accident," Leo said in what he hoped was a reassuring tone. "Did you want this to happen?"

 

" _No!"_  Mike practically shouted. "This is, like, the total opposite of what I wanted, and I'm really sorry!"

 

Leo gave his brother's shoulder a squeeze. "And now that Don knows what's wrong, I'm sure he can find a way to fix it," he said.

 

With that bit of brotherly bonding out of the way, Leo sent Mikey to tell Donnie he could come back to the lab (which was made easy by the fact that they'd all been eavesdropping right outside the door).

 

Now that Donnie knew where Leo's illness had come from, he knew which test to run, and did so on his computer.

 

"This failed retro-mutagen was one I tried making using Raph's DNA as a test," Donnie said as he typed. "Because of that, there's a good bit of mutant turtle DNA mixed in with it, which may account for you turning green, Leo."

 

Leo looked down at his lumpy green skin warily.

 

Miwa frowned. "Wait, are you saying Leo's going to turn into a turtle too?" she asked.

 

"I did not get  _zits_ when I was mutating, I can tell you that," said Raph defensively.

 

"I don't think so," replied Donnie, not taking his eyes off the computer screen. "It seems the mutation process Leo's undergoing is much slower than the ones caused by unaltered mutagen. Because of that, his body's immune system is going crazy trying to fight off the mutagen's effects, causing his rise in temperature, and making the reaction give different symptoms than normal."

 

"But he'll be okay, won't he?" Mikey asked worriedly.

 

Donnie stopped typing as several warning signs flashed on his computer screen. "Oh no," he said.

 

"Please tell me that's a good oh no," said Mikey looking even more worried.

 

Donnie turned and scowled at his younger brother. "It's a terrible oh no. According to these blood tests, the mutagen in Leo's system is unstable." He shifted his attention onto Leo. "If we don't do something soon, Leo, in three hours you'll-"

 

"I'll what? What'll happen to me?" Leo asked, now looking very worried himself.

 

Donnie looked away. "In scientific terms, go Boom."

 

"He's gonna  _Explode!_ " shouted Mikey grabbing Leo in a hug, as if that would protect his big brother from bursting.

 

Donnie nodded looking grim. "The puss in those boils would build up until they all pop, and when they do, the sheer number of them and the damaged caused by bursting in such a way would cause Leo to bleed out."

 

Leo paled, Raph clenched his fists, Mikey looked faint and jumped away from Leo and his boils, and Miwa reached out and brought her fist down on the youngest's head for causing this mess.

 

Donnie, however, turned back to his computer and continued, "But now that I know what caused this, I think I can engineer and antidote from the remaining sample."

 

"Really?" asked Raph in surprise. "Like a retro-mutagen?"

 

"It wouldn't be a real retro-mutagen, as it'll only reverse the effects of this failed batch, and like I said, its effects aren't a complete mutation, and therefore easier to reverse," said Donnie holding up the jar of Super Cool mutagen. "But I'll admit, what I learn from this would give me some progress on that front. But right now, curing Leo is more important."

 

The genius quickly did some calculations for the cure. But as he did so, he found himself hitting a snag. "Uh oh."

 

Mikey opened his mouth, but Miwa cut him off. "Do not ask if that is a good uh oh," she said bitingly.

 

Mikey promptly snapped his mouth shut.

 

"I'm missing one key instrument," Donnie explained. "A molecular centrifuge to mix the solution. I've been saving up for one for months, but those things are really expensive."

 

"I'll pay for it!" shouted Mikey immediately, wanting to make up for his previous mistake. "I'll sell my comic book collection if I have to!"

 

Donnie gave his little brother a wry grin at the offer, but shook his head. "Even if I bought one now, it's a specialized piece of equipment. It would take a month for it to ship here, and by then…"

 

"I'll have already popped like a giant zit," said Leo dryly, looking sicker than he already was.

 

Raph shuddered. "Thanks for that mental image," he said sarcastically.

 

"So we need to find a centrifuge that's nearby, and steal it," said Miwa, getting them back on track. "Would the school have one?"

 

Donnie let out a humorless laugh. "With the type of funding most schools get? No way. I guarantee you there wouldn't be one in any schools in the area. We need to look more at specialized labs than public places. The only time I've ever seen a molecular centrifuge was at TCRI."

 

"But we smashed the entire place when we destroyed the portal," Raph pointed out. "What could be left?"

 

The other teens winced as they realized that where TCRI once stood was now a giant crater in the ground. Any lab equipment that might have been there would have been crushed.

 

"What about the World Wide Genome Project," offered Leo. "That was run by the Kraang, and it was just abandoned after that big electro-thing-"

 

"Justin," corrected Mikey.

 

"-Right, Justin rampaged through it. They were doing all kinds of stuff with DNA, so wouldn't they need a centrifuge like that?" Leo concluded.

 

Donnie looked thoughtful, before his eyes brightened. "You're right, that's exactly the kind of place that would have one."

 

Leo gave him a weak grin, before wincing and needing to lie back down on the hospital bed, Tang Shen hurrying to his side to comfort him.

 

"I don't think I'm up to coming on this mission, guys," Leo said weakly. He then looked Mikey directly in the eye and asked, "Do you think you can handle being leader for a day, little brother?"

 

Mikey blinked in surprise, and the other teens gaped.

 

"Has that shellacne sunk into your brain, Leo?!" Mikey practically shouted. "I can't be leader, it was me who screwed up and got you sick in the first place!"

 

The others also loudly voiced their protest to following youngest as leader.

 

But Leo didn't waver in his decision.

 

It was then that Yoshi decided to step in. "My son," he said to Mikey. "You are correct that the fault of Leonardo's illness lies with you. Because of that, it is your responsibility to fix your mistakes."

 

Mikey fidgeted under his father's stern look. "So you're saying I gotta be leader to make up for messing up."

 

"Yes," said Yoshi.

 

Miwa, Raph, and Donnie didn't look happy at this development, but didn't protest further.

 

_________________

 

Meanwhile, things were not going well in Foot Clan for one canine mutant.

 

When he had first mutated, Chris Bradford, now known as Dogpound, had done his best to make the most of his new body.

 

His new appearance was intimidating to both his enemies and the common criminals under the Foot's thumb, and scared opponents are rash opponents therefore easier to take down. He also could find much fault in the increased strength it had given him, or the enhanced senses his canine biology provided.

 

But the fact of the matter was that Chris Bradford had been trained to be a ninja. As a human he had been one of the Shredder's best students, beaten only by Tiger Claw as the best.

 

But now as a giant man-dog, his body was far too big, bulky, and clumsy to put most of his skills in ninjutsu to use. The spikes protruding from his skin were also a pain to deal with, and he couldn't seem to go a day without shutting his tail in a door behind him.

 

Fishface was insufferable about the whole situation, and never backed down from a chance to poke fun at him for his loss of skills, and inability to adapt to his mutation. It made Dogpound sorely tempted to steal the thief's robotic legs, and leave Xever to flop around like the slimy fish that he was.

 

But their master had no patience for their bickering, or for Dogpound's trouble with his mutation. All that the Shredder cared about was results in their struggle to hunt down the Hamato clan and destroy them.

 

Results that he was not getting, and if Dogpound continued to fail like he and the others had been doing, than there was no doubt in his mind that the Shredder's short patience with him would soon run out, and he was likely to become a throw rug in his master's throne room.

 

So for this mission, Dogpound was determined not to fail. The Shredder had decided to pull Stockman out of the hole he was hiding in to maintain the mechanics of the new Foot-Bot soldiers. This time with more incentive not to try and betray them again, and Dogpound couldn't wait to see the look on Stockman's face when he saw what that incentive was.

 

Making use of his superior sense of smell, Dogpound searched the city for the wannabe mad scientist.

 

As he went, he caught sight of his reflection in a window, and once again felt nothing but disgust for his new appearance.

 

"You were once a feared warrior, now you're a common dog, hunting squirrels like Stockman," he growled at his reflection, for once getting the scientist's name right.

 

Then he paused as a thought occurred to him. Stockman was a  _scientist_ , and a genius one to boot, if his bragging had any merit.

 

"Stockman," he said thoughtfully. "Maybe he could actually help me…"

 

He would still bring the sniveling worm to the Shredder, but his master hadn't said they needed to bring him right away. Perhaps a little side trip before throwing him at the Shredder's feet would be beneficial to the canine mutant.

 

Sniffing the air with more fervor now, Dogpound caught a whiff of the scent he was looking for.

 

The canine grinned, showing off is large, sharp teeth. "Got'cha!" he said before taking off towards his prey.

 

_________________

 

Breaking into the old site of the World Wide Genome Project was fairly easy. After the fire that they and Justin had caused, the Kraang had abandoned the building, not even bothering to come back and clear out their equipment, while some of it had been stolen over time, much of the more important tools were behind locked doors that required someone with really good hacking skills to get into. Fortunately, Donatello had that in spades.

 

The four teens quickly spread out to search the genetics labs for the centrifuge.

 

"So what does this thing even look like?" Miwa asked as she scanned the shelves of high tech equipment.

 

"From the outside, it'd look kinda like a rice cooker," Donnie said. "But the inside has racks for test tubes to be placed in, so that the machine can stir them faster than any human can."

 

"Rice cooker, got it," said Mikey, as he searched. Out of all of them, the youngest was searching the lab the hardest. He wasn't even getting as distracted as he normally would be over the various cool science toys.

 

His older siblings exchanged a glance behind his back at this. None of them had ever seen Mikey so focused on anything before. It was a bit of a surreal experience. Still, they could tell he had the right incentive to do so. Leo's life was at stake, and it was not a time to be goofing around.

 

Suddenly Miwa froze, and cupped a hand to her ear. "You guys hear that?" she asked.

 

Her brothers stopped what they were doing, and listened. Down the hall from where they were, they could hear the sounds of someone crashing around in one of the labs, and (from the sound of things) talking to himself as he did so.

 

Following the source of the noise, they found Baxter Stockman in the next room piling up discarded Kraang junk to take with him, talking to himself as he did so. "-DNA catalysts, soon I'll be able to create my own mutant army. Powerful, unstoppable-"

 

"Dorkster Blockhead?" asked Raph aloud when he saw him.

 

Stockman dropped the junk he was carrying and winced. "It's  _Baxter Stockman!"_  he yelled angrily, wheeling around.

 

His jaw promptly dropped at the sight of Raph. "Wha- A _turtle?"_  he yelped.

 

Raph growled at the mention of his mutation, but his siblings took advantage of Stockman's surprise to surround the man before he even realized they were there.

 

When Stockman finally noticed them, he snatched up his the box of things he'd plundered, and clutched it to his chest. "You brats are here too?" he asked in surprise. He then took a closer look at Raph, and noticed his sais and red mask. "Hey, wait a minute, you are one of those dumb kids. How-?"

 

But Donnie's attention was on the items in the box. "He's got the centrifuge!" he exclaimed. "Hand it over Storkman!"

 

The others tensed as they prepared to grab it, but Stockman dropped the rest of his box, and held the centrifuge out of their reach with a petulant expression on his face. "It's Stockman! And no, I found it first. Do you have any idea how much these things cost?" he snapped.

 

"Way more than you'll ever afford, you jobless bum," taunted Donnie. "Being evil hasn't exactly paid you well, now has it?"

 

Stockman scowled at the purple wearing ninja. He didn't know what these brats wanted the piece of equipment for, but if they wanted it, he knew would keep it away from them if only out of spite. Stockman then threw back his head and shouted, " _MOUSERS!_   _Attack!"_

 

Stockman small robots began swarming out of nowhere, coming at the ninjas while screeching their catlike sounds.

 

The teens wasted no time slashing, stabbing, and bashing the short machines into scrap metal, but as they were doing so Stockman tried to make his escape carrying the centrifuge with him.

 

Unfortunately for him, the wannabe evil genius didn't go far, as suddenly the ceiling cracked open and in fell Dogpound.

 

Stockman yelped and scrambled back as the large canine landed in front of him, snarling.

 

Mikey quickly jumped between Stockman and Dogpound, and glared at the mutant. "Back off, Dogpound, we found him first!"

 

Dogpound just grinned at the sight. "Stickman and the brats? And I thought I was having a bad day."

 

The four ninjas attacked the canine mutant, but with one member of their team short, and Dogpound being more determined than ever to get what he wanted, the Hamato ninjas were quickly knocked back, and Dogpound managed to grab Stockman and take off.

 

Too keep the teens from following him, the dog slammed his massive fist against the one of the building's supports, making parts of the already damaged building crumble and collapse.

 

"Guys, watch out!" Mikey yelled as they all dodged the debris from the roof caving in.

 

When things finally stopped falling on them, the four ninjas picked themselves up.

 

"They're gone," said Raph once they were sure no one was seriously injured.

 

"And they have the centerfudge," Mikey wailed.

 

"Centrifuge," Donnie corrected, before practically collapsing on the ground.

 

They helped Donnie back to the Shellraiser to put an icepack on his injuries, and began to discuss their next plan of action.

 

Raph banged his fist against the side of the vehicle (making Donnie protest to the abuse of his creation). "I can't believe  _fleabag_  beat us. I want a rematch," he snarled.

 

"And you'll get one," said Miwa darkly. "Especially since we now need to track them down to get Donnie's toy."

 

"And we need to do it quick," said Donnie worriedly. "From the diagnostic I ran on Leo before we left, his condition has no doubt become more unstable. If I don't get that antidote to him soon, well, I told you what would happen."

 

The others shuddered as they thought of the fate that would be in store for their brother.

 

"Well we're not going to let that happen!" said Mikey with conviction. "So where would Dogpound take Spockman?"

 

"The old city dump?" Miwa suggested.

 

"Nah, they turned it into a retirement home," said Raph. "What about the abandoned nuclear plant."

 

Donnie shook his head. "Now it's a nursery school."

 

Mikey's eyes lit up as he got an idea. "What about Baxter's old lab."

 

"Why would Dogpound capture Dexter and take him to his old lab?" Raph asked skeptically. "It makes no sense."

 

Mikey scowled. "Because  _obviously_ Dogpound wanted him for something, and the lab would have what he needed to do whatever it is. It's already an evil, mad scientist's lab."

 

His older siblings exchanged glances, Mikey did have a point… but then this was Mikey they were talking about.

 

"Point taken, but-" Donnie started to say, but Mikey cut him off.

 

"Look guys, I'm the one who messed up, I know that," he said seriously. "And now I'm trying really, really hard to fix it. Leo made  _me_  leader so I could do that, and  _I_  say we check out Stockman's lab first."

 

He then pointed a finger at each of them, "So Miwa, start driving, Leo doesn't have much time and we need to get there ASAP. Donnie, on the way there, make a list of all the other places that D-Pound might'a taken him (just in case), and start narrowing it down. Raph, you and me'll help Donnie with that. So let's move."

 

The youngest said all this with so much authority that the others all jumped to do what he'd said before they'd even realized it.

 

When Miwa finally realized she was behind the wheel driving towards Stockman's lab, she had to glance back at her baby brother in amusement. "Looks like Leo might have some competition."

 

But Mikey shook his head. "Nah, Leo leads. I'm just covering for him 'til he's better."

 

_________________

 

Within Donnie's lab, Leo was indeed getting worse. His boils had inflated to the size of Mikey's water balloons, and they threated to pop every time he made a sudden movement. His fever had climbed to dangerously high levels, making the eldest of the quadruplets grow increasingly delirious as time went on.

 

Tang Shen hovered worriedly beside him, and made sure to keep a moist washcloth on his head in hopes of reducing the fever. Careful of the boils, she gently stroked her son's head and sang the lullaby that had always calmed them when her children were young.

 

" _Nenneko shasshari mase. Neta ko no kawaisa. Okite naku ko no. Nenkororo, tsura nikusa. Nenkororon, nenkororon."_ she sang softly.

 

Leo groaned and cracked open one eye. At the sight of her worried expression, he attempted to give her a smile. "Don't worry, mother," he muttered in a woozy voice. "The other'll be back before you know it. Then Donnie will give me the magic acne pads to make me all better."

 

Tang Shen cracked a weak smile at his words. "I'm your mother," she replied. "It's my job to worry about you."

 

Leo opened his mouth to reply, but instead let out a hiss of pain. His boils had started throbbing all of a sudden, and for a second he feared they would burst.

 

Next to him, Tang Shen pulled him into a gentle hug, and tried her best to sooth his pain.

 

Yoshi had been across the room searching Donnie's books for some way to aide his son, but hurried back over when he heard Leo in pain.

 

When Leo opened his eyes they were even more glazed than before. "Sensei?" he asked in confusion.

 

"Yes, my son?" his father asked worriedly.

 

"When did you mutate into a giant rat? And why does mother look like a ghost?" Leo asked before immediately falling back into a fevered sleep.

 

Tang Shen and Yoshi exchanged glances as they realized he had been hallucinating. Their son was getting worse by the minute, and there was nothing they could do to help him.

 

Yoshi sat next to Tang Shen, and began reciting an old healing mantra, his hands forming shapes to match the words. " _Rin. Pyōh. Tōh. Sha…"_ He knew the mantra would not be enough to heal his son, but he hoped it would alleviate the pain somewhat.

 

Tang Shen, meanwhile continued her lullaby.  _"Miya e maitta toki, Nan to yūte ogamu sa. Issho kono ko no, Nenkororo, mame na yō ni. Nenkororon, nenkororon…"_

 

Neither parent said it, but both desperately hoped their other children returned home soon.

 

_________________

 

At Stockman's labs, Dogpound forced the wimpy scientist into the main room, and admired the large tank that was in the center of it.

 

"So, a giant tank of mutagen, eh?" he growled. "Planning on making some mutants?"

 

Stockman looked up at him fearfully as he placed his new centrifuge on a lab table. "Uh, yes… A whole army for, um,  _us_ to command, heh heh. Just me and you…"

 

He then backed away as Dogpound loomed over him and growled.

 

Stockman fidgeted, and said, "Uh, not that I'm complaining, but why are you keeping me alive?"

 

"The Shredder wants it this way," Dogpound snarled. "Believe me, I still owe you big time for trapping us in your little 'Maze of Doom'."

 

"So," said a new voice, making them all turn. "You've beaten me to the punch and found Stockman, yes," said Fishface as he entered the room, and stood intimidating in front of Stockman. "Why haven't you taken this traitorous lump of flesh to Master Shredder?"

 

"I will," snapped Dogpound. " _After_ he turns me human again."

 

Fishface gasped, and he looked at Stockman with new interest. "You can turn us human again?" he asked.

 

Stockman shrank away stuttering. "Uh, yes,  _yes,_ of course! My intellect knows no bounds, heh, none…"

 

"Good. First order of business," growled Dogpound as he reached out and snapped a collar around Stockman's neck.

 

Stockman stared down as the bulky collar beeped ominously and locked around his throat, and he became aware of the glowing capsules attached to it.

 

"Is this  _mutagen?_ " he asked fearfully, tapping one of the capsules.

 

"I call it insurance," said Dogpound menacingly, holding up the trigger which would shatter the capsules. "Double cross us and Boom! We get to see what you turn into. Some kinda lowly bug, I'll bet."

 

Meanwhile, the Hamato teens slipped into the lab through the roof, and walked along the rafters till they were above the three villains.

 

"Well whaddya know, Tenshi was right," whispered Miwa as they stared down at their enemies. She had switched to code names since there was no telling if Stockman had his lab bugged or not.

 

"Sorry we doubted you, Tenshi," said Donnie.

 

"Yeah," Raph agreed reluctantly.

 

Mikey beamed at them, before focusing his attention back downwards. "I just knew Baxter would be here hatching a plan wearing a dog collar."

 

" _Really?"_  Raph asked in disbelief.

 

"Well, maybe not the dog collar part," Mikey amended.

 

"There's the centrifuge," said Donnie, pointing to the equipment they were after.

 

Mikey grinned and pulled out his kusarigama. "You guys feel up for a little fishing trip?" he asked.

 

Miwa let out a groan of disgust. "Now Raion  _really_  has some completion. Not only are you not doing half bad at this leader shtick, but you're also stealing his bad jokes."

 

Mikey stuck out his tongue at his sister, and lowered the sickle end of his weapon in hopes to hook it on the centrifuge.

 

Below them, Fishface was demanding Stockman return him to human form too, giving a good distraction so none of the villains saw the chain lowering from above.

 

Mikey stuck his tongue between his teeth as he concentrated on catching it onto the piece lab equipment. His siblings were absolutely no help as they were constantly whispering encouragements and instructions as he tried to work. It was then that Mikey finally understood why Donnie got so frustrated when they nagged him to hurry up with his science stuff.

 

Suddenly, Dogpound whirled around and grabbed hold of the chain. With a powerful tug, he pulled Mikey from the rafters before the youngest could drop his end.

 

Mikey fell with a yelp, but managed to land on his feet.

 

"Fool!" snarled Dogpound when he saw him. His attention stayed firmly on Mikey, so it was possible that he hadn't seen his siblings yet.

 

Hoping that was the case, Mikey waved his hands to signal them while pretending to act scared about being alone in a villain's lair.

 

"Don't touch me!" he shouted frantically. "Raion's sick, and it's highly contagious, so I got it too!" he threw in a few fake coughs for effect while edging his way towards the centrifuge. When he was close enough to it, he reached out and said, "So why don't I take that gadget that Gifuto needs for an antidote and get out of your fur."

 

Dogpound slammed his fist on the table, making Mikey cringe away as he growled, "I'd rather you stay."

 

The giant dog tossed Fishface the trigger to the mutagen collar. "Watch Stickman. I wanna tear this brat apart myself."

 

Mikey dodged as Dogpound launched himself in the air, and tried to clobber him. Mikey pulled free one of his nunchucks to attack the mutant, but a fist to the stomach sent him flying back up to the rafters, which he clung too to stay out of the canine's reach.

 

But that didn't stop Dogpound, as he pulled himself up into the rafters to continue the fight.

 

But the canine mutant was blindsided by a simultaneous attack from Raph, Donnie, and Miwa, as they jumped from the shadows with weapons at the ready.

 

They all got a few good hits in, before having to leap away to avoid his fists.

 

Dogpound searched for a target to follow, before zeroing in on Mikey, who had had the misfortune of landing on a rickety rafter, and was wobbling as the wood creaked and swayed under his feet.

 

What was even worse was the fact that that particular rafter was directly above the giant tank of mutagen in Stockman's lab.

 

When Mikey saw the mutant was looking his way, his eyes widened and he waved his hand frantically. "Dogpound  _Don't!"_

 

But the shout fell on deaf ears as Dogpound came barreling towards Mikey and slammed his fist on the already weakened beam.

 

Mikey did his best to leap out of the way as the rafter shattered beneath him. He managed to grab hold of the edge of another rafter, but he was left hanging precariously over the edge.

 

Having lost his balance when the rafter shattered, Dogpound started to fall, but was able to grab Mikey's ankle to stop himself.

 

Instantly, Raph materialized on the rafter and grabbed Mikey's wrist to pull him back up.

 

But with both Mikey and Dogpound, the weight was too great for even his impressive strength. It was only made worse when Dogpound began trying to used Mikey as a rope to climb back up himself, making both teenagers strain not to loose their balance.

 

Using the nunchuck still in his free hand, Mikey smacked at the canine's hands as it got to close to the top. The hit made Dogpound loose his grip on Mikey, sending him falling into the tank.

 

Mikey stared horrified as the giant dog splashed into the mutagen. But Raph kept his focus on pulling his baby brother to safety, and managed to tug Mikey back to the rafters, before they and the others jumped safely to the ground.

 

Before them, they could see the silhouette of Dogpound thrashing in the vat of ooze, and heard his muffled screams he once again found himself changed by the glowing substance.

 

"Oh snap," Mikey whispered to Raph. "Dogs  _hate_  getting' wet."

 

"It's a little more than just getting wet," snapped Raph back.

 

Suddenly, something dark and fast launched itself out of the mutagen, and landed in front of Stockman and Fishface.

 

Standing in the glow of the mutagen was enough nightmare fuel to last Mikey the next year. No longer did Chris Bradford look like a giant dog man. Instead, he was lean and gaunt, with sharp bones sticking right out of his flesh, and what little flesh there was looked wolf-like and terrifying.

 

He stood to his full height and roared up at them all, showing off his now long, razor sharp teeth.

 

The teens immediately started to back away as the newly mutated Dogpound began stalking towards them, running his new claws along the side of the tank as he went. The teens scattered to put some distance between them and him, but it quickly became clear that it was still Mikey he was focusing on.

 

"Uh, maybe you need a day or two to get to know the new you, Dogpound," Mikey said, feeling unnerved at the new appearance of his former idol.

 

Before he could dodge, Dogpound's hand shot out, and grasped him around the waist, and effortlessly lifting him into the air.

 

"Tenshi!" shouted his siblings in alarm. They tried to race towards them, but Fishface and more of Stockman's Mousers blocked their path.

 

"I feel the mutagen coursing through me," said Dogpound as he squeezed Mikey in his grip. "I'm faster, stronger, more powerful than ever. I feel like a  _ninja_  again." He then grinned wickedly at the teenager in his hand. "To thank you for this, I'll make your end swift."

 

With that he threw Mikey against the nearby wall, but the teenager was able to plant his feet on the wall, and flip back to the ground.

 

Seeing this, the evil mutant roared at Mikey.

 

The orange wearing ninja glared back at him. "Rahhh yourself, you razor-faced dog!" he shouted, showing no fear.

 

Dogpound (though the name didn't really fit anymore) snarled at Mikey and said, "Don't  **ever**  call me  _dog!"_

 

Mikey smirked. "You got it, Rahzar!"

 

The newly named Rahzar roared again, and slashed his claws at Mikey too fast for him to dodge. But before the youngest could get sliced to ribbons, a sai came flying out of left field, and knocked Rahzar's hand away.

 

"Get Away From Him!" shouted Raph as he landed a flying kick on the other mutant.

 

"Thanks, Iyasa!" called Mikey.

 

He noticed that Donnie and Miwa had finished off the Mousers, and were now squaring off against Fishface.

 

What followed was an intense battle between the evil mutants and the Hamato teens (with Stockman cowering in a corner, having run out of Mousers). Rahzar was making full use of the strength and speed he'd boasted, knocking the teens flying without much effort. Fishface was no slouch too, fighting ferociously against his hated rivals.

 

As he was fighting, Mikey noticed a large power cable attached to the wall, and felt a light bulb go off in his head.

 

With a grin he leapt next to it and shouted to Rahzar, "Here, boy! Good dog!"

 

Sick to death of all the dog jokes, Rahzar dove at Mikey with no hesitation, his claws out and ready to cut the teen to tiny bits.

 

At the last second, Mikey dodged the attack, leaving Rahzar to plunge his claws deep into the power cable, and feel a surge of electricity flow through him.

 

As he roared in pain, the rest of the fighting stopped so the others could see what was happening.

 

Donnie grinned at his brother's ingenuity, and knew how to expand upon it. "Everyone! To high ground! Now!"

 

Using the walls and mutagen tank as springboards, the teens climbed their way back to the rafters. Once they were all safely out of enemy reach, Donnie set off the sprinkler system, showering the building with water, and soaking the villains.

 

The spray conducted the electricity Rahzar was stuck in, and it spread through the water to all the villains on the floor until they collapsed unconscious, and Rahzar was blasted free of the wall.

 

Mikey looked frantically at his siblings. "Please tell me someone got the centerfudge? Otherwise I think we just fried it."

 

Miwa smirked. "Got you covered," she said, pulling the centrifuge from the shadows she'd hidden it in.

 

Mikey beamed at his big sister, and the teens rushed out of the building to get Leo his cure.

 

Not a second after they left, Stockman was rudely awakened by a kick to the gut.

 

Groaning in pain, he looked up to see the Shredder towering over him.

 

"Stockman," the Shredder said, glaring at the man as he did so. "It seems I once again have use for your skills. Do not disappoint me this time."

 

Stockman immediately shrank away from him stuttering assurances that he'd never try to run again.

 

A low moan pulled the ninja master's attention away from the cowardly inventor, and over to the canine mutant pulling himself to his feet.

 

"Bradford," the Shredder said disinterestedly. "You look terrible."

 

Rahzar only let out another groan of defeat. He knew he was in for the punishment of a lifetime after this.

 

_________________

 

When the teens got back to Donnie's lab, they were horrified to discover that Leo's condition was far worse than when they had left.

 

Their leader could barely be seen under the massive green boils that covered his skin, and he was barely lucid enough to acknowledge their return. Tang Shen and Yoshi filled them in on how his illness had progressed as Donnie jumped right into making the antidote Leo needed.

 

A few minutes later, Donnie was pulling the antidote from the centrifuge, and soaking a washcloth with it.

 

He then handed the washcloth to his mother and instructed her to gently swab Leo's skin with it.

 

The effects were almost immediate. After the cloth passed over his skin, the boils immediately started to fade, and the green receded from Leo's skin tone.

 

Once all the signs of sickness were completely gone, Leo was able to sit up and smile at his family, only to be promptly knocked back down as his siblings dog piled on him for a hug.

 

Once Donnie had run a check up, and declared Leo completely cured, the leader knew there was one last piece of business to take care of before going to bed after a very long day.

 

He wasn't surprised to find Mikey hiding in his room. Once it had been clear Leo would live, the youngest had slipped away quietly. It was obvious to anyone with eyes that the he was still feeling guilty for causing the whole mess in the first place.

 

"Hey Mikey," Leo said as he entered his brother's very messy room.

 

Mikey's head jerked up to see him before ducking back down, and he shifted nervously on the bed. "Hey Leo," he mumbled to his feet.

 

"I heard I might have some competition in the leadership department," said Leo lightly as he sat down next to him.

 

Mikey snorted. "Yeah right. Don't listen to a thing Mi said, there is  _no way_  I'm doing the leadership thing again anytime soon. Besides, I know you made me leader as a punishment, anyway."

 

Leo raised an eyebrow. "Oh really."

 

Now Mikey glared at Leo. "Yes really. At first I thought it was just so I'd be able to fix things, since I'm the one who messed up. But then I spent the whole time worrying that I'd screw up again, and get the others hurt. Or that they'd not listen to me (like you guys  _always_  do), and we'd mess up that way. Or that I'd just be not good enough to get that stupid centerfudge, and you'd die because I was stupid enough to think that some gunk from Donnie's lab would help you relax. It was  _exhausting!_ "

 

Leo laughed at his brother's rant. "Welcome to the life of being a leader. It's a thankless job, but someone has to do it."

 

Mikey's face fell as he realized the reality of that statement. "Thank you," he said sincerely.

 

Leo stopped laughing and looked at him in surprise. "I didn't mean- I wasn't asking for a thank you."

 

"You shouldn't have to," said Mikey. "We should be saying it anyway, because you're a really good leader, Leo, and we all know it. The only reason I was any good today is because when I did leader-y things I was doing my best to imitate you. So, thank you."

 

Leo beamed fondly at his brother, and pulled him into a one armed hug. "You're welcome, little brother."

 

Leo then stared off into space for a bit before continuing. "You know, Father only gave me the leader role because I asked first instead of bragging about how much of a better leader I would be than the rest of you."

 

Mikey snickered, and leaned into Leo's hug. "I just wanted to be leader 'cause it sounded like fun. Boy was I wrong."

 

Leo chuckled. "When I later asked how Father had known he had made the right choice for leader, he told me there are no right or wrong answers, only choices. Any of us could have been made the leader. And I think you proved today that if it had been you, you could handle it."

 

Mikey snorted disbelievingly, but Leo just grinned. "Really, Mikey," he insisted. "I'm proud of you."

 

That made Mikey's face light up, and he quickly turned the one-armed hug into a bear hug.

 

"And I really appreciate you trying to look out for me," Leo added. "Misguided as it was, you were only trying to help me relax from the pressure I'm under, and I can't be too mad at you for doing that."

 

The youngest grinned as he realized he'd been forgiven for his mistakes.

 

"Just, next time you try to help me out, don't do it with anything from Donnie's lab," Leo added firmly.

 

"Absolutely," Mikey agreed without hesitation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I'd change things up from the original episode. Since Leo was human, and didn't already have mutagen in his system, I figured the reject batch would have a more extreme effect on him than it did Mikey in the show. The lullaby Tang Shen sings is a real Japanese lullaby I found on Wikipedia called the Chūgoku Region Lullaby. I thought the lyrics matched the situation pretty well. It's about singing a baby to sleep, so you can go to the shrine and pray for his health.


	19. Targeted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The alliance between the Kraang and the Shredder has created a new weapon, which he sends to retrieve Karai.

Within one of the Kraang's secret bases, the Shredder strode down the halls in order to see the latest weapon the aliens had invented as part of their alliance.

 

He entered the large room lined with Foot-Bots being built, and with several Kraang working diligently around an elevated dome in the middle of the floor where the new creation was being built.

 

As the Shredder approached, glowing platforms appeared as stairs to allow him up onto the platform as the dome opened and smoke poured out.

 

Rising out of the smoke as a new robot warrior dressed in Bradford's old ninja uniform (before he became too large, and then too sharp and boney to wear it).

 

Only this robot was built to be far more powerful than the Foot-Bots, and would serve to decimate their shared enemies.

 

"How long until it is ready?" said the Shredder as he examined the newest weapon in his arsenal.

 

"By Kraang's calculations, nine Earth hour units until completion," said the Kraang closest to him.

 

The clenching of his fist was the only outward indication the Shredder made to show his displeasure at the amount of time.

 

"Very well," he said darkly. "Once it is complete, I want to test it on a specific target. You will have it deliver the kunoichi known as Karai to me,  _alive_."

 

The Kraang exchanged glances, wondering why the man who hated all of the Hamato Clan so much would request that one girl be brought to him.

 

Seeing this, the Shredder glared at them all. "Is there a problem?" he asked darkly.

 

The Kraang next to him hesitated before replying, "Kraang sees no foreseeable problem, one called Shredder."

 

"Good," said Shredder looking back at his newest weapon. "Then have this machine sent out as soon as possible. I want it done"

 

________________

 

April hurried to the Renaissance Dojo after dropping most of her school things off at home. She had another tutoring session with Casey that night, and she wanted to spend time with her friends before heading to the hockey rink to meet him.

 

As she entered Donnie's lab, she saw the Hamato siblings all clustered around a table while Donnie helped Raph keep up with the schoolwork he was missing, and the others all paid attention so that they could better learn the material as well. Though, calling what they were doing 'paying attention' was a bit of a stretch.

 

Donnie and Raph were at the head of the table, with the genius explaining to the frustrated looking turtle about the various parts and functions of a cell, and how plant and animal cells differed from each other. Leo was on Raph's other side, watching them work and diligently taking notes whenever Donnie explained a new. Miwa sat slouched next to him, listening with a bored expression on her face as she doodled in her notebook. Mikey sat on Donnie's other side, and unlike the others, was not paying the slightest bit of attention, and instead was playing a game on his phone.

 

But when Donnie caught sight of April in the doorway, he jumped to his feet with a big smile. "April!" he called happily, seeming to light up at her very presence.

 

The others also turned to smile at her, and shout their own greetings, which April cheerfully returned.

 

Only one didn't appear happy to see her. With a scoff, Miwa gathered up her books and left the lab. "I'm going out," she said dully as she went.

 

Just like that, April's good mood dropped a peg, as she was once again reminded that Miwa was still mad at the redhead for her perceived guilt associated with Raph mutating, and to be honest, April was getting pretty sick of her attitude.

 

April sent the brothers a fed up expression. "Does she really still blame me for that night?" she had to ask.

 

The brothers exchanged uncomfortable glances.

 

"It's hard to explain," said Leo, trying his best to explain his sister's behavior. "Mi has always been able to hold a grudge longer than anyone I know, and even when she realizes she was wrong, or that it wasn't your fault, she doesn't seem to know how to let that grudge go."

 

"Basically, she has as a hard time saying things like 'Sorry' and 'Thank You'," said Raph.

 

"To be honest, I don't think she really blames you for that night anymore," said Donnie. "But she doesn't know how to go back to treating you like she used to."

 

"It's not like you two were besties in the first place," Mikey added.

 

April had to pause when Mikey said that. It was true, she and Miwa hadn't really been close friends before the mutagen spill. Sure, they talked to each other, and Miwa had been the one to give April her tessen, but there had never been that connected feeling of friendship that April felt with the other ninjas to various degrees.

 

April frowned as she processed that. "So what should I do?" she asked, wanting to end the tension between her and the other girl.

 

The boys shrugged and Leo said, "Just be patient with her. She'll come around."

 

April looked at him skeptically, but let it go. It wasn't like she had any better ideas to work with.

 

________________

 

A few hours later, April left for her tutoring session, and the Hamato boys were left to their own devices.

 

At least until the Kraang Communication Orb went off, and alerted them to the Kraang's latest plot.

 

In record time, the four boys were in the Shellraiser driving at top speed to the coordinates Donnie had received, Miwa had left her cell phone on the study table, so the ninjas were a person short on their team

 

Knowing it would take too long to track her down, the teens instead recruited Leatherhead to help even out their team (Mondo Gecko offered to come to, but they opted to leave him behind since he wasn't much of a fighter).

 

As they went, Donnie explained to them what was going on. "From what I could translate from the orb, it seems the Kraang are building some kind of advanced heavy weaponry."

 

"Any guess what it could be?" Leo asked from the driver's seat.

 

Mikey immediately raised his hand. "Oh, lasers disguised as burritos," he said. "Yes, it all makes sense now."

 

Raph gave his baby brother a disbelieving look. "And we were following  _your_  lead last week. I don't know how we survived."

 

Donnie, meanwhile, was sharing the printout he'd made of the transmission with Leatherhead, who was crouched in the back, trying not to take up too much space. After examining the page's contents, the mutant gator shook his head. "Whatever this weapon is, it is like nothing I've seen the Kraang use before. All I know is that it will be very dangerous."

 

"Well that's not ominous," said Leo dryly. "Don't worry, guys. I'm sure we can handle it, and then we'll go out for Mexican."

 

________________

 

April, meanwhile, stood outside the local skating rink that her school's hockey team used. She wasn't waiting long before Casey stepped out with his hockey stick and gear slung over his shoulder, and his hockey mask still perched on his head.

 

"Hey, Red" he called when he saw her. "Time for more trig?"

 

"Oh, do you only like me for my trigonometry? April asked with a smirk.

 

While Casey had seemed like a cocky jerk at first, over the last few study sessions he'd become cocky jerk she couldn't help but like. He'd make friendly flirts at her every now and then, but never too much out of respect for the fact she had a boyfriend, and nothing like the blatant flirting she saw him do with other girls. He was also pretty likeable once you got past the ego he seemed to throw around. In fact, the jock had come to remind April a lot of Raph, both were hotheaded and brash people that you needed to get to know before you saw the good side of them, but that good side seemed to be well worth the wait.

 

Casey gave her a grin that showed off his missing teeth, and the two headed for the park to study.

 

As they walked, April couldn't help but ask, "So, I don't really see you hang out with anyone else. Not even the other guys on your hockey team. Why is that?"

 

Casey looked uncomfortable at the question, and April quickly added, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

 

Casey let out a sigh. What had started out as a personal mission to get information out of the redhead had gone a bit out of control in a way he hadn't seen coming. He actually  _liked_  hanging out with April. She was more fun than he'd thought she'd be, and her dry wit was a great foil to his personality.

 

He also knew if she found out what he was up to she'd likely never speak to him again.

 

But he knew that her finding out was inevitable at this point, and it might be better if she heard it from him rather than someone else.

 

"I used to have this best friend named Nick, he was on the team with me," he said. "But then during the playoffs against Troma Town, he came up behind me just as I was about to sink the winning goal, and WHAM! Smacked his helmet straight off. Swollen face, split lip. He quit the team after that. My best friend since second grade never spoke to me again."

 

April gave him a sympathetic look. "But it's not like you meant it."

 

Casey nodded. "I didn't," he admitted. "I didn't mean to hurt him, but some things are just beyond our control."

 

"So you haven't had any close friends since Nick?" April asked.

 

Casey shook his head. "No, a few months after Nick split, I met a guy who became my new best friend. We were, like, practically the same person, you know?"

 

April laughed. "Two of Casey Jones is probably the last thing the world needs," she joked. But then the smile slid off her face. "So then why haven't I seen you hanging around with this best friend?"

 

"Because he's kinda not been around lately," Casey admitted. He then took a deep breath, and said, "April, I have a confession to make. Just please don't hate me when you hear it."

 

April looked at him in concern, but as she opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, she heard a scream ring out from down the street.

 

April's eyes widened as she recognized the voice, as well as the sounds of someone fighting off killer robots. "That was Miwa!" she said, taking off towards the source of the noise.

 

Casey didn't hesitate to run along side her, pulling out his hockey stick to use as a weapon, and pulling his mask down over his face for protection. It looked like his confession would have to wait a bit.

 

________________

 

When Miwa had left the lab, she hadn't really had any destination in mind. She had just wanted to get away from April.

 

Her brothers had been getting on her case a lot recently, pushing her to kiss and make up with the redhead for her attitude, but Miwa wasn't ready to let go of her grudge just yet.

 

She wasn't so petty as to have her ire with the other girl based solely on blaming her and her father for Raph's mutation (though that was still a factor). Miwa had other reasons that she was irked at April, the night of the mutagen spill just brought all those issues to the surface, and Miwa didn't even know where to begin with dealing with them, or if she even wanted to.

 

Eventually, Miwa found her way to the park. Not eager to return home and get another lecture about how 'April-was-part-of-the-team-and-Miwa-you-need-to-get-over-yourself', she pulled the hood of her jacket over her head, and sat herself down on the roundabout, and absentmindedly began pushing herself around in a circle.

 

 _Did_  Miwa need to get over herself? Maybe. But even if she forced down all the things that irritated her about April, it wouldn't change the fact that the causes for it would still exist, and her discontent would only bubble back to the surface again at a later date.

 

If there was to be any change between the dynamic of April and Miwa, they would both need to change some things, but the kunoichi had no idea how to make that happen.

 

And so the cycle of grudges continued, and Miwa spent the next few hours sitting around the park trying to find a way to fix it. Because she knew it did need to be fixed, one way or another, both for the good of her team, and because (though she'd never admit it) she was as tired of being mad at April as April was.

 

By the time night started to fall, Miwa was still at the park, and frustrated she hadn't come up with a solution to her problems. But she knew she needed to leave soon, as April liked to tutor the boy she'd been assigned at the park, and if the kunoichi wanted to keep avoiding her, she would have to move on.

 

Just as she was about to leave, she got the sense that someone was behind her. Without hesitation, Miwa pulled her tantō from its hidden pocket within her oversized jacket, and turned just in time to block an oncoming attack from a Foot-Bot.

 

Her eyes narrowed when she saw her attacker, and she wasted no time slicing the robot's head off.

 

But then a mechanical sound came from the shadows all around her, and Miwa looked up to seem a dozen more Foot-Bots surrounding her with weapons at the ready.

 

Seeing how she was outnumbered, and had no way to call for help, Miwa gave a mutter of, "Kuso," before the robots came at her in droves.

 

Even though she and her brothers had been able to adjust their fighting to be able to take out the Foot-Bots, this was still an overwhelming amount of robots, and Miwa had a sinking feeling she wouldn't be able to take on all of them by herself.

 

Still, that wasn't going to stop her from trying, as the kunoichi sliced and cut through any Foot-Bot that came near her. But there were just to many, and one of them managed to get through her defenses and slash at her leg, making Miwa scream in pain.

 

Gritting her teeth against it, Miwa began attacking with even more ferocity, but a the Foot-Bots were able to press their advantage, and Miwa soon found herself pinned by one as the others closed in.

 

Just as the one holding her pulled back its fist to knock her out, its head was suddenly separated from its body in a quick slash.

 

Miwa looked up in surprise to see April standing over her, holding her tessen. "What are you doing here?" she asked as she kicked the remains of a Foot-Bot off of her.

 

"I heard the scream," said April sassily. "Though, I'm sure you had it under control"

 

"Whatever," Miwa muttered, and the two girls got into defensive position as the other Foot-Bots started circling them.

 

"This is so rad," said a voice Miwa hadn't been expecting.

 

Turning she saw a boy with a hockey mask looking down at the fallen Foot-Bot. "This guy's really a robot?" he asked, poking at the decapitated robot with a hockey stick.

 

"You brought Hockey Boy with you?" Miwa asked April incredulously.

 

April gave her a helpless shrug.

 

"So are all these guys robots?" asked Hockey Boy as the Foot-Bots drew closer.

 

As if in response, the Foot-Bots had an extra set of arms pop out of their sides, each new hand supporting more deadly weapons.

 

"That answer your question," snapped April.

 

The Foot-Bots leapt at them, and the three teens fought back against them with everything they had.

 

Despite the interference from April and Casey, it was clear the Foot-Bot's main focus was on Miwa, and went after her the most, and with her injured leg, she was having a hard time keeping up with them. But with the combined effort of Casey and April, they were at least able to hold their own.

 

"You owe these guys money or something, Babe?" Casey asked Miwa after he took out his fifth Foot-Bot.

 

"Or something," said both Miwa and April in unison as more Foot-Bots came out of the woodwork to replace the ones they'd trashed.

 

"Casey just go, I didn't mean to get you into this," April said as she slashed though the arm of a Foot-Bot.

 

Behind his hockey mask, Casey grinned at her. "Are you kidding me? Do you know what this is? This is Casey Jones vs. Evil Robo-Ninjas to save the pretty girl. Coolest freakin' thing in the universe."

 

Not to mention, that goop monster that may or may not have been the missing Timothy kid had been waylaid by ninjas (although, he was pretty sure those guys had been human). Maybe these robo chumps knew something about where Raph was.

 

With that in mind, Casey launched himself at the ninjas with a cry of "GOONGALA!"

 

Miwa had been tuning them out until she heard Casey shout that (which was lucky, because she'd probably have had to kill Casey for saying he had to save her). "Great," she muttered sarcastically. "As if Booyakasha wasn't bad enough."

 

April just shook her head in amusement, but as she looked at the hoards of Foot-Bots coming at them, she knew they were going to need back up, so as she fought she pulled out her cellphone and hit speed dial.

 

________________

 

Meanwhile, with the quadruplets and Leatherhead, their entrance to the Kraang facility went off without a hitch. Mikey distracted the guards with some (seemingly impossible) shadow puppets, while the others snuck up behind them and took them out.

 

They entered the main room, and caught sight of the robot Shredder had commissioned standing in the center.

 

Just as they were about to move to sabotage it, Donnie's cellphone started vibrating.

 

Without hesitation, Donnie answered the phone. "Hey April," he said brightly, earning a shush from his brothers, not looking happy he was taking calls at this time.

 

"Donnie!" said April's voice through the phone. "Me and Miwa are at the park, and there are Foot-Bots everywhere! It looks like they're after her and she's hurt!" There was the sound of screeching metal, and April let out a frightened squeak. "We could really use some back up! Now!"

 

Donnie's eyes widened as the phone hung up. "The Foot are after April and Mi in the park. I gotta go help them."

 

"Donnie! We need your help," hissed Leo, but Donnie was already gone, and the alarms started to go off.

 

The remaining four turned to see the Kraang looking right at them and leveling their blasters.

 

"Attack!" Leo yelled.

 

They all jumped into battle, taking out the Kraang while avoiding their laser fire.

 

"Leatherhead! Aside from Gifuto, you know the most about Kraang tech! Can you shut that thing down?" Leo called to the alligator.

 

But Leatherhead was too caught up in his feral mode, crushing and tearing apart any Kraang that came within his reach. When he got like this, there was no calming him down until a good few Kraang had been destroyed.

 

Seeing there was no help coming from the gator, Leo turned to Mikey. "Tenshi! You have that weird mojo thing with Kraang stuff! Do you think you could shut it down?"

 

Mikey grinned. "I'm on it!" he called as he launched himself up to the platform the machine was on. Laying eyes on it, he couldn't help but let out an appreciative whistle. "Whoa, that thing is  _Awesome!_ In an evil kinda way."

 

He quickly turned his attention to the control panel next to it, but before he could lay a hand on it, the loading bar filled, showing that the machine was ready.

 

Seeing there was nothing he could do now, Mikey jumped back and yelled, "Guys! Giant freaky robo-ninja I was gonna name Chrome Dome just finished charging!"

 

Raph glared at the robot. "He doesn't look so tough!" he yelled, running at it with his sais at the ready.

 

But before he could even reach it, the robot pulled out a whip and smacked Raph across the room with enough force that,if he hadn't had a shell it probably would have broken his back.

 

"Iyasa!" shouted Leo, but he quickly had to dodge himself as the robot sent a laser blast from his eyes, and scorched the ground Leo had been standing a second before.

 

The three ninjas each tried to attack the killer machine, but it anticipated their every move, and sent them flying before they could even hit.

 

Just then Leatherhead reared up from behind it, and wrapped his massive arms around the robot, roaring as he did so.

 

The ninja brothers cheered at the sight, thinking there was no way the robot would be able to break the alligator's hold.

 

But then a Taser popped out of the robots side, and shocked the gator, making him yell in pain, and release his captive.

 

The robot then grabbed Leatherhead, and threw him at the others, knocking Raph and Mikey off their feet and pinning them beneath him.

 

Leo had been so busy watching his team that he didn't notice the robot until it was towering over him with a pink laser sword ready to strike.

 

Leo winced, knowing he wouldn't be able to dodge the blow in time. But at the last second, the robot's eyes glowed, and it said in an automated voice,  _"Subroutine program taking over. Target: one called Karai. Located."_

 

Then before any of them could so much as blink, the robot activated the rockets in its feet, and shot through the roof.

 

The four exchanged glances as they realized what they'd just heard. Without a word they bolted from the building, and took off towards where they knew their sister was.

 

________________

 

Donnie, meanwhile, was regretting taking the Stealth Bike rather than the Shellraiser. He knew he had to leave the bigger vehicle for Leatherhead, but the Stealth Bike had been in dire need for a tune up, and had died half way to the park, leaving Donnie to run the rest of the way on foot.

 

As he rushed across the rooftops, his phone buzzed as he got a new text. Pulling it out he read the new text from Mikey,  _'Chrome Dome is after Sis!'_

 

He then looked up to see something shoot through the air and head straight towards his destination.

 

Heart sinking in dread, Donnie quickened his pace, and hoped that he wouldn't be too late.

 

________________

 

At the park, the three teens were still managing to hold their own against the Foot-Bots, but there were so many, and they couldn't help but start to feel the strain. Miwa's leg wound wasn't helping at all, as the pain was keeping her from fighting as well as she knew she could. But that didn't stop her from trying.

 

As she completed a complicated sword technique against a Foot-Bot with only the slightest of stumbles, Casey let out a whistle of appreciation.

 

"She is awesome," he said to April, who was fighting next to him, admiring Miwa from the corner of his eye.

 

Despite not getting along with the other girl, April could understand Casey's amazement. There was no denying Miwa was an incredible ninja. "Yeah, her family owns that dojo I go to," she said to him. "She's grown up her whole life around martial arts."

 

The redhead then ducked swiftly as a Foot-Bot tried to take off her head. "Though I get the feeling all the martial arts in the world wont help when we're out numbered like this."

 

"Well, at least things couldn't get much worse," said Casey as he used the halves of his now broken hockey stick as weapons.

 

Just then, there was the sound of rockets approaching them, and a new robo-ninja arrived, this one looking far more intimidating than the Foot-Bots.

 

"You just had to say that," Miwa groaned.

 

The robot looked directly at the injured kunoichi, and said,  _"Target sighted,"_ in an automated voice.

 

"I think he likes you," said April sarcastically as she shifted into a defensive position.

 

"Goody for me," said Miwa with equal sarcasm.

 

Deciding to take action, Casey ran at the robot with a yell, only for the machine to catch his broken hockey stick in mid air, and throw him aside, where more Foot-Bots moved to separate him from the girls.

 

The robot shot out its whip, and snagged Miwa around the waist, pinning her arms. But before it could pull her towards it, April sliced through the whip with her tessen and jumped between the robot and Miwa.

 

The robot scanned this new opponent as its eyes lit up to fire its lasers at her. But before it did so, it registered her face.  _"Do not destroy April O'Neil. Capture for the Kraang. Mission update. Capture both April O'Neil, and the one known as Karai for Kraang and Shredder."_

 

"Looks like he likes you too," muttered Miwa as she pulled the remains of the whip off herself.

 

"I hate two timers," April grumbled back.

 

They both had to dodge as the robot came at them with the whip again, the cord extending to make up for the part that was cut off.

 

"Girls! Run!" yelled Casey from his own fight.

 

April shot him a worried look. "But-"

 

"These robo-freaks are after you," said Casey as he continued to fight the Foot-Bots that surrounded him. "I can handle these chumps, but I don't think we can take that thing!"

 

They had to concede his point, as they were both exhausted, and Miwa's injury was getting worse by the minute. Both girls dodged another attack from the robot, and took off out of the park, and the robot chased after them, leaving Casey to take out the few remaining Foot-Bots.

 

Casey managed to sweep the last three robots off their feet, and he stomped his foot down on one's chest with his splintered hockey stick at its throat.

 

"I don't know if you freaks can talk, but if you can, tell me this," he said darkly. "Where. Is.  _Raphael?"_

 

________________

 

The robot was still after the girls, and with its rocket feet it had no problems keeping pace with them.

 

"We gotta give lover boy the slip!" shouted April as they ran down the street.

 

Miwa was now having a hard time running without a limp, and only nodded in agreement. Then she jerked her head at an up coming alley, and shouted, "This way!"

 

Both girls ducked into the alley, and the robot followed soon after. It landed in the alley, and began scanning for its quarry as it walked through.

 

Just as it came next to a dumpster, Miwa leaped from the shadows and managed to land a kick with her good leg, knocking the robot into the dumpster.

 

On the fire escape above, April used her tessen to cut through the escapes' hold on the building, sending the heavy metal frame crashing down onto the dumpster, and pinning it shut.

 

April dropped down next to Miwa panting. "Good plan," she gasped.

 

Miwa nodded in reply, just as out of breath as April.

 

Then the dumpster shook as the robot tried to free itself. Before their eyes a pink laser shot out of the roof, and began cutting through the remains of the fire escape.

 

"Retreat?" said April when she saw that.

 

"Oh yeah," Miwa agreed. But as she tried to run again, she winced and clutched at her leg.

 

April saw this, and hurried back to her, helping Miwa to her feet. "Though, it doesn't look like we'll be able to go far," she said.

 

"We need to hide," Miwa agreed reluctantly. "Somewhere away from civilians till my brothers find us."

 

April looked out of the alley, and saw what street they were on. "I've got an idea," she said as she helped Miwa along.

 

The two girls hurried out of the alley. A few minutes after they left, the robot bust out of the dumpster and began scanning the area again to find them.

 

________________

 

Donnie arrived at the park to see it littered with downed Foot-Bots, and a kid wearing a hockey mask fighting the only two still functioning. April and Miwa were nowhere in sight.

 

Donnie was just about to run over and help the boy in the mask, only to see him bash the head off of one of the Foot-Bots, and begin fighting the other with no problem.

 

Seeing that he had things well in hand, Donnie immediately pulled out his phone, and began running an app he'd made to track the other's by their cell phones. Setting it to April's, he could only hope that wherever she was, Miwa was with her.

 

When he saw their location, he had to blink in surprise. "Why would they go there?" he had to ask aloud.

 

________________

 

Miwa sat down at the edge of the ice rink, and laid her injured leg on the ice. Letting out a sigh of relief as the cold started to numb her pain, she glanced up as April came towards her with a first aid kit.

 

"Alright, I'll admit it," said the kunoichi. "Hiding in the school hockey rink wasn't a bad idea."

 

April smirked at the other girl as she maneuvered herself so she could get at Miwa's injury. "What can I say, I'm full of good ideas."

 

Miwa frowned. "How'd the Foot-Bots find me, anyway? I'm out of uniform, and I wasn't on patrol."

 

April studied her appearance, and said, "It's probably your jacket. With your hood up, you look kinda like you do in ninja mode."

 

Seeing she was right, Miwa let out a snort. "Too bad, I liked this coat."

 

April worked in silence for a few minutes, applying disinfectant, and wrapping the injury in gauze.

 

But finally she couldn't take the silence anymore. "Why do you hate me?" April asked.

 

Miwa stared at the other girl, unsure how to respond.

 

"I get you're mad Dad made Raph go to that rooftop to protect us, and I'm sorry about that, but do you really hate me for it?" April continued. "I mean, we just fought off an army of Foot-Bots, and tossed some kind of Super-Foot-Bot into the trash. We make a pretty good team."

 

Miwa snerked. "Yeah, us and Hockey Boy," she said in amusement, before looking away.

 

April waited patiently for an answer as she put the finishing touches on tying the gauze in place.

 

Finally Miwa admitted quietly, "I don't hate you, you just… irritate me."

 

April looked at her curiously. "How so?"

 

Miwa shrugged. "Everything seems to revolve around you lately," she said bluntly. "The Kraang, my family, Donnie. Heck, a killer robot sent specifically after  _me_  decided to change its plans just because you were there. Everything always seems to be centered around little Miss April O'Neil."

 

April frowned at what she was saying. It wasn't like April had asked for this. If anything she wanted it to stop. But then her eyes widened as she realized something.

 

"You're  _jealous_  of me?" she asked incredulously.

 

Miwa scowled and looked away.

 

"You are," April concluded, still in disbelief. "I never asked for the Kraang to come after me you know. If it wasn't for them, then a lot less stuff would be happening around me too."

 

"Yeah, I know," Miwa grumbled bitterly.

 

April studied her again. "There's more to it, isn't there?" she asked.

 

Miwa kept stubbornly silent.

 

"Come on," said April encouragingly. "I really wanna know. I want to mend fences, but I can't do that if I don't know what's broken."

 

Miwa glowered at the ice in front of her, before bitterly saying, "Why do you have to be so  _perfect?"_

 

For a second, April was sure she'd heard her wrong. "Me?  _Perfect?_ "

 

Miwa scoffed. "Yes, perfect.  _You_  with your pretty face, and your book smarts, and that sugary sweetness that just  _oozes_  out of you," she said scornfully. She reached over and snatched April's tessen, the tessen Miwa's father had made especially for her when she was a baby, from the redhead's pocket, and unfolded it between them, showing April the Hamato crest. "You're exactly the kind of girl Mother and Father  _wanted_  to have in a daughter. But instead they got stuck with me, who can't do a good thing unless it involves hitting somebody."

 

She then shoved the tessen back into April's hands, and turned away. "Whenever I try to be sweet it turns to poison. So I'm better off just getting in trouble. It's what I'm good at, even if my parents wish I wouldn't."

 

April stared at her in shock, unsure what she could possibly say to that.

 

Well, the truth was always the best policy.

 

"To be honest, I've always been a little jealous of you too," April admitted, setting the first aid kit aside, and settling herself next to Miwa.

 

The kunoichi looked at her like she'd just said the sky was pink with green clouds. "You're kidding right?"

 

"No really," said April, picking up her tessen and examining it. "You're so good at being a kunoichi, that I'm miles behind. I must look like a total wimp next to you. Heck, while we were fighting just now, Hockey Boy kept going on and on about how cool you were."

 

Miwa had to smirk at that. "Well, training practically since I could walk helps."

 

"I'll bet," said April with a laugh, before sobering a bit. "Another thing I'm jealous of is how great a relationship you have with your parents."

 

Now Miwa was looking at her like she was crazy again.

 

"It's true," April insisted. "I lost my Mom when I was six, and as much as I love my Dad, he and I just haven't been able to connect like we used to before the Kraang took him. And whenever I'm not training with Sensei, he's telling me about the funny things you and the guys did growing up. And Tang Shen, she never shuts up about you and your brothers. You guys are her whole world, and she loves you for it.  _Both_  your parents do, Miwa."

 

"Mi is fine," Miwa muttered. She then stared silently at the ice for a long moment, before finally saying bluntly, "We're both jealous idiots."

 

April threw back her head and laughed at that. But the laugh quickly died on her lips as she saw their robot pursuer standing right behind them about to strike.

 

"Watch Out!" April yelled, tackling Miwa out of the way just in time.

 

Both girls slid out onto the ice, and hurriedly got to their feet and pulled out their weapons.

 

"Can't this guy take a hint," said April in exasperation.

 

"I guess we'll just have to beat it into his skull," Miwa replied, and she launched herself towards the robot.

 

But the robot caught her in mid air with one hand, and sent its whip to tie April up with the other.

 

" _Targets Acquired,"_ said the robot, and it activated its rockets to fly off with them.

 

Both girls braced themselves, but before they could be dragged off a blade sliced through the whip, and the staff end managed to hit the robot hard enough to make it drop Miwa.

 

Looking over in surprise, the girls saw Donnie jump between them and the robot, his bō converted to a naginata, and the boy holding it looking murderous.

 

"Donnie!" April yelled in delight, momentarily forgetting to call him by his code name.

 

The robot focused its gaze on Donnie and said,  _"Threat detected. Eliminate threat."_

 

"You stay away from them!" Donnie yelled angrily, swinging his staff at the robot.

 

But the robot just caught the staff, and flung it aside, taking Donnie along with it.

 

Donnie went sliding on the ice till his back hit the rink wall. But before the robot could go after him, the girls both jumped on the robot, slashing and stabbing at it with their weapons. The robot threw them both off, but in doing so, exposed his back to Donnie, allowing the genius to catch a glimpse of a cracked control panel emitting pink sparks.

 

"I think I know how to take Chrome Dome down!" he yelled to his sister and girlfriend.

 

"Chrome Dome?" Miwa asked in disbelief.

 

Donnie rolled his eyes. "Mikey texted me what he named it. He didn't want this to become another Newtralizer thing."

 

Chrome Dome's eyes glowed, and he pulled out a glowing pink sword, and made to cut Donnie's head off. But Donnie managed to kick himself off the wall, and use the ice to slide himself to safety, where he was quickly flanked by April and Miwa.

 

"You said you could take it down," said April. "So what's the plan Donnie?"

 

"Try to keep his arms pinned so that I can get at his back," Donnie said.

 

"You got it," Miwa said, as she and April started skating forward.

 

April snatched up the cut piece of whip that Chrome Dome had used to tie her up, and was able to lasso it around one of the robot's arms. Miwa snagged a sports banner advertising an upcoming hokey match and used it to do the same. Both girls then grabbed ahold of the edge of opposite sides of the rink with their free hands to keep the robot from pulling them towards it.

 

While they did that, Donnie jumped onto the robots back, and used a small knife to pry the back panel open, and pull free some of the wires inside.

 

Chrome Dome twitched, and began spinning like a top, taking Donnie (who was still clinging to its head) along for the ride. The force of the spinning pulled the makeshift ropes April and Miwa had straight out of their hands.

 

The plasma sword that it had been wielding also went flying out of its hands, and pierced the ice not far from Miwa.

 

Snatching the blade up, Miwa skated towards the robot, and stabbed the plasma weapon through its back, making the thing collapse lifeless to onto the ice.

 

Miwa then pulled the sword free, and looked at it thoughtfully. "I am  _so_  keeping this," she said. Then she proceeded to hack the robot to bits for good measure.

 

"Um, Sis? Anger issues much?" Donnie said nervously at the sight.

 

But April skated past him, and began kicking the scrap metal that used to be Chrome Dome, and yelling profanities at it as she did so.

 

More than a little intimidated by the display of violence, Donnie began to slide away to get as much distance from them as he possibly could.

 

Just then, the door burst open, and in jumped Mikey, Leo, Raph, and Leatherhead, ready for a fight, only to stop dead when they saw the battle was already over.

 

"Aww, you beat Chrome Dome without us?" Mikey asked in disappointment.

 

"And you ditched us, what the hell, man?" said Raph, still irritated about that.

 

Leo opened his mouth to no doubt lecture Donnie on the responsibilities of being on a team, but he stopped himself when he saw the expression on the genius' face.

 

"What's wrong, Donnie," he asked instead.

 

Donnie pointed over at where the girls were still turning Chrome Dome into scrap. "Girls are  _scary_ ," he said.

 

The boy looked past him at the scene in time to see Miwa decapitate the robot, followed by April kicking the head into the closest hockey goal.

 

The boys nodded in agreement. There was no arguing with that.

 

When Chrome Dome had been dismantled enough for the girl's liking (which, unfortunately, shorted out Miwa's plasma sword in the process), the two saw the boys, Leatherhead included, looking at them fearfully. They exchanged a glance, and then burst out laughing.

 

"Looks like we may have gone overboard," said April, giggling as she did so.

 

"No such thing," said Miwa with a smirk. "Think we should go see if Hockey Boy made it out?"

 

April's eyes widened as she remembered Casey still in the park. "Oh my gosh, we forgot about him! Let's go, Mi!"

 

With that, April dragged Miwa back out of the rink and towards the park.

 

The four brothers exchanged incredulous glances at that. " _Mi?"_ they asked in unison.

 

It looked like they no longer had to worry about April and Miwa not being friends. Miwa only let people she cared about call her by that nickname.

 

________________

 

Casey was just jabbing his hockey stick into the head of the last robo-ninja when April and Miwa returned.

 

April rushed towards him when she saw him. "Casey! Are you okay?!"

 

Casey pushed his hockey mask up off his face and grinned at the redhead. "Never better, Red," he said.

 

April sighed in relief, and started to say more, but before she could Miwa spoke up.

 

"Wait, Casey Jones?" Miwa asked incredulously as she finally recognized the boy.

 

April looked back at the kunoichi in confusion. "You know him?" she asked, not noticing the look of growing panic on Casey's face.

 

"Uh, yeah," said Miwa. "He's Raphael's best friend. He's been bugging us for months ever since Raph, you know, got sick."

 

April's eyes widened, and she looked back at Casey. "Why didn't you ever mention that?" she asked with a growing sense of dread.

 

Casey opened his mouth to reply, then hung his head. "I was trying to tell you earlier," he said softly. "You gotta know that story about Raph being sick is bullshit. He's missing or something, just like the others I told you about, and no one would tell me anything…"

 

April drew away from him as things started to line up in her head. His pushy attitude when they first met, how he brought up the 'rumors' of missing kids, the way he was constantly asking April questions about her life. It was all becoming sickeningly clear.

 

"You were  _using_  me!" she accused in realization, backing even further away from him. "You were trying to get me to tell you about-" she broke off and glared at him through angry tears.

 

Casey reached out to her, and said, "At first, yeah, but then I got to know you Red, and-"

 

"NO!" shouted April, smacking his hand away, fury radiating from her entire body. He'd been using her. Pumping her for information she had been  _trusted_ with. And she'd fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. "You were  _using_  me to get to my friends!" she roared. "You-you big JERK! I  _never_  want to speak to you again!"

 

April turned and stomped away.

 

"Wait! April, Come on!" yelled Casey, grabbing her hand to try and get her to hear him out, but April just turned and punched him in the face.

 

Casey let out a yelp of pain, and clutched at his now bleeding nose while April stormed back out of the park, kicking spare Foot-Bot parts as she went.

 

Miwa watched the whole scene with an unreadable expression, before turning to follow April.

 

"Where is Raphael?!" Casey shouted after her.

 

Miwa turned and saw Casey staring at her with a desperate expression. "Where is he?" he asked again. "I know something happened to him. Tell me?"

 

Miwa opened her mouth to say something, hesitated, then turned away and followed after April, leaving Casey alone in an empty park.

 

With a groan, Casey slumped to the ground, feeling more alone than ever. He'd really messed up this time, and it looked like it had cost him another friend.

 

________________

 

The Shredder sat on his throne as he received the report about his latest weapon's test run.

 

"So the machine failed," said the Shredder darkly. "Why does that not surprise me?"

 

The Kraang that had come to give the report squirmed in its endoskeleton. "The ones who are called 'the kids' proved more resourceful than Kraang had antici-"

 

The alien's words were cut off when a knife went flying through its robotic suit's head, making the endoskeleton collapse, and the Kraang scuttle out of the room on its tentacles, squealing fearfully as it went.

 

The Shredder sat back in his chair looking irritated.

 

"Uh, sir," came a timid voice below him.

 

He looked down to see that Baxter Stockman had stepped forward, looking nervous and clutching the dented remains of the robot's head.

 

"What?" the Shredder demanded impatiently.

 

"Well, you see, sir," Stockman stuttered. "We were able to recover the parts to the robot the Kraang created, and, uh, well, there's something it recorded that I think you might want to hear. Uh, if you want?"

 

The Shredder glared at the man, and made a show of putting his hand on the trigger for Stockman's collar before saying, "Proceed."

 

Stockman gulped, but moved to hook the head up to the projector that the Kraang had given them to communicate with.

 

"Majority of the recordings were destroyed thanks to the damage the head received," Stockman babbled as he worked. "But this one part is the only thing that's still clear. Listen."

 

Stockman began playing the video on the projector.

 

On the holographic screen, the Shredder got a static covered view of the backs of April O'Neil and a hooded girl he assumed was Karai. But it what the O'Neil girl said that held his attention.

 

" _Zzt-nd Tang Shen, she never shuts up about you and your brothers. You guys are her whole world, and she loves you for-bzzt…"_

 

The Shredder was on his feet before he even realized it as the screen faded to static. His mind was reeling from what he had just heard.

 

"Tang Shen is  _Alive?_ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun, dun, Duhhh… Looks like the Shredder's finally been clued in on that fact. The question is, what will he do about it. Also, I finally had April and Miwa become actual friends, rather than two girls who just happened to be on the same team. But Casey also got outed, and now April's the one holding a grudge.


	20. Words Lost in Translation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A clash of tempers sparks another mutation, but will this one be friend or foe.

If there was one good thing about being a mutant turtle, it was being able to skip school and sleep all day, and that Friday Raph had found the perfect sunny spot to do so. A window in the third story hallway of the dojo let in a constant stream of sunlight, while being at an angle where Raph didn't have to worry about someone looking in and seeing him from a neighboring building.

 

"This is the life, eh Spike?" he asked his pet turtle, who was basking right next to him.

 

The small turtle just gave Raph a lazy glance.

 

"Yeah, that's what I thought," said Raph happily. He then relaxed, and let the suns rays take effect.

 

Before mutating, Raph had never put much thought into sunbathing. It was just a boring thing people did at beaches and pools because they thought having a tan made them look better. But after his mutation, Raph quickly discovered how soothing it was for him to just lay down and catch some rays for a few hours at a time. He knew a large part of his enjoyment came from the fact he'd become part turtle, and Donnie had once tried to explain to him about how it was healthy for turtles to bask in sunlight, but he didn't really care. All he knew was that it felt good, and that was enough for him.

 

But of course, his enjoyment always had to end. This time the end came via Leo tripping over him and dropping the can of soda he'd been drinking on Raph's plastron.

 

Raph yelped and scrambled to his feet, trying to wipe the sticky liquid off his front.

 

Leo also pulled himself to his feet from where he had gone sprawling, and glared at his immediate younger brother.

 

Raph glared back at him. "What the hell, Leo? I was napping!" he shouted.

 

"Yeah, in the middle of the floor!" Leo shouted back, pointing at the sunny spot on the floor, which was now soaked with spilled soda. "That's the fifth time this month I've tripped over you!"

 

"Well, if you've done it so often, why haven't you learned to watch where you're going?" Raph snapped angrily.

 

The argument had drawn the attention of the rest of the household, and they gathered in the hallway to watch. Yoshi and Tang Shen watched the argument with disapproving expressions, but held back fro interfering, knowing their sons had to work out their own differences. Donnie, Miwa, and Mikey were just there to enjoy the show.

 

"Because we keep telling you to do it somewhere else!" Leo snarled at Raph. "Sorry I gave you enough credit to listen and do as you're told for once! Why do you have to lie there anyway, lazybones?"

 

"Because that's where the sun's the best!" Raph stated before he realized it. He then snapped his mouth shut and looked embarrassed.

 

Leo gave him an incredulous look. "The sun?" he asked dryly.

 

Mikey immediately started snickering. "You were sunbathing?" he asked teasingly. "I thought you said that was for dorks trying to make themselves look cool. Do you want me to bring you some sunscreen and one of those mirror things to hold?"

 

Raph growled, and shot his baby brother a dirty look, before grabbing Spike off the floor and storming away. "Come on, Spike. I'm not in the mood anymore."

 

Now it was Miwa's turn to look amused. "You were napping with your pet turtle?" she cooed. "Now isn't that  _adorable_."

 

Raph just shoved past her, and down the stairs towards his basement bedroom. As he left he could hear Donnie babbling his science mumbo jumbo behind him.

 

"Actually, it's a perfectly natural for turtles to lay in the sun and bask," Donnie was saying, sounding like he had swallowed a textbook as usual. "It's essential to their processing of calcium, some vitamins, and general health, and they need at least eight hours of-"

 

Raph scowled as he went out of earshot, and stomped his way back to his bedroom, and slammed the door behind him.

 

With a growl of frustration, he set his pet on a cushion he gotten specifically for Spike, and flopped down on his bed.

 

"They just don't get it," he said to the smaller turtle in frustration. "I just  _do_ these kinds of things now. I know its weird, and I didn't do them before, but they don't have to rub it in."

 

He sat up and looked over a Spike. "I mean who cares if I like lying in the sun? Leo just doesn't want to admit he's a klutz. And Mikey and Miwa think this whole thing is some kinda joke. Not to mention Donnie treats me like I'm his personal science project. They just don't understand…"

 

His gaze then softened as he looked over at his beloved pet. "But you understand, don't ya, Spike?" He reached over and patted Spike on the shell. "You've had to put up with this weird turtle stuff your whole life, haven't ya?"

 

Spike just stared back at him silently.

 

Raph sighed and lay back down on his bed. "I just can't wait for it all to be over with. Here's hoping that Egghead gets his big breakthrough soon."

 

With that the two turtles lay in silence for a few minutes, before a loud series of explosions made Raph sit straight up in bed.

 

"What the-?" he said, running to the door.

 

He opened it in time to see what looked like a firework shoot past his door, and ignite some old boxes of equipment down the hall.

 

With practiced ease, Raph grabbed the fire extinguisher he kept in his room, and hurried to douse the flames. He then did the same to all the other small fires he saw as he made his way towards Donnie's lab.

 

When he got inside, he saw Donnie coughing on smoke with a pair of goggles covering his face.

 

"Wow," the genius said between coughs, pulling the goggles off and revealing that only the area around his eyes wasn't covered in soot. "I did  _not_  see that one coming."

 

Raph glared at his immediate younger brother. "You blew up your lab  _again?_ " he said in exasperation as he put out the small fires in the lab. This sort of thing happened every other week, so all of the Hamato family were fairly used to it.

 

"Sorry," Donnie said, still coughing. "Making retro-mutagen is harder than I'd anticipated. There's still so much we don't know about mutagen, and what it can  _do_. You know, other than the obvious. For example, it can apparently explode like fireworks when mixed with the proper chemicals."

 

Donnie finished that explanation with another coughing fit, making Raph sigh and put the fire extinguisher down.

 

"Come on, genius," the hothead said as he started dragging Donnie from the lab. "Lets go upstairs and get you some of Mother's tea for that cough."

 

Donnie managed to mutter a, "Thanks," between coughs, and stumbled to keep up with his older brother. As he did so, he bumped into the table on which he was keeping his last canister of mutagen. The jostling made the container roll off the table and shatter on the lab floor after the two teenagers left the room.

 

Attracted by the glow, Spike slowly crawled out of Raph's room and into the lab staring curiously at the strange substance, before giving it a taste.

 

A few seconds later, a menacing roar filled the lab and a hulking shadow spread across the walls.

 

__________________

 

When Raph and Donnie arrived on the upper level of the dojo, the turtle was met with a scowling Leonardo, making it clear he was still sore from their argument earlier. Miwa and Mikey were also their lazing around, but looking up curiously as the two of them entered.

 

Raph just shot his older brother a dirty look, and made his way to the kitchen to help Donnie by making tea.

 

"Nerd-Boy here nearly blew himself up again," the turtle said shortly to Mikey, who was watching him and Donnie curiously.

 

"I was wondering why you looked extra crispy," said Mikey, as he bounced over and ran a finger along Donnie's cheek to wipe off a line of soot.

 

Donnie smacked his baby brother's hand away, and sipped at his tea as soon as Raph gave it to him. Instantly the liquid soothed his aching throat. "On the bright side," he said once he felt better. "I think I've found a way to save on fireworks next Fourth of July."

 

Mikey's eyes lit up at that. "Aw sweet!"

 

Miwa, on the other hand, sent a smirk over at Leo. "Didn't Mother and Father want you to tell him something?" she asked, jerking her head at Raph.

 

Mikey snickered, and Donnie looked amused.

 

Raph looked at his older brother curiously, and wondered why Leo looked like he was about to swallow a lemon.

 

Very stiffly, Leo approached him and said, "I'm sorry."

 

Raph blinked and wondered if he'd heard right. "What?"

 

"I'm sorry for our previous argument," said Leo still looking stiff, but not elaborating further.

 

Raph looked at his other siblings in hopes they'd shed some light on this.

 

Miwa shrugged. "After you left, Father got on our cases about not being more understanding about, well, you know."

 

"The changes in behavior and instincts that you have clearly undergone as a result of your mutation," Donnie supplied.

 

"Right," said Miwa, picking up the story. "After Donnie explained the mumbo jumbo about why you were lying in the sun like that, and how it was healthy for you and all that stuff, Father lectured Leo for starting a fight about all of it."

 

Well that explained Leo's stiffness. Their Fearless Leader always hated to admit he was wrong.

 

"You totally missed it dude," said Mikey cheerfully, heedless of the glare Leo was shooting him. "He was all, 'A ninja should always be aware of their surroundings', and told Leo he should have just apologized for tripping over you instead of blaming you for it. Like you said earlier, you've been doing the sunbathing thing there so often that most of us know to just step over you by now."

 

Raph sent a smirk at Leo. "Golden boy got told huh?" he asked snidely.

 

Leo scowled. He was already extremely peeved by the things that had happened today, and didn't need Raph teasing him on top of it. Leo may not have the explosive temper that his immediate younger brother had, but when he did get angry, he hit hard.

 

"At least I can go out in public," Leo snapped back, venting all of his frustrations into that one sentence.

 

Only to immediately regret the words the instant they left his mouth, as Raph's face fell dramatically, and the rest of his siblings were looking at him horrified.

 

"Raph, I didn't mean that, I'm  _so_  sorry-" Leo tried to apologize, but Raph was already storming out of the room. Even though the turtle's bedroom was two stories below them, they still heard the forceful slamming of his door, making them all wince.

 

"Dude," hissed Mikey. " _Not_  cool."

 

Leo hung his head, and made to follow Raph, but Donnie stopped him.

 

"Let Raph cool off for a bit," the genius advised. "Then go apologize."

 

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure your face is the last thing he wants to see right now," added Miwa, looking disapproving.

 

Leo looked pained, but did as they said. He just hoped he Raph would forgive him once he cooled down.

 

Not long after that, Donnie's mutagen tracker started going off.

 

__________________

 

Raph slammed the door to his bedroom harder than he'd ever slammed it before. He wouldn't be surprised if they heard the sound over in New Jersey, but right now he was too mad to even care.

 

"Can't go out in public," he growled under his breath. "Leo you lousy-"

 

Raph was cut off from what was sure to have been an epic use of profanity to describe his older brother, but when he tried to flip the light switch on nothing happened, leaving him in darkness.

 

Seeing this as just another part of his now very bad day, Raph groaned in defeat.

 

"They never understood you," whispered a voice from the darkness behind him.

 

Raph whipped around in a fighting position, scanning the darkness for the intruder, while wondering how whoever it was had gotten into his room.

 

Deep in the shadows, a pair of glowing green eyes stared back at him, and began growing bigger as their owner grew closer. "Not really," the voice continued as the intruder became clearer in the dim light. "Not like  _me_."

 

Raph's eyes widened as a gigantic spikey turtle slowly came into view, crawling on all fours at first, but slowly standing to tower over the teenager.

 

Raph's eyes grew even wider as he realized who the turtle was. "I-it can't be," he whispered in disbelief.  _"Spike?!"_

 

In the dim light, he could barely make out the other turtle's smirk as he nodded his head.

 

At first Raph could do nothing but gape at what used to be his pet turtle, and Spike eventually sat himself down on Raph's bed to wait for his brain to catch up to what his eyes were seeing.

 

"I can't believe this is happening," Raph finally whispered more to himself, than Spike. "This is  _amazing!_ " he then paused as something else occurred to him. "Wait, what am I gonna tell the others…"

 

"Tell them you got a new partner," said Spike as if it were that simple. "One who knows the  _true_ meaning of being a warrior turtle."

 

Raph looked over at Spike in confusion. "A new partner?" he asked.

 

"You and me," said Spike, coming up to him. "No joking around, no misunderstandings like with your siblings. We'll be the ultimate ninja team."

 

"Well, that would be…" Raph trailed off as he thought about it then grinned, " _Awesome!_ " he crowed

 

Spike grinned, and wrapped a massive hand around the smaller turtle's shoulders. "We'll crush our opponents. We'll fight evil together nonstop, and there won't be any more slow turtle jokes getting in the way."

 

Raph beamed him. This just kept getting better and better. Since his mutation, Raph hadn't been able to interact with almost anyone outside his family, and to be honest he was starting to feel stir-crazy and isolated from being around them.

 

He'd sometimes hang out with Leatherhead and Mondo Gecko, just to get away from his siblings for a few minutes. But those two were more Mikey's friends than his, and they hadn't really connected with him. There wasn't much the three of them had in common.

 

There was also blind old Murakami-san, who owned their favorite noodle place. Raph could still visit there at night when the store was about to close. But again, Raph couldn't connect very well to the noodle man, since he was far older, and they didn't have much in common. Plus, Murakami-san still thought he was a regular high school kid, so Raph couldn't share anything turtle related with him.

 

But now, there was finally someone Raph could interact with without having to worry about his appearance. Someone who already knew Raph inside and out, and would stick with him anyway.

 

"That's what I'm talking about," Raph said with a grin. "You totally get it. You always did."

 

Just then Miwa burst through the door without even bothering to knock. "Grab your gear, scaly boy. Donnie found-" she broke off when she saw just who was taking up the majority of space in Raph's bedroom.

 

Raph and Spike both stared back, too surprised by her sudden entrance to say anything.

 

There was a long minute of silence before Miwa finally broke it by saying, "What the  _Hell?!"_

 

She then glanced at Raph and said, "Who's Snapper McTortoise?"

 

Raph felt flustered, for all the big talk he and Spike had been saying, he still hadn't really prepared himself for explaining his pet's new mutation. "Uh, well, you remember Spike right?"

 

Miwa stared up at Spike with a raised eyebrow. " _You're_  Spike?" she asked in disbelief. "As in sweet  _little_  Spike?"

 

Spike glared back at her, and crossed his arms. "To be honest, I never really liked that name. Call me, Slash."

 

" _Riiiight_ ," said Miwa, still looking incredulous. She then looked at Raph and asked, "You fed your turtle mutagen?"

 

Raph scowled. "Of course not, he-" Raph broke off and looked confused. "Wait, how did you get mutated anyway?" he asked Slash.

 

"Brain boy spilled mutagen on the floor and didn't bother to clean it up," said Slash bluntly. "Careless idiot."

 

Raph and Miwa exchanged glances, they couldn't argue with Slash's assessment, but something seemed off. Donnie normally wasn't that careless, especially with dangerous chemicals.

 

"It must have gotten knocked over when he blew himself up earlier, and we just didn't notice," said Raph with a shrug.

 

"Right," said Miwa again, deciding to get back on track. "Donnie's mutagen tracker picked up another canister, so we gotta go. The others went on ahead, and the two of us are supposed to catch up through the sewers."

 

She then glanced over at Slash. "You wanna come with?" she asked the giant turtle skeptically.

 

Slash let out a snort. "You have to ask?"

 

Miwa didn't look impressed, but Raph beamed at his friend. "This'll be great," he said gesturing for Slash to follow him out of his room. "Come on, let's go look at the spare ninja gear."

 

As they went, Miwa called after them, "Hurry up, slowpokes."

 

"Who you calling slow?" Raph called back over his shoulder.

 

Miwa smirked and shook her head. Raph was acting like Spike mutating was the best thing since sliced bread, and if she were honest with herself, she found it kind of cute. It had been a long while since she'd seen her brother this excited about anything.

 

As she started to make her way out of the room to follow them, something caught her eye.

 

Turning to look, she saw the framed family picture that Raph kept on his bookshelf. It was the last one taken before Raph's mutation, and showed the five teenagers and their parents wearing their best kimonos and hakumas and sitting seiza in front of the decretive screens that lined the dojo.

 

But the image of the picture could barely be seen anymore. Everyone other than Raph had been completely scratched out of the picture.

 

Scratches like the ones made by giant claws.

 

Miwa paled as realization washed over her. She started to back away, only for her back to bump into something solid.

 

Turning fast, Miwa only had enough time to see Slash looming over her with his fist raised high in the air. The next second, his fist came down and bashed her over the head.

 

Miwa collapsed to the ground, pain exploding in her skull.

 

"Still think ninja turtles are a joke?" said Slash above her in a menacing voice.

 

Miwa vaguely felt herself being lifted off the floor and carried away, and then her world went black.

 

__________________

 

When Raph realized Slash was no longer behind him, he stopped digging though the spare ninja weapons, and looked around in confusion.

 

"Slash, where'd ya go?" he asked.

 

Just as he was about to head back towards his room, Slash showed up in the doorway.

 

Raph looked up at him in confusion. "Where'd you go, man?" he asked.

 

"I was talking to your sister," said Slash with a shrug. "Since you had me to watch your back, she went ahead along with your brothers."

 

Raph frowned a little, but shrugged off. "Her loss," he said. "So we need to get you a weapon." He turned and gestured towards the closet of ninja weapons behind him, "Take your pick."

 

Slash grinned, and moved to select a large rusty mace from the closet. "This looks like it could do some damage," he said as he gave it a few practice swings.

 

Raph nodded in agreement, grinning widely as he did so.

 

A few minutes later, Slash was sporting a new black ninja mask, belt, and pads, and he and Raph ran through the sewers, before exiting and going out onto the rooftops.

 

"Did Mi leave you any way to catch up to the others?" asked Raph as they went. "Donnie's probably got the mutagen tracker."

 

"Don't worry about it," Slash said confidently. "I've got a nose for the stuff. I can smell it a mile away." Giving the air a few experimental sniff, Slash took off in across the rooftops. "Come on, follow me."

 

Slash led Raph to the rooftop overlooking the mutagen canister. As they watched, the local pizza delivery boy was picking it up, and attaching it to the back of his bike.

 

"Looks like we got here first," said Raph, pulling out a rope attached to a grappling hook. "Stay here, Slash, I got this."

 

With that, the red wearing turtle tossed his grappling hook so that it caught on a nearby building, and swung down to grab the canister before the pizza boy could drive away.

 

Unfortunately, Leo was attempting to do the exact same thing from across the street. The pizza boy drove off on his moped before they could reach him, leaving the two ninjas to crash into each other in mid air.

 

Up on the rooftop Leo had swung from, Donnie and Mikey both winced at the sight of the collision. "That had to hurt," said Donnie.

 

Mikey grinned, thinking it was a funny sight. "Dude, we should totally have filmed that," he said. "We could have sent it to one of those home video shows and gotten rich."

 

Donnie rolled his eyes, and opened his mouth to say exactly why they couldn't do something like that, but before he could say a word, a massive hand came out of the shadows and clamped around his face, making it hard for Donnie to breath, much less speak.

 

Donnie struggled fruitlessly against the strong arms pinning him, and tried desperately to gain Mikey's attention. But the youngest kept his eyes on the street below, and babbled on about all that he would do if he won a million dollars, heedless of how his older brother was being dragged away into the darkness.

 

Back on street level, both ninja teens had fallen to the ground after the impact, but Raph was up and mad seconds later. "What are you doing? I had him!" he snapped.

 

Leo scowled back. "You're late, Raph," he said. "What took you so long to get here?"

 

Raph seethed. "Oh, now you want to be seen out in public with me," he snarled.

 

That immediately took the wind out of Leo's sails, and he felt guilty all over again for what he'd said previously. "Look, Raph," he said, "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean-"

 

"Save it," Raph snarled, holding up a hand to stop Leo's apology. "Or didn't Sis tell you I got a new partner."

 

Leo's face puckered in confusion. "New  _partner?_ " he asked. "And what do you mean, 'didn't Sis tell me', I thought she was with  _you?_ "

 

Now it was Raph's turn to look confused. "No, Slash told me she decided to go with you guys."

 

"No she didn't, I haven't seen her since she went down to get you," said Leo with a frown. "And who the heck is Slash?"

 

"But-" Raph said. Something was not adding up, and there was only one turtle with the answers.

 

Without another word, Raph turned and ran back to the rooftop where he'd left Slash. Utterly lost about what was happening, Leo hurried after him, all but forgetting about the mutagen.

 

Once they reached the rooftop, they saw it was devoid of any mutant turtle aside from Raph.

 

"Slash?" Raph called, as he looked around. "Where'd you go?"

 

" _Who_  is Slash?" Leo asked again, starting to feel impatient.

 

Just then Leo heard something massive land behind him. Leo jumped away from the sound and turned around to see a huge, spiky, mutant turtle standing there.

 

"This is Slash," Raph explained, pointing to his friend. "Well, Spike, but he decided to change his name." The shorter turtle then turned his attention to his larger friend. "What happened to you?"

 

Leo opened his mouth to ask just how Spike got mutated, when he noticed Slash's hand was clenched around a piece of purple fabric. "Uh, Raph," Leo said, backing away from the giant turtle towards his brother.

 

Raph looked over at him curiously, but before anything else could be said, Mikey came running over with a shout of, "Guys!"

 

The youngest skidded to a halt in front of his two brothers, not even noticing Slash in his haste to get to them. "Donnie's  _disappeared!_  He was right behind me, when-"

 

Mikey broke off as he finally registered Slash's presence. "Holy Chalupa! Another Turtle?!"

 

Leo grabbed Mikey and pulled him away from Slash until the youngest was safely behind him. "Donnie  _and_  Miwa are both unaccounted for now," he said, narrowing his eyes at Slash suspiciously. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you Spike?"

 

Behind him, Mikey squeaked, "Mi is missing too? And that's  _Spike?"_

 

Slash ignored the both of them, and focused on Raph. "Raphael, you said it yourself. We don't need these clowns. We gotta hunt that mutagen down,  _now,_ and show these chumps what turtles can do."

 

"But what about Donnie and Mi?" Mikey asked, but Leo only shoved him further back behind him.

 

"I don't like this, Raph," their leader said, keeping a suspicious eye on Slash, while hoping Raph would take his hint. "Something is  _really_  not right here."

 

Raph understood what Leo was insinuating loud and clear, but he didn't want to believe it. He hesitated for a second, looking between Leo and Slash uncertainly.

 

"Sorry, Slash. But the mutagen can wait a few minutes," Raph said finally, glancing over at his brothers. "My family comes first, no matter what."

 

Mikey and Leo beamed at him, but Slash's face darkened considerably.

 

"How about I make the choice a little easier for you," he said darkly.

 

Before any of them could react, Slash leapt forward, and slammed his fist into Leo's stomach with enough force to knock him into Mikey, and send them both flying over the edge of the building.

 

" ** _LEO! MIKEY!"_** Raph yelled in horror as he saw his brothers disappear over the edge.

 

Looking back he was shocked to see Slash smiling at the sight.

 

"WHAT ARE YOU  _DOING?!_ " Raph yelled at the other turtle while running to the edge to search for his brothers.

 

"What you've been too weak to do," said Slash menacingly. "Your brothers and sister hold you back."

 

Raph didn't pay much attention to what he was saying, as he leaned over the edge, and was relieved to see Mikey clinging to the side of the building with one hand, and keeping a tight grip on Leo with the other.

 

Just as Raph sighed in relief at the sight, Slash came up behind him and saw the same thing.

 

"Still alive, huh," said the giant turtle, as he raised his mace over his head to break Mikey's grip, as well as his hand.

 

Mikey's eyes widened in fear at the sight, but before Slash could bring his weapon down, Raph tackled him away, and threw a smoke bomb in Slash's face.

 

Slash roared as the smoke stung his eyes, and filled his nose.

 

When it cleared, Raph, Leo, and Mikey were gone, and he swung his mace at the spot where they had been in rage.

 

A few rooftops away, Mikey and Raph were helping Leo get across a larger gap.

 

Once there was enough distance between Slash and them, they began checking their oldest brother for injuries. "You okay, Leo?" Mikey asked in concern.

 

Leo, who had been wheezing ever since Slash hit him, nodded in reply. "Just… knocked the wind… out of me…" he gasped. "I'll… be alright… in a minute…"

 

Not at all fooled, Raph pulled up Leo's shirt to reveal the already forming bruise. He poked it gently, gaining a hiss from his older brother.

 

Of the Hamato siblings, Donnie and Raph knew the most about healing injuries. Donnie learned about it out of genuine curiosity, and a hope to better help his family by saving them a trip to the hospital after every fight. Thanks to this, he had skill in more complicated and medical injuries and illnesses, though he always hoped he'd never have to use them.

 

Raph, on the other hand, had been taught about first aid ever since he was young by his mother. She had thought it would be a fitting subject for him to know, since his name meant 'God has healed'. Raph had understood that learning such things would be another way for him to better protect his family, so he hadn't complained too much about the lessons. The hothead didn't have the patience for the more complicated side of medicine, but he was fairly good at assessing and treating injuries out in the field. Between Donnie and Raph, they were able to keep their family from needing to go to see a doctor for injuries none of them would be able to truthfully explain.

 

"Okay, you probably have some bruised ribs, but it doesn't look like anything's broken," said Raph as he examined his older brother, prodding his ribs gently and inciting another wince.

 

"So that's good?" Mikey asked worriedly.

 

Raph shrugged. "It's better than it could have been. Should probably have our parents or Donnie look at it later, maybe even a doctor depending on how bad they say it is, but if I'm right, you'll be sore for a few weeks after this, but you'll live," Raph concluded. "Just try to breath normally and not get hit there again."

 

Leo nodded, and pushed himself back to his feet with a grimace.

 

They kept moving until they were a few blocks away, Raph filling the other two in about Slash on the way.

 

Finally, Mikey managed to spot one of their missing siblings. "There he is!" he shouted to the others, pointing at the genius' sprawled form. "Donnie!" he yelled as he ran over to him.

 

Leo and Raph hurried after him, and they were all relieved to find that Donnie was alive but beaten, and his purple mask was gone from his face.

 

Mikey reached Donnie first, and gently shook his shoulder, making the genius hiss in pain, and slowly wake up. "What hit me," he moaned, looking slightly delirious. "It was like Raph, only bigger and meaner, angrier, but not quite as ugly."

 

Leo saw Raph look hurt at that assessment. "It was Spike," the lead ninja said, having finally gained control of his wheezing, and drawing attention away from their turtle brother. "It seems you spilled mutagen in your lab, and he got into it."

 

Donnie glared up at Leo, showing the blue wearing ninja that his pupils were huge, and he likely had a concussion. "That's  _impossible!"_ he said in a slightly slurred tone. "I  _always_  make sure every drop of mutagen gets cleaned up immediately, so no one else gets mutated."

 

"It must have happened when you made fireworks earlier," said Raph dryly. "You didn't get a chance to go back and clean it up, and we didn't notice it while we were there."

 

Donnie looked like he was going to argue some more, only to pause and think about it before saying, "That… might be possible."

 

"Come on, we gotta find some cover," Raph said, knowing it would only be a matter of time before Slash found them there. He started helping Donnie to his feet, and walking him away. Leo and Mikey trailed behind them, their eyes peeled for the nastier of the two mutant turtles.

 

When they were a safe distance away, Raph gently lowered Donnie to the ground, and began running a diagnostic on him like he had done for Leo. Leo hovered nearby to help if he could, and Mikey climbed onto a water tower to keep look out.

 

"Concussion, obviously," Raph listed aloud for the others to hear. "Lots of scrapes and bruises, but nothing too bad. A sprained arm too, I need to tie that off, but it might hurt okay." Raph then shoved the hilt of his sai into Donnie's mouth. "Bite down on this for the pain," he said as he began looking for something to use as a sling.

 

Donnie scowled at the taste of the hilt in his mouth. "Tases ike letter 'n shweat," he griped through the gag.

 

Raph rolled his eyes, and accepted the sleeve Leo had torn off his clothes to use as a sling.

 

Meanwhile, Mikey was keeping a keen eye out for anything that looked like a giant spikey turtle. As he watched, he heard a whisper of, "Psst, Mikey! Mikey!"

 

Mikey looked around wildly at the sound of Miwa's voice.

 

"Down here," came the whisper again, drawing the youngest's attention to a shadowy fire escape. "I need your help."

 

"Sis?" he called back softly.

 

"Down here," Miwa's voice whispered. "Hurry!"

 

Mikey wasted no time hurrying down to the fire escape. If what Leo had been implying earlier was right, then there was a good chance Slash had already gotten to Miwa, and she could be laying on that fire escape with some painful injury like Leo and Donnie were now sporting.

 

As he landed on the rail, he squinted to try and see into the darkness. "Are you okay, Mi?" he asked worriedly. "Did Spike get you to?"

 

"I did," said the voice on the fire escape, and a massive green hand shot out of the shadows, and caught Mikey around the neck. "And now I'm gonna do the same to you," Slash snarled as he dragged the youngest into the shadows.

 

Despite Slash's hand crushing his windpipe, Mikey still managed to let out a scream loud enough to alert his brothers.

 

Leaving Leo to guard Donnie, Raph hurried towards the source of the scream.

 

He found his baby brother a rooftop away, unconscious and dangling over the edge, tied up by his own kusarigama chain, and missing his orange mask.

 

Raph wasted no time hauling his little brother back onto the roof, and was more than relieved when Mikey groaned as he was lain down on solid ground.

 

"Still breathing," said Raph with a sigh of relief, as he checked him for serious injuries. Unlike the others, all Mikey had was some bruises. But then Raph caught sight of the deep bruise forming around Mikey's neck, and realized what his former pet had done to him.

 

Shaking in rage, Raph's eyes turned white. He jumped to his feet and yelled, " ** _WHY?! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!"_**

 

"The others hold you back," said Slash's voice from somewhere out of sight. "Limit your potential. See you as some kind of a  _freak._ Ya don't  _need_  them. Just. Like. You.  ** _Said!_** "

 

With the last word, Slash appeared behind Raph and punched him into a wall.

 

Wincing in pain, Raph pushed himself back to his feet and yelled, "No! They're my family! I never wanted this!"

 

He was then horrified to discover that Slash, now with Mikey and Donnie's masks tied around his arm like trophies, had grabbed Mikey again and was dragging him by his foot back towards the edge.

 

"There's no turning back now," Slash taunted as he held Mikey by his ankle over the edge of the roof.

 

Mikey groaned, but didn't awaken, making it clear he wouldn't be able to save himself if he fell.

 

" ** _STOP!_** " Raph roared, drawing his sais. "I Won't Let You Hurt 'Em!"

 

Seeing the drawn weapons, Slash scowled. "I'm not here to fight  _you,"_  he said, drawing away from the edge a bit.

 

"But  _I_ wanna fight you!" Raph snapped back, as he stormed towards the other turtle, making sure Slash's attention stayed on him. "You're  _not_ Spike! You're some kinda warped monster! A  _Deranged_ ,  ** _Hideous_** ,  ** _FREAK!"_**

 

Slash dropped Mikey back on the rooftop and roared in rage, drawing out his mace to his hands, and then running at Raph like a charging bull.

 

Raph ran forward to meet him, and their weapons clashed as they passed each other, but Slash managed to get the upper hand on Raph, and punch him away.

 

Raph shook off the blow, and raised his sais just in time to catch the mace before it hit him over the head.

 

"We could make a good team, Raphael," Slash growled at him as their weapons stayed locked together. "But you're a fool, just like your siblings!"

 

With that he wrenched his mace free, and slammed it into Raph, sending him flying into a roof access door.

 

Mikey regained consciousness, and witnessed this happening. He painfully pulled himself to his feet, and ran to the edge of the roof to yell get Leo and Donnie.

 

"Slash is back!" he called over to them, his voice hoarse thanks to the bruises on his neck. "Raph's in trouble!"

 

"Raph's fighting him?" Donnie asked as he pulled himself to his feet with Leo's help.

 

"Not really fighting," said Mikey, glancing back towards the brawl. "More like getting stomped into green goo!"

 

"Well, he won't be for long," said Leo pulling out his swords despite the pain he was in. "Lets go."

 

Back with Raph and Slash, the smaller of the turtles was hard pressed to land a hit on the larger. Not only was Slash clearly bigger and physically stronger than him, but he also seemed to know Raph's every move before he made it.

 

As if sensing his confusion over the subject, Slash smirked at him. "I spent years watching you train," he taunted. "Learning your moves. I know  _everything_  you can do."

 

Scowling, Raph readjusted his grip on his sai, and ran at Slash again. When Slash made to attack him, he locked his sais on the handle of the mace, and used the momentum to land a solid kick on Slash's face.

 

Dropping the mace, and stumbling back, Slash glared at Raph.

 

"Not everything!" Raph snarled at him.

 

But before Raph could get too confident, Slash swept his legs out from under him, then catching his ankles and began slamming Raph against any hard surface that was nearby, and then punched him straight through a wall of solid brick.

 

Raph landed in a heap on the next rooftop over, groaning in pain.

 

Slash smirked at the sight of his prone form as he approached him, and lifted him up so Raph was dangling by his wrist in front of him. He brought up his other hand, prepared to used his sharp claws to finish Raph off when a yell of, "NOW!" came from his left.

 

Slash turned just in time to see Leo, Mikey, and Donnie come flying at him. Their combined kicks forced Slash to drop Raph, and go flying onto another roof.

 

With the malicious mutant out of the way for now, the brothers (wincing from what the move had done to their injuries) turned their attention to Raph.

 

"Raph, are you okay?" asked Mikey worriedly.

 

Raph just groaned in reply, blearily opening his eyes to look at them.

 

"Mikey, he was just tossed around like a ragdoll, and then thrown  _through_  a brick wall," said Leo in concern. "'Okay' is not a word I'd use to describe him right now."

 

"I can't believe he's still alive," said Donnie, examining Raph for injuries despite the pounding headache in his skull. "With what he just went through, all the bones in his body should be shattered. But from what I'm seeing, he's still in better shape than the rest of us." Donnie had a look of complete disbelief as he finished his assessment.

 

"Don't complain, dude," said Mikey with shrug. "If he's okay, that's good right?"

 

Donnie gave his little brother a bemused look. "Right," he agreed.

 

The three wheeled around as they heard the sound of an inhuman roar coming from the direction they'd kicked Slash.

 

Leo's eyes hardened. "Let's finish this," he said to the others.

 

Raph tried to get up, but his head was still swimming from his last throw down with Slash and he stumbled.

 

"We've got this Raph," said Leo, pushing him back down. "Catch up when you can stand."

 

"But-" Raph started to protest, but the other three were already running ahead.

 

Cursing himself for not recovering faster, Raph stubbornly put all his focus on clearing his head and going after them.

 

__________________

 

Leo led his brothers towards the rooftop they'd seen Slash land on. Now more aware of his preferred method of attack, they all kept their eyes on the shadows, and ears open for any sound.

 

Knowing they were waiting for him, Slash kept himself hidden, and began using the greatest weapon in his arsenal against them. The knowledge of all of them that he'd gleaned through years spent with Raphael.

 

"You three think you're  _so_ great," he said tauntingly, making the three ninjas jump and search for him harder.

 

"The Fearless Leader who wants to be a hero so bad, he's blinded by his own ego, and can't ever admit it when he's wrong."

 

Leo's eyes narrowed at that.

 

"The Idiot 'Genius' who's only capable of blowing himself up, and acting like a lovesick fool, while everyone around him turns into monsters."

 

Donnie gritted teeth at that.

 

"The Pathetic Screw-Up who only goofs around, and couldn't be serious to save his life, or the lives of anyone around him."

 

"Hey," Mikey whined.

 

"And, of course, the currently absent kunoichi who treats you all like a joke, when she's the biggest insecure joke of them all."

 

That made Leo's temper spike. "What have you done with her?!" he demanded.  _"Where is Miwa?!"_

 

Slash chuckled darkly. "She never left the house."

 

Leo realized the last sentence came from directly behind him, and he turned in time to see Slash slug him, knocking him over and making him roll up against the roof's skylight.

 

Slash chuckled. "Been waiting a long time to do that," he said as he tried to approach Leo again, but Mikey and Donnie shot between them, and threw a smoke bomb.

 

Slash snarled as once again the purple smoke clouded his vision. Once it cleared, he looked around to an apparently empty rooftop. But his sense of smell told him the three were still there, just hiding out of sight.

 

"Trying to turn the tables on me?" Slash taunted. "It won't work. I wasn't just watching Raphael train for years, it was all of you. Nothing you dish out can surprise me."

 

"There's… a difference… between watching… and doing…" said Leo's voice. The hit had jostled his bruised ribs, and made it difficult for him to breath again.

 

"Why you so obsessed with axing us anyway?" said Mikey's voice. "What'd we ever do to you?"

 

Slash's eyes hardened. "It's not what you've done to me, it's what you've done to Raphael," he snarled, searching the shadows for his prey.

 

"What we've done to Raph?" Donnie asked sounding surprised.

 

Slash growled. "You think I didn't hear some of the things you said to him?" he snapped. "You think I couldn't understand the things he confided in  _me_  about the way you treated him? Even before he mutated, you always called him things like Hothead, and berated him for getting angry, when you're the scum who ticked him off in the first place. Heck, a lot of the time, you were trying to make him angry on purpose, just so you could laugh when he got in trouble for it!"

 

Within his hiding spot, Mikey wilted when he heard that. As the self-proclaimed Dr. Prank-enstein, he was guilty of making Raph blow his top just because he thought it was funny to see Raph get angry over his jokes. He also knew Miwa sometimes liked to do the same.

 

"And then after his mutation, did things change?" Slash continued. "Yes, but for the worse. _I_  was the one he talked to when you treated him like he'd snap and become some bloodthirsty monster at the drop of a hat!"

 

Now Leo winced, remembering how poorly he'd first taken the changes, as well as his and Raph's argument earlier that day.

 

"Or else you're treating him like a science project to poke and study like some kind of freak!"

 

Donnie frowned. His tests and studies had been purely to create the retro-mutagen, and to make sure Raph remained healthy in his new state. He hadn't realized that his brother had seen the experiments that way.

 

"As far as I'm concerned, he's better off without you!" Slash concluded. "I understand him better than anyone, and with both us mutants fighting crime, the scum of this city doesn't stand a chance."

 

"You really think you have more right to him than his own flesh and blood?" Leo asked angrily, finally having regained control of his breathing. "We're his family, and no amount of stupid disagreements on  _both_  our parts will ever change that!"

 

Slash actually threw back his head and laughed at that. The three ninjas were so unnerved by the sight that they failed to take advantage of it before Slash stopped laughing and sneered at the rest of them.

 

"I  _am_  his flesh and blood," Slash pointed out. "Raphael mutated from  _my_ DNA, and then I mutated from his. I may not be a  _genius_ ," he sneered as he said the word, "but I know enough to know that makes me at least as genetically close to him as you all are."

 

Mikey groaned. "Oh  _great_ , now Raph's got an evil twin brother." He then stopped to think about that. "Wait, but we're quads. Does that make Slash our evil quintuplet?"

 

Unfortunately, Mikey's ponderings had alerted Slash to his position. The youngest only had enough time to duck out of the way, as Slash tried to take his head off with his claws.

 

"ATTACK!" yelled Leo, launching himself from his hiding place at Slash, Donnie and Mikey followed suit.

 

They threw everything they had at Slash, but with their injuries and Slash's knowledge of their skills, they were soon lying beaten in a heap.

 

Grinning, Slash lifted Leo by the hood of his clothes, and tugged his blue eye mask from his face. "Any last words?" he sneered at the lead ninja.

 

Despite the pain he was in, Leo glared at him defiantly. "Raph will never work with a monster like you," he hissed.

 

Slash growled angrily, and raised his hand to finish Leo off. But before it could strike, a shuriken whizzed by and grazed the back of the turtle's hand, making him drop Leo.

 

"Slash!" came a shout, and the mutant turned to see Raph standing on the edge of the rooftop, his hand still out from throwing the star. "Ya see," he said, pointing at his downed brothers. "Even though they're hurt, they're still sticking up for me. That's what real friends do, they stand up for each other. I'd rather be like my brothers than you any day!"

 

"Was that a compliment?" Mikey asked faintly from where he lay. Next to him, Donnie gave a small shrug in reply.

 

Slash, however, was glaring murderously at Raph, and ran at the other turtle with his claws out, dropping Leo's mask as he did so.

 

Raph fought back with everything he had, and seemed to actually landing some hits, which was making Slash even angrier than he already was.

 

But all their thumping around caused the roof they were standing on collapse beneath their feet, sending them falling still locked in combat into the room below.

 

In the room, a little girl was having a tea party with her toys, and had just been about to serve up the green tea from a lamp her daddy had bought her. But the sight of two giant turtles falling through her ceiling, and brawling it out made her stop and stare.

 

"Would you like some tea?" she asked them innocently, thinking that if they had some they'd calm down and be friends. She held out a cup of green tea for them.

 

For a second both turtles paused to stare at the little girl who'd just interrupted their fight. But then the bigger turtle smacked her teacup out of her hands, and snarled at her.

 

The little girl was too busy screaming to notice that when the tea spilled from her cup it blackened and sizzled on the wall when it hit it.

 

Before the big turtle could do anything, the turtle with a red mask jumped between them, threw an egg at the big turtle's face, scooped the girl up, and ran her out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

 

He then set her down and asked, "You alright?"

 

The little girl sniffled a little, but nodded.

 

"Good," said the turtle with the red mask. "Now I want you to run somewhere safe. I'll take care of the big green jerk, okay?"

 

The girl nodded and ran for her Daddy's room. "Thanks, Mr. Turtle," she called over her shoulder.

 

Raph then turned and burst back through the bedroom door. "Guys if any of you can walk, the mutagen's in here!" he yelled to his brothers as he tackled Slash out the girl's bedroom window to continue their fight.

 

Above them, Leo, Donnie, and Mikey dragged themselves to the edge of the hole, and peered in to see the canister of mutagen they'd been chasing sitting innocently on the girl's tea table.

 

"You gotta be kidding me," muttered Donnie.

 

Meanwhile, on the next roof Slash managed to disarm Raph, tossing his sais over the edge of the building.

 

"Ha," said Slash now that Raph was unarmed, and Slash still had his claws and spikes. "It's over Raphael. You've lost."

 

But Raph was far from ready to give up, and began fighting against Slash with only his fists.

 

Slash laughed at his stubbornness. "A true warriors spirit," he said. "We're the same, you and me."

 

Raph scowled at him while rotating his shoulder to try and loosen it up. "We're nothing alike!" he snapped back, thinking of all the things Slash has done. "You're pure evil!"

 

Slash didn't like hearing that, and came at Raph, once again wailing on him without mercy.

 

Battered and bruised, Raph found himself backing towards the edge of the building.

 

Glancing back over the edge, Raph knew if he fell from this height on top of his other injuries, he probably wouldn't survive.

 

"Last chance, Raphael," growled Slash, giving him one last opportunity to join him. "We're not like the others. They're weak, but we're powerful. Our anger makes us strong!"

 

Raph had been glowering at the other mutant until that last sentence penetrated through his rage, and gave him a moment of clarity. Raph knew better than most how anger could make one strong, but he also was well aware of the downsides that strength had.

 

Taking Raph's silence as a denial to join him, Slash roared in rage, and came at Raph for the last time.

 

But this time, Raph was ready for him. With a smirk, Raph dodged at the last second, hitting a pressure point under Slash's arm as he did so. Then in one fluid movement, he snatched back his brother's masks, and rolled to safety.

 

As he looked back, Raph saw Slash writhe in pain from the pressure point, stumbling closer and closer to the edge.

 

Realizing what was about to happen, Raph dropped the bandanas, and rushed to stop it. "SPIKE!" he yelled as he ran.

 

But his hand just missed catching Slash's and the larger mutant tumbled backwards over the edge.

 

"SPIKE!  _NO!"_ Raph yelled, as he could only watch as his former pet turtle, and confidant fell story after story down until he hit the pavement with a sickening crack. Blood starting to pool from where he hit his head.

 

Feeling sick and devastated, Raph could only bow his head, and sit on the edge of the building above what used to be his beloved friend. "I'm sorry, Spike," he whispered to himself. "I'm so sorry…"

 

Then movement caught his eye. Raph's head shot up to see Slash slowly climb to his feet, and look back up at him with an unreadable expression.

 

Raph started to reach out to him, but then pulled his hand back. He knew nothing he did or said would get through to his former pet, and nothing in Raph would allow him to stand back and let Slash hurt his family. That didn't mean Raph didn't grieve the loss of his best friend and confidante any less.

 

So with a heavy heart, he dropped the wraps he used around his hands to Slash for him to bandage the wound on his head, but did nothing more.

 

Their eyes locked for a solid minute, before Slash gathered up the makeshift bandages, turned, and limped away into the night.

 

At a loss of what else to do, Raph gathered up his brother's masks, and went left the rooftop to find them.

 

It was time to go home.

 

__________________

 

When the four boys arrived home completely battered, and missing their sister, their parents had (understandably) freaked out.

 

Fortunately, Miwa was quickly found. It seemed Slash hadn't had enough time to beat her up like he had the others, so instead he had left her locked inside one of the basement's secret rooms, tied up and gagged with her own scarf.

 

When they found and untied her, Miwa was utterly furious, and began describing in vivid detail exactly what she would do if she ever crossed paths with Slash again.

 

As the brothers (with their injuries all patched up by a mother-henning Tang Shen once they determined they weren't bad off enough to go to a hospital) listened to their sister's tirade in awe and more than a little fear, Leo looked over at Raph, and noticed how blue he looked, and how Miwa's rant only seemed to be making him worse.

 

With a jerk of his head, Leo signaled Raph to follow him. Reluctantly, Raph complied, and the two wandered out of earshot of the rest.

 

"Gonna lecture me about how my angry rants at Spike turned him into a psycho?" Raph asked, looking like that was what he was expecting.

 

Leo looked at his brother in surprise. "What?"

 

"Because this is my fault, you know," said Raph, pointing at Leo, and their other two's brothers' injuries. "If I had just kept my mouth shut-"

 

"Then you would have exploded a long time ago," said Leo. "This isn't your fault, Raph."

 

The turtle didn't look convinced.

 

Leo sighed, trying to make him understand. "This has been long overdue for today, Raph, but I'm really sorry about what I said earlier," he said. "I didn't mean any of it, and I just said it because I was angry."

 

He then looked Raph in the eye and continued, "We  _all_  say things we don't really mean when we're angry. You telling those things to Spike was just a way to try and keep us from getting hurt by it. You didn't think Spike would judge you, and you could vent your frustrations out without hurting someone else's feelings in the process."

 

Raph frowned thoughtfully at this, and Leo added, "None of us knew it would make him go on a rampage like that. Heck, none of us even knew he'd get mutated in the first place. And you have to remember that mutagen can make mutants a little crazy when it first happens. There's always a chance he might cool down." Though Leo wasn't sure he could forgive Slash even if he did.

 

Raph looked down at his own green hands. "And what if that happens to me?" he asked quietly. "I know that's what you're afraid of. What if I go on a rampage too?"

 

Leo put his hand on Raph's shoulder. "I  _was_ afraid of that, but now I'm not. You're still you, Raph. If you were gonna go ballistic, it would have happened weeks ago."

 

Slowly a smile spread across Raph's face. "Thanks, bro."

 

"And I know it sometimes doesn't seem like it, but we're here for you, Raph," Leo added. "Don't ever forget that."

 

Raph's smile grew to a smirk. "Okay, Captain Sap, wanna hug each other and cry now?"

 

Leo laughed, and punched his shoulder. "In your dreams, turtle boy."

 

And like that, things seemed a little better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much Miwa in this chapter, but I couldn't really find a way to fit her in. Sorry, no Leo at teatime in this. As much as I loved that scene, it didn't really fit with the rest of the chapter.


	21. Head Busting Buds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After ticking off April, Casey's out of leads, so he takes to the streets to continue his investigation. Meanwhile, the loss of Spike has Raph even more stir crazy than before, and he looks to blow off some steam.

Casey Jones scanned the school halls for a certain redhead.

 

Finally, he spotted her walking hand in hand with Donnie Hamato, and helping him carry his books since his arm was in a sling. Apparently the Hamato siblings had been mugged by Purple Dragons the week before, so all of the ones still attending school still had visible signs of their injuries.

 

Upon seeing the girl, Casey hurried towards her with a yell of, "April!"

 

Glancing up, April's face fell at the sight of him, and she began walking faster, tugging Donnie along as she went.

 

"Wait!" Casey called as he tried to catch up. But April kept going, and Donnie sent him a dirty look before the two were lost in the crowd.

 

Sighing in defeat, Casey banged his head against a nearby locker. All he wanted to do was apologize, but it looked like April was subscribing to the same approach Nick had. Complete and utter avoidance of him.

 

"She'll come around," said a voice next to him.

 

Casey jumped and let out an unmanly sounding shriek, banging his head against the locker a second time.

 

Next to him stood Mikey (his face and neck showing bruises which had come from the mugging by the Purple Dragons as well), who smiled at Casey's clumsiness, but to his credit he didn't laugh.

 

"What?" Casey asked when his head stopped hurting.

 

"April," the youngest Hamato elaborated, "she's mad right now, but I think she'll come around eventually. She kinda understands where you're coming from about it, but you gotta understand that the heart is a soft and squishy muscle, dude. And what you did when you tried to get information you really squashed hers."

 

Casey stared incredulously at the younger boy. He would have thought for sure Mikey was joking if not for the look of utter seriousness as he spoke. "Okaaay…" he finally said, not sure if he should take Mikey seriously, but hoping his screwball logic was somehow right.

 

The hockey nut thought that might be the end of it, but what Mikey said next took him completely by surprise.

 

"Raph misses you," the younger boy said.

 

Casey's eyes grew the size of dinner plates as he stared at the other. This was the first time he'd heard anything solid about Raph in weeks.  _"What?"_

 

"Raph," said Mikey, not seeing how he could be clearer. "He misses you. It's been a rough couple days for him."

 

Casey raised an eyebrow at him. "Because he's  _sick?_ " he said, making sure to put all his disbelief about that obvious lie into the last word. "You know I know that story is a load of crock, right."

 

Mikey fidgeted nervously. "Yeah, he's not really sick, but, um, saying that he is is easier to than why he really can't come to school.

 

Casey frowned in concern. "What happened?" he asked.

 

Mikey avoided his eyes. "Lots of stuff, dude. And just last week, well, you remember his turtle, Spike?"

 

Casey nodded. Of course he knew Spike, Raph loved that little box turtle. He told the scaly critter everything.

 

"Well, Spike is…" Mikey trailed off to find the right word, "he's gone."

 

"Aw man," said Casey in sympathy, knowing Raph had to be heartbroken without his pet. "He doing okay?"

 

Mikey shrugged. "He's been better. And, uh, Raphie's been getting kinda stir crazy with just us as company."

 

Casey blinked when he heard this. Did that mean what he hoped it meant? "Are you gonna let me go see him?" Casey asked eagerly.

 

Mikey looked conflicted. " _I_ wanna let you see him, and  _Raph_  wants you to come see him, but everyone else says no dice."

 

Casey's face fell. "Aw, come on," he groaned.

 

Mikey shrugged. "Sorry dude, but your stunt with April didn't really impress them all that much. Mom and Dad think you might be trouble, Donnie's mad at you because April is, Miwa feels for you, but she doesn't want to screw up her new friendship with April, and Leo won't okay it till our parents do. Sorry."

 

Casey groaned, and banged his head against the locker again. "But Raph's okay, right?" he asked. "I thought he'd gone missing or something. Why didn't he answer my texts?"

 

Mikey looked sheepish. "Oh that. No, Raph's not missing, and he didn't answer cause he broke his phone awhile back, and his new one doesn't have your number."

 

Casey looked incredulous. "That's it?" he burst out. He'd had all these conspiracy theories for weeks, but from the sound of it Raph was fine, if in some strange situation keeping him from coming to school.

 

"Yup," said Mikey.

 

Just then the warning bell rang, and the two hurried to their next class. "I'll try to talk Mother and Father into letting you see him," Mikey called over his shoulder as he went. "I'll let you know, dude."

 

"Thanks, man!" Casey called back as he hurried off.

 

Well at least that was something of a relief. Casey knew Mikey wasn't much of a liar, so if he said it then it was most likely true. At least he knew his best friend was safe.

 

But that still didn't answer Casey's questions about the other missing kids, and the killer mutants and robot ninjas that had been plaguing the streets.

 

Looks like another mystery for Casey Jones to solve. And this time he was gonna do it the right way. No pumping innocent girls for information, he was taking this fight into his own hands.

 

Besides, being a vigilante would be good practice for being a bounty hunter.

 

Casey spent the next few days preparing to put his new plan into action. He worked hard at converting his old sports gear into weapons and armor, and made sure to add in a few un-sports related surprises as well. The final touch came when Casey took one of his old hockey masks, and spray-painted it to look like a skull.

 

Wearing the completed outfit in front of the mirror, Casey couldn't resist flexing his muscles and saying, "I'm Batman."

 

At that exact moment his little sister then burst in through his door, and told him to stop playing dress up and come to dinner (the little brat).

 

Unfortunately, the day Casey was about to make his debut, Mikey approached him at school with some bad news.

 

"Sorry, dude, " he said looking sympathetic. "Father and Mother both said no about you coming to visit. Me 'n Raph'll keep trying though."

 

Casey was disappointed, but he managed to hide the accompanying anger long enough to thank Mikey for his efforts, and go their separate ways.

 

But come that nightfall, Casey was determined to take his frustrations out on the scum of New York. And they'd learn not to mess with his city or steal kids, not while Casey Jones was around.

 

___________________

 

Things at the Hamato household weren't sunshine and roses either.

 

With the loss of companionship that Spike had provided for Raph, his moods were going downhill faster than ever. It was getting to the point he couldn't go a day without yelling at three people, and getting into a fistfight with at least one. The fact that most of his siblings were still sporting bruises from Slash's attack made the latter of those more difficult to do. Raph had recovered from the injuries he'd gotten much faster than they had, despite being beaten much harder, a fact Donnie contributed to his mutant DNA.

 

Even so, he was trying his best to keep it contained, and his siblings were trying harder not to push his buttons. But you can't undo years of annoying quirks and habits in just a few days.

 

Plus, whenever Raph tried basking, or other things that usually made him happy, it would inevitably remind him of Spike, or the fact he could no longer show his face to the outside world. Even with being able to go out at night, Raph felt like he was climbing the walls of the dojo, and if something didn't change soon he was going to snap.

 

So when Mikey had come forward with the suggestion they let his friend Casey in on their secrets, Raph had jumped on the idea. After Spike, Casey had been his best friend, and he was confident the hockey nut wouldn't reject him if they just explained things (or at least he hoped not).

 

But no one else in their family would get on board with the idea, making it another disappointment in a now long list of disappointments, and Raph was getting really sick of it.

 

Because of this, Raph's temper was worse than ever, and after a particularly disastrous training session, he all but ran out of the dojo to get some air and hopefully cool his head.

 

Though, taking his frustrations out on the fixtures of the rooftop he'd decided to go to didn't seem to be helping any.

 

With a huff, Raph sat down on the roof, and not for the first time wished he had Spike back.

 

He remained sitting there, until the sound of someone getting mugged in the alley below caught his attention.

 

Maybe beating up crooks would be a better use of his misplaced aggression.

 

___________________

 

Meanwhile, Casey was spending his first night as a vigilante finding out that it's not as easy as Superheroes made it look. He didn't have the first clue how to find clues bout the ninjas, mutants, or missing kids. In fact, he was having a hard time finding crime all together, leading it to start off as a very boring night.

 

Lucky for him, it didn't stay that way for long.

 

As he patrolled, he caught sight of the Purple Dragons trying to mug an old man in a dead end alley. The sight made him grin and pull his mask down in front of his face.

 

"Time for this vigilante to make his debut," Casey muttered to himself as he stepped over to get the perfect shot.

 

With a sharp slap, Casey used one of his hockey sticks to send a puck flying, hitting the biggest Purple Dragon hard enough to knock him off his feet.

 

The man being mugged took that opportunity to flee, and the Purple Dragons all turned to look in the direction the puck had come from.

 

Casey stood in the shadows, allowing his skull mask the have top creepy effect. "You slimeballs picked the wrong night," he said.

 

But the scrawny Purple Dragon scoffed. "Nice outfit. Who's this clown?" he asked the others, who shrugged and looked amused.

 

"I'm the last guy you see before you wake up in the hospital," Casey replied. Then he rushed forward and used his hockey stick to knock the skinny guy flat.

 

Not happy about that, the other two came after him, but were no match for Casey's crazy moves. Soon the three gangsters were lying sprawled across the alley floor, but Casey wasn't about to stop there. These guys needed to be taught a lesson, and Casey still had plenty of aggression to work through.

 

Unbeknownst to him was that Raph was above, observing his assault on the crooks.

 

As much as the turtle didn't like the Purple Dragons, all the concepts of honor his family had drilled into him said you don't attack your opponents when they're already down like the boy below him was doing. And if he didn't stop soon, someone could get badly hurt, and the kid would have to have that on his conscience.

 

"That guy is out of control," he muttered to himself as he stood and pulled out his sais. "Time for a little intervention." With that he dropped into the alley, and hid in the shadows.

 

The Purple Dragons were now trying their best to escape from the crazy kid in the hockey mask, telling him that they gave up, and doing their best to run away.

 

But Casey was blocking the entrance to the dead end alley, and the only way out was past him. He wasn't finished with these guys yet.

 

At least he hadn't been until someone snuck up behind him, stole his hockey stick, and then used his back as a springboard to vanish back into the shadows all in a matter of seconds.

 

Casey quickly grabbed a baseball bat from his golf bag, and began searching the alley for his attacker. "Wh-who's back there?" he called, trying not to sound nervous about whoever had gotten the drop on him. "Uh, show yourself?"

 

His eyes were then drawn to a particularly dark shadow by a dumpster, where he could see a pair of blank white eyes staring back at him from the darkness. Then a large, green, three-fingered hand reached out of the shadows to rest on the dumpster, before the rest of the creature stepped out into the light.

 

Casey could only stare at the giant turtle with ninja gear and a red mask standing before him. "Another mutant?" he asked in surprise.

 

The turtle scowled. "Got a problem with that?" he snapped.

 

As Casey's brain started to process what he was really seeing, he said, "Wait, what are you? Some kind of turtle ninja?" he had to laugh at the ludicrousness of that statement.

 

But his laughter only seemed to tick the turtle off, and it gave the Purple Dragons a chance to escape.

 

Casey immediately stopped laughing, and glared after the gang members, and started to go after them. The turtle tried to extend an offer to handle the Purple Dragons himself, but Casey just shoved him away and started to go after them again.

 

Raph scowled at being shoved, but tried one last time to get through to the kid. "You know, anger is a dangerous ally," he said, knowing that fact very well. He then shoved the kid back and added angrily, "Why don't you cool off for awhile."

 

But for Casey that was the final straw. He'd lost one friend, was being bared from seeing another, had no clue how to solve the mystery he'd been chasing, and now he was being blocked from taking out his aggression on those who deserved it by some mutant freak, enough was enough.

 

"That's it, lizard," he said, arming himself with the bat in one hand, and a spare hockey stick in the other. "I'm done with you."

 

With a yell of "GOONGALA!" Casey launched himself at the turtle.

 

What followed was nothing short of a brawl. Raph's ninja training gave him an edge, but Casey's improvised and unpredictable style of fighting allowed him to give as many hits as he got.

 

Eventually, Casey managed to get behind the turtle, and club him with both weapons, making Raph fall forward onto his face.

 

Casey grinned to himself cockily at being able to make his opponent fall flat. "Heh, ain't turtles supposed to be endangered?" he taunted.

 

Raph glared at him, and twisted around. "Only the ones who can't do this!" he yelled as he kicked his feet up and clocked the kid under the jaw.

 

Casey went flying back down the alley from the hit, and his mask was knocked clean off and clattered to the ground next to him.

 

His head shot up and he glared at the turtle angrily, only for his expression to quickly change to confusion when he saw the turtle start backing away from him looking almost scared.

 

Raph, meanwhile, was freaking out. Once the mask was off, he finally recognized just who he'd been fighting. Even with the Halloween makeup caked on his face, there was no mistaking it.

 

Backing away, the white left Raph's eyes for the first time since the fight started, and he stared at the prone form in the alley _. "Casey?"_  he asked incredulously.

 

Casey pulled himself to his feet, and glared at him. "Yeah, how do you-?!" Casey broke off when he caught sight of the mutant's eyes. He only knew one person with eyes that shade of green, and now that he thought about it, that voice was familiar too. Combine all that with martial arts and the color red…

 

Before Casey's brain could finish processing this, Raph threw down a smoke bomb and vanished.

 

Coughing on the smoke, Casey ran towards where the turtle had last been, yelling, "Wait!"

 

But the smoke cleared and mutant turtle was nowhere in sight.

 

After a few minutes of fruitless searching, Casey found himself more lost than ever. But one question stood out above the rest.

 

Had that really been  _Raph?_

 

___________________

 

The next day, Casey confronted Mikey at his locker.

 

"Hey, Casey," said Mikey cheerfully when he saw the other boy, despite the new bruises on the hockey nut's face. He pulled his skateboard from his locker, and added, "Sorry, nothing new on the home front."

 

"Why the hell is Raph a giant turtle?" Casey asked bluntly, making the youngest of the Hamato siblings jump in shock, and practically throw his skateboard into the air.

 

The board flew over Casey's head and smacked a passing girl in the face, making her yelp and clutch at her nose, which started bleeding heavily.

 

While Mikey felt bad for that happening, he immediately seized his opportunity to escape and rushed over to the girl, apologizing profusely for hitting her.

 

The goth girl he'd hit gave him a glare, but the pleading look of apology on Mikey's face must have worked, because she shrugged it off. "'M fibe," she said, still clutching her bleeding nose. "Ib lookd ike a aksidnt to be."

 

"Still, you should see the nurse, uh-" Mikey floundered to remember if he knew the girl's name.

 

"Irba," the girl provided.

 

"Right, Irma," said Mikey taking her hand. "Let's get you over to the nurse, Irma."

 

The youngest Hamato shot Casey an apologetic look, but led the girl away so it would be impossible for them to continue the conversation, and vowing to avoid all things Casey Jones for the rest of the day (and warning his siblings to do the same).

 

Casey only glared after him in response, before sulking off to his next class.

 

Mikey knew one thing for sure. This could only mean trouble.

 

___________________

 

Raph was in a lot of trouble once Mikey came home from school and reported what had happened.

 

The turtle sat kneeling in the dojo, as Yoshi stood over him was a disapproving scowl on his face.

 

"So," Yoshi said stroking his beard. "I expressly forbade you meeting your friend while you are in this form, did I not?"

 

Raph winced. "Hai, Sensei."

 

"Only for you to go out and find this friend, after I  _specifically_  told you not to?" Yoshi continued.

 

"Iie, Sensei," Raph denied.

 

Yoshi raised an eyebrow at this response. "No?" he asked skeptically, allowing Raph to elaborate.

 

"It was an accident, I  _swear!"_  Raph insisted. "I was just out trying to blow off some steam, and I saw this kid in a mask kicking the snot out of some Purple Dragons. And I'd have no problem with that normally, but he was still beating on them once they were already down and surrendering. That's not the honorable way that you taught us, Sensei."

 

He paused to look at his father imploringly.

 

Yoshi nodded to show he understood, and Raph continued, "So I went down to try and stop him before someone ended up in the hospital. Only the guy wasn't too happy when I tried to give him the 'anger is dangerous' speech, and yeah, he started pushing my buttons too. So we fought."

 

Raph lowered his head as he said the next part. "And while we were fighting, I managed to kick the guy's stupid mask off, and that's when I saw that it was Casey. I  _swear_  I booked it the second I recognized him. I-I didn't think he'd recognized me back…"

 

Yoshi sighed, and placed a hand on his son's shoulder. "Clearly he did," said Yoshi, somehow sounding stern and sympathetic at the same time. "And we will have to deal with the consequences." He then turned and walked away. "I will meditate on this."

 

Raph stood, and made his way out of the dojo, glaring at his clearly eavesdropping siblings on the way out.

 

Leo looked at him disapprovingly. "You go out, and just  _happen_  to run into your best friend fighting the Purple Dragons?" he asked skeptically. "I don't buy it."

 

Donnie nodded in agreement. "The odds  _are_  astronomical that such a thing would happen," he added.

 

Raph glared at them. "Well it  ** _did_**  happen!" he snapped. "So you can take your odds and shove it!"

 

Miwa just shrugged, and went to find something more interesting now that Raph wasn't getting chewed out anymore.

 

Mikey, however, looked timidly at Raph, since he was the one who gave the news that got Raph in trouble in the first place. "Sorry, Raph," he said.

 

Raph gave him an annoyed look, before grunting and turning to leave. He was a little mad at Mikey from ratting him out, but mostly he was angry with himself for letting this happen.

 

He needed to find Casey and set this right.

 

___________________

 

But after a few hours of searching that night, Raph was getting very frustrated that he couldn't find Casey anywhere.

 

He'd checked the hockey rink, only to find it had started closing earlier after the fight Miwa, April, and Donnie had with Chrome Dome in there.

 

He didn't seem to be home either, as when Raph looked through the windows, he only saw his father and sister milling around the apartment.

 

Raph checked all of Casey's usual haunts, only to not catch sight of his friend anywhere. Finally, he took a break on a random rooftop, feeling irritated this was taking so long.

 

Little did he know, Casey wasn't at his usual haunts because he had had the same idea as Raph, and was out looking for him as well.

 

He was getting just as frustrated as Raph about his lack of progress, when he managed to spot the turtle on the roof, punching at the air, and looking irate. He started towards the roof, when what he saw next made him pause in alarm.

 

Unbeknownst to Raph, there were several dark figures moving in the shadows behind him. Squinting Casey recognized them as the same robo-ninja guys that had attacked Miwa in the park the other day.

 

As he watched, he saw them creep closer and closer to Raph, raising their weapons to attack him, and Casey knew he wouldn't get there in time to stop them.

 

" **WATCH OUT!"**  Casey shouted, making Raph jump, and turn around just in time to dodge a blow from a Foot-Bot.

 

When Raph saw he was surrounded by Foot-Bots, he immediately dodged an incoming blow from the closest one, pulled his sais from his belt, and stabbed said robot in the head.

 

"Shredder must have downloaded the abridged book of ninja fighting into you," Raph taunted as he began doing the same to any robot that came within reach. "I mean come  _on_ , how do you lame buckets of bolts expect to beat me?"

 

Just as he said that, several more Foot-Bots came out of the woodwork, far more than he could fight alone.

 

"Good answer," Raph admitted grudgingly.

 

He prepared himself to continue fighting, when a shout of "GOONGALA!" drew his and the Foot-Bot's attention.

 

They looked just in time to see Casey launch himself over the side of the roof, and simultaneously smack two Foot-Bots over the edge with his hockey stick.

 

The Foot-Bots wasted no more time, and attacked them both at once. But despite having to constantly fight, Casey managed to move to stand by Raph. "Need some help?" he asked jokingly.

 

Raph spared at him wide-eyed glance. "What Are You  _Doing?!_ " he shouted, kicking a Foot-Bot off the building as he did so.

 

"Watching your back," Casey grunted, as he knocked the head off a Foot-Bot, and then used the head as a puck to bowl over another. "That's what best friends do, right?"

 

Raph paused from fighting to stare at him for a minute, before throwing down a smoke bomb, grabbing Casey, and hightailing it to a shed sitting on top of a roof a building away.

 

Raph threw Casey into the shed, shut the door, and locked it behind him. He knew it was only a matter of time before the Foot-Bots found them again, but he hoped he had enough time to talk some sense into Casey before then.

 

"This isn't your fight," the turtle snapped at the vigilante. "Those robots'll be on us again any minute. When they do, I'll distract them. You should try to get away while you can."

 

Casey pushed his mask off his face, and gave Raph a deadpan glare. "Drop the act, Raph, I know it's you."

 

Raph froze for a minute and sighed. "How  _did_  you know it was me?" he had to ask, having been wondering about that since Mikey had announced it earlier.

 

Casey shrugged, and said redundantly, "Just how many short angry dudes in red can there be in New York?" Then he asked, "How did this even happen, anyway?" He knocked a fist against the back Raph's shell to emphasize his question.

 

The look Raph gave him was anything but amused, and he shoved Casey's hand away. "Long story," he said bluntly. "I'll tell you later, but first you need to go."

 

"No way, man," snapped Casey, poking Raph in the chest this time. "Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you? After all that I'm not about to let some stupid robo-ninjas slice you up."

 

As if to agree with Casey's statement, the door to the shed began rattling, signaling the Foot-Bot had found them again.

 

"This  _isn't_ your fight, Casey," Raph repeated, trying to get it through his thick skull, while keeping an eye on the door. "Those guys are just after me, you can still get out of here."

 

Casey gave him a deadpan glare. "Raph, when have I  _ever_  run from a fight?"

 

The answer was never, and Raph knew that better than most.

 

Raph pinched his forehead and sighed. "Fine," he said reluctantly. "But if you die out there, I will freakin' kill you."

 

"Good to know," said Casey in a cocky tone.

 

The door behind them began to splinter, as the Foot-Bots continued to try and break through.

 

As the two teens got ready to fight again, Raph added, "One last thing. Stop calling me by my real name. In the field, the name is Iyasa, got it?"

 

"Got it," agreed Casey as he pulled his mask back over his face. Then he paused thoughtfully. "Maybe I should come up with a cool code name."

 

Raph just grunted in agreement, and the door burst open.

 

Knowing if they stayed in the shed, they'd be dead for sure. The two barreled through the Foot-Bots the second the door was open. The Foot-Bots toppled over like bowling pins, but quickly got back to their feet, and started fighting again.

 

"So what are these things anyway?" Casey asked as he repeatedly bashed the robots' heads in.

 

"They're called Foot-Bots," Raph replied with a grunt, while stabbing a Foot-Bot in the throat. "And they're basically exactly what you see. Evil, robot, ninja pains-in-the-ass."

 

"Okay," said Casey, sending a puck ricocheting off some of the robots' heads. "But why Foot?"

 

"That's part of the long story," said Raph distractedly.

 

Just then two Foot-Bots managed to pin the turtle, but Casey tazed one with his homemade Taser, and Raph used his sai to stab the other in the shoulder, breaking its arm off. He then used the arm to bat the rest of the Foot-Bot into three more.

 

The fight continued like this for several minutes, each of the teens using every weapon in their arsenal, and every fighting move at their disposal.

 

Finally, the rooftop was strewn with battered Foot-Bot parts, and the two boys stood panting in the center of them.

 

"That… the last… one?" Casey asked as he tried to catch his breath. He shoved his mask to the top of his head to get air easier.

 

"Yeah… think so," replied Raph, equally out of breath. "Come on… We should go… somewhere else… More might come…"

 

The two took off across the rooftops, until they finally came to rest at a water tower a few blocks away. The two practically collapsed under it, and just focused on being able to breath again before they started talking.

 

"So," said Casey to start it off. "You gonna tell me why you're a giant turtle now? And how the heck are you a ninja? When did any of this stuff happen?"

 

Raph sighed. "Like I said, it's a long story."

 

Casey glanced at him, waiting for him to start telling it. When he didn't, Casey said, "Come on, dude, don't leave me hanging."

 

Raph let out an aggravated sigh, and rubbed his head. "I don't know if I should," he admitted. "You gotta understand, Casey. This is kind of connected to a huge secret for my whole family. Bad things happen to people who know."

 

"Like what?" Casey asked.

 

Raph thought a moment before replying. "You were there when Mutagen Man went after April, right?"

 

"Mutagen Man?" Casey asked incredulously.

 

"The walking jar of guts with the hots for April."

 

"Oh, that thing."

 

Raph sighed. "That  _thing_  used to be a friend of Donnie's. Donnie told him only part of the story, and the kid went and tried to do the same thing that happened to me to himself, and, well, you saw the result. Then he went nuts, and Donnie had to turn him into a popsicle to stop him, and now he's in the brainiac's lab making him feel guilty for the whole thing whenever he looks at him."

 

Casey winced at the thought of that.

 

"And April," Raph continued. "She knows the whole thing, and I can't tell you how many times our enemies have tried to hurt or kidnap her for it. She had to hide out at our place for a while 'til they stopped looking for her, and even now she can't go out for long without a bodyguard, and she can't come to our dojo without going through a secret passage as a precaution. She's been learning how to fight from my father, but that only does so much when the bad guys can send a whole army after you."

 

"Like the one we just fought?" Casey asked, glancing back towards the roof they had been fighting on.

 

"Yeah," Raph said with a nod. "This stuff is dangerous to know, Casey. Enough people have been hurt by it. I don't want anything bad to happen to you too."

 

Casey gave Raph a friendly shove. "Like I said before. When have I ever run from a fight? And for the record, if you don't tell me, I'll just keep looking for answers on my own. And imagine how much trouble I'll get into that way."

 

Raph shot him a glare. "Yeah, because that's been working out great so far," he said sarcastically.

 

That took some of the wind out of the vigilante's sails. "I'm  _really_  sorry about April," said Casey, looking guilty. "I just wanted to know what happened to you, and it was looking like your family was more open with her than they were with me. I've been trying to apologize to her ever since the thing with Miwa happened, but she's been taking the Nick approach to the whole thing."

 

Raph nodded, not looking surprised. "Yeah, April is looking like she could compete with Mi on who can hold a grudge longer. You really could have handled that better."

 

He then heaved a sigh, and (after making sure the coast was clear) told Casey everything. Raph knew without a doubt that after all this, Casey wouldn't stop until he got his answers, or he'd gotten himself killed searching for them. It would be better for all of them for him to just come out and tell the truth.

 

When he was done, Casey was staring at him as he tried to process the impossible sounding story.

 

"Your life is a lot more interesting than I gave you credit for," he said finally.

 

Raph threw back his head and laughed at the sheer amount of understatement that was in that sentence, before breaking off and looking worried as he realized something. "Oh man, Mother and Father are going to kill me for this."

 

"That, I don't doubt," said a voice behind them.

 

They turned to see the rest of Raph's siblings in their ninja gear standing behind them, looking disapproving.

 

Raph and Casey exchanged glances, and groaned. They were definitely in trouble now.

 

But before they could ask how the others had found them, Mikey launched himself across the roof, and grabbed Raph in a tight hug.

 

Raph was so surprised by this, he could only pat his brother's back awkwardly, while sending his other siblings a 'What the hell?' expression.

 

"When we saw all those scrapped Foot-Bots back there, we got worried. Mikey especially, since he thought you'd gone out because you were mad at him," Miwa explained.

 

"Yeah, but why were you looking for him?" Casey asked, as Raph was now busy trying to pry his baby brother off of him ("Dammit, Mikey, it wasn't you I was mad at!") to ask. But it was no use. Mikey could cling like an octopus when he wanted too.

 

The other three exchanged glances, and Donnie said, "I'll show you when we get home. Come on."

 

___________________

 

Soon the five Hamato teens, and Casey were all in Donnie's lab as the genius typed at his computer.

 

"A while after you left, Raph, Donnie intercepted a transmission the Foot had sent to the Kraang through the communication orb," Leo explained.

 

Donnie brought it up onto the screen, showing a picture of the five Hamatos fighting against Foot-Bots, as well as several lines of Japanese text.

 

Raph leaned over to read it, before drawing back with wide eyes. "What'd we do to piss them off this time?" he asked.

 

"What?" asked Casey, looking at them all in confusion. "Some of us don't read that stuff, what's it say?"

 

"Basically," said Miwa, "it's a bounty on all of us. The Foot are telling the Kraang that they would pay through the nose to get at least one of us brought to the Shredder alive for questioning."

 

"Considering the fact that they usually just want all of us dead," said Leo. "That means they have something big planned for whoever they manage to catch."

 

"And whatever that is," added Mikey, "you can bet it's all kinds of not good."

 

Casey and Raph exchanged glances. "Well, that explains all the Foot after me tonight," said Raph ruefully. "You picked a hell of a time to want to be involved, Case."

 

"No sweat," said Casey cockily. "I bet I can handle anything they dish out."

 

A hand came to rest on Casey's shoulder, and in front of him Raph froze with a deer-in-the-headlights expression. "Is that so?" said the hand's owner.

 

Casey turned to see Master Yoshi standing there, with a disapproving expression on his face.

 

"Then you will not protest my questions to ensure you keep my family's secrets," said Master Yoshi in a dark tone.

 

Casey shifted nervously. "Uh, I won't tell, cross my heart," he said, drawing an X over his chest as he did so.

 

Yoshi raised an eyebrow, and didn't look impressed.

 

Casey could feel himself sweating under the ninja master's gaze. "Um, Raph, help me out here," he said, turning to his turtle friend, only to see him being pulled out of the lab by his angry looking mother, who was pinching him on the cheek as she dragged him out and scolding him as she went.

 

"Looks like Raph's getting his own lecture and punishment right now," said Miwa looking amused. "Would you like me to take a message?"

 

Casey gulped, and looked back at Yoshi's scowling face. And he'd thought the army of ninja-bots was the worst he'd have to worry about tonight.

 

___________________

 

The Shredder was not at all pleased, and the sources of his ire were kneeling before him.

 

"What is this I hear of you sending out a bounty on Hamato's students without my permission?" he asked menacingly.

 

Before him, his three hench-mutants shifted nervously.

 

"You see. Master Shredder," said Fishface. "Ever since you discovered Tang Shen was alive, you have been, um…" the fish mutant paused as he tried to think of a way to say 'A terrifying rage menace' without resulting in him becoming sushi.

 

"And with Stickman not being able to hack his way into the DMV or anywhere else to find out where she is-" Rahzar started to say.

 

"Hey!" snapped Stockman, who had been hiding in the corner as he watched the proceedings. "It's  _Stockman!_ And it's not my fault someone's put all sorts of firewalls and viruses on that sort of information. You can't even type the name Hamato into  _Google_  without your computer crashing."

 

(Over in the Renaissance Dojo, Donatello sneezed and got the sense someone was talking about him.)

 

"-So we thought if we brought you one of his students to interrogate, you would be able to find her faster," finished Rahzar, shooting a glare at Stockman as he did so.

 

The Shredder glared down at them. "Revoke it," he demanded.

 

The three mutants looked up at him in surprise. "Master Shredder?" asked Tiger Claw in surprise.

 

"Revoke the bounty," the ninja master demanded again. "And do no such thing without my permission again." He extended the blades of his gauntlets and added, "Or  _else._ "

 

Rahzar and Fishface gave a quick bow, and beat a hasty retreat along with Stockman to do just that.

 

Tiger Claw, however, stayed in his kneeling position. "Master Shredder, if I may be so bold. Why have you ordered the bounty's revocation?"

 

The Shredder studied his second-in-command for a minute before answering, "In the recording that told me Tang Shen was alive, the O'Neil girl mentioned that Karai had brothers. It is likely that at least some, if not all of the other four students are those very brothers, making them Tang Shen's sons."

 

Tiger Claw nodded thoughtfully. "And you do not want to upset their mother by harming her cubs," he said in understanding.

 

"Indeed," Shredder said, gazing out the window over the city. "I cannot make my next move until all the pieces for my victory are in place. Make no mistake, when that happens Hamato Yoshi  _will_ fall by my hand. And once he does, I shall reclaim what was rightfully  ** _mine_**."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I put some of references to the Original and 2007 movies in this. Some of the lines Raph says when he's being ambushed by the Foot are adapted from the original movie, and Casey's confronting Raph about knowing who he is is reminiscent of Casey telling Raph he knows he's the Nightwatcher from TMNT, as well as hiding in the shed from one of the stone generals. Also, as you can see, April is still mad at him for trying to use her, but it looks like she'll have to deal with it since Casey's now part of the team. Also there were some hints to coming things here, can anyone spot them.


	22. A Few Aprils Too Many

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> April's attempts to prove herself capable don't go exactly as planned.

After all the drama of losing Spike, and introducing Casey to the Hamato Clan's secrets, things fell back into a relatively normal (or at least as normal as it could get) routine. They still hadn't found out why the Foot had sent out a new message that had revoked the bounty on their heads, but they weren't complaining.

 

But by now April was getting irritated at always having a bodyguard, whether it be one of the ninjas walking with her, or Leatherhead and Mondo Gecko stalking her. She was also starting to hate being left on the sidelines when the Hamatos knowingly went on dangerous missions, and she began asking to be brought along on more in hopes of proving her worth.

 

The others were skeptical about this, as April had far less training than they did, no mutant powers, and already had a giant target on her back by their enemies. It didn't seem like a good idea to tempt fate with her safety.

 

But nonetheless, April begged to go with them, and Leo finally relented to letting her come on patrol with them.

 

At first April was excited about the prospect of doing more. But two hours later she was beginning to regret her insistence. Especially when she found out that the running they'd just done on was just the warm up.

 

Thinking back, that had probably not been the best time for April to start asking about going on real missions again right after complaining how hard a warm up for patrol was.

 

Miwa raised an eyebrow at the redhead. "So let me get this straight. You want to come with us into dangerous Kraang or Foot infested buildings, when you can't even keep up with us on the easy stuff."

 

April shot her a look that said plainly 'That was  _easy?_ '

 

"It took fifteen years of training for Sensei to let us just run around rooftops, and that was before this crazy stuff happened," said Raph. He then gestured to himself and added, "Not to mention, I had to re-train a ton just so he'd let me out while I'm like this. You got a long way to go, sister."

 

"Not that long," said Donnie, trying to be reassuring. "A decade or two will fly by like that." He snapped his fingers for emphasis.

 

But April didn't look impressed. "Yeah, and I'm sure the bad guys'll be happy to wait a decade before I can fight them off."

 

Donnie had to concede her point on that. "Maybe we should take her one more missions, Leo," he said thoughtfully. "It could be good training."

 

Mikey nodded brightly. "Yeah, the best training she could have is hangin' with the ninjas."

 

"That, or it'll get her killed faster," said Miwa sternly. "Sorry, April, but on missions we have a hard enough time watching our own backs. Having to watch yours on top of that when you only have a few months training is too risky."

 

"She's right," said Leo, agreeing with his sister. "It's too dangerous."

 

Raph also nodded. "If there's one thing we know for sure, is that  _anything_  can happen on a mission, you're just not ready."

 

April scowled at all of them for their lack of support, but then she clutched her head like she was in pain. "Ah, my  _head,"_ she whimpered, before her eyes snapped open. "Guys, I think there's someone watching us. Right. Over. THERE!"

 

At the last word she whipped around and pointed at the next rooftop. A figure lurking behind the water tower on the roof twitched at their sudden scrutiny.

 

"GET HIM!" bellowed all the ninjas, and they bolted after the spy.

 

The spy turned tail and fled when he realized he'd been caught, taking off across the rooftops, and holding the hat he was wearing low over his face.

 

The six teens rushed after him, but it quickly became clear April couldn't keep up, and she fell behind. Donnie hung back to help her, but the rest kept up their pursuit of the man.

 

April and Donnie caught up just in time to see the man slip into the window of an old building that clearly looked like it had seen better days.

 

At a silent signal from Leo, the teenagers climbed the fire escape next to the man's window, and snuck inside after him.

 

Pulling out flashlights, they began searching the room. In the dim light, they could see that the room was covered in pictures, maps, print outs, newspaper clippings, and alien memorabilia. Strings connecting some of the papers were spread like spider webs across the walls.

 

As her eyes skimmed over the contents of the room, Miwa whispered, "Someone seriously needs a hobby."

 

"I think this  _is_  his hobby," Leo muttered back.

 

Then Mikey shined his light on a board in the corner of the room, and gasped. Donnie moved to join him, and also looked shocked at the sight.

 

"It's  _us_ ," he whispered as he shown his light on the board, which was covered in photographs of the Hamato teens, April, and the rest of their allies.

 

"Not just us," whispered Leo as he examined the part with pictures of what looked like all of the bad guys they'd ever fought. "Photos of mutants, and Kraang. Lots and lots of Kraang."

 

April found a part of the board that had each of their school pictures on it, as well as a photo of Raph in present day next to his old human picture with a piece of yarn connecting them. "Sooo what's with all the creeptastic pictures?"

 

"And what does whoever got them want?" asked Miwa looking disturbed. "I mean, he knows  _all_  our identities. Mother and Father will flip when they hear about this."

 

Just then, Raph heard a floorboard creak just outside the room, and looked suspiciously at the door.

 

"Well, I guess we've seen enough here guys," the turtle said loudly, while jerking his head in the direction of door. "Let's get out of here."

 

Taking his hint, the six teens turned out their lights, and silently hid.

 

Once they were out of sight, the person who had been spying on them from the roof poked his head around the doorway. The second he did so, Raph grabbed him by the front of his shirt, and slammed him against the door with a sai at his throat.

 

"Don't Hurt Me, I'm A Friend!" yelled the man.

 

Raph scowled at him. "Stalker's more like it," he said scathingly.

 

But the man didn't seem to hear him, as he stared around the room in something like awe. "After all these months. Finally face to face with the five ninja teenagers, and… April O'Neil herself."

 

He made to move towards her, but Raph just shoved him back against the door, and the rest of the ninjas jumped between him and April.

 

"You better start talking, pal," Leo snapped, looking on edge. "What's with the photos? Who are you?"

 

"The name's Kurtzman," the man replied. "I  _was_ a journalist on the case of the missing scientists last year. And then I discovered something much bigger. Please, let me show you."

 

Raph glanced at Leo, and the lead ninja nodded. The turtle stepped back, releasing Kurtzman, and allowing him to shuffle through his desk to find something.

 

"Whatever happened to those other scientists anyway?" Miwa asked as he did so. "We only know what happened to April's dad, Falco, and Rockwell. But none of them were abducted by the Kraang for the same reason as the rest."

 

Kurtzman froze in his search, and a shudder passed through his body at the thought of the abducted scientists. "You  _don't_  want to know," he said in a low voice. "Trust me on that."

 

"I'm not sure we do," said Donnie suspiciously.

 

Kurtzman bowed his head. "There is nothing left of those scientists to save," he said gravely. "Let's leave it at that."

 

The teenagers exchanged glances behind his back, and didn't press the man further.

 

Finally finding what he was looking for, Kurtzman cleared the top of his desk and placed a photo album on top of it, opening it for them to see.

 

"The Kraang," he began darkly, gesturing to the pictures in the album, and turning pages as he spoke. "The alien infiltration is long lived. Ancient, in fact. The Kraang have been trying to use mutagen to terraform the Earth for thousands of years. But they couldn't use the mutagen in our universe without a specific chain of human DNA. They spent millennia capturing people, shaping human kind's genetic code. Until finally…"

 

Kurtzman held up a single baby picture. The ninjas stared at it blankly, but April's eyes widened and she gasped. "That's me!" she said.

 

The others all turned to stare at her, and Kurtzman nodded.

 

"Your mother was taken by the Kraang before you were born," Kurtzman explained, turning a page in his book to show a family picture of baby April with her mother and father. "Then she was… experimented on."

 

April paled, and Donnie wrapped her in a hug. "My mom?" she whispered softly. She had never known what had happened to her mother when she was six. Now to learn that the Kraang had done something to her…

 

Kurtzman looked over at her sympathetically. "That's why you're so special, April. Your DNA can perfect the mutagen in this dimension."

 

If Donnie hadn't already been hugging her, April felt as though her legs would have given out on her. Sensing her distress, Donnie maneuvered her to a couch, and let her sit down.

 

But before anything else could be said, the door was suddenly kicked in, and several Kraang came pouring in with their blasters at the ready.

 

Kurtzman looked panicked. "They found me!" he cried. "I don't know how, but they found me!"

 

"Kraang," said one Kraang. "The human known as Kurtzman has allied himself with the ones called the kids who are-"

 

Before the Kraang could finish speaking, Miwa's throwing star embedded itself in the Kraang's robotic head, and it crumpled to the floor. The other Kraang stared dumbly down at it.

 

"Seriously, why do we let them talk?" Miwa asked as she drew her tantō.

 

But the Kraang recovered from their surprise, and began shooting at them, but the teens were already charging for battle.

 

April tried her best to hold her own in the fight, but kept needing the Hamatos to watch her back, making the redhead frustrated, and believing the others thought she couldn't hold her own.

 

But as more and more Kraang kept pouring in, the ninjas knew they couldn't keep fighting in the enclosed space of the room.

 

"Retreat!" yelled Leo, and they all piled out the window.

 

Kurtzman, however, tried to go for the album with his research in it, but was knocked out the window for his troubles. Fortunately for him, Mikey caught him, and helped him to safety.

 

When they go to street level, they found one end of the alley they were in blocked off by one of the Kraang's vans. Out of the van stepped a Kraang in a spider-like robot with a machine gun mounted on the front.

 

Running in the opposite direction to avoid the laser fire, they took off down the street. Fortunately, they were near the secret entrance where the Shellraiser was parked, and they piled into it. Once inside, Leo promptly ran over the Kraang's machine gun, and drove off to safety while the alien was left squealing in distress.

 

Once they were out of the sight of the Kraang, Kurtzman started talking again. "As I said, the Kraang need April's DNA for their plans, and unfortunately, thanks to their cover in the World Wide Genome Project, they already have it. But if you ninjas infiltrate TCRI, you can wipe out all the data they have on April's DNA."

 

The teenagers exchanged glances.

 

"I'm not sure if you missed it, Mr. Kurtzman," said Mikey. "But TCRI is a hole in the ground. The whole building got smushed when the Technodrome tried to come through the portal halfway."

 

Kurtzman gave him a pitting look, and they all soon saw why.

 

The six teens gaped at what they saw when Leo parked the Shellraiser a few blocks from the crater. Or at least where the crater had been

 

The hole in the ground was completely gone, and the TCRI building was back looking like it had never been smashed in the first place.

 

Once they recovered from their shock, Leo began making plans for infiltration, which hit a snag when April heard she was supposed to be left outside with Kurtzman.

 

"Stay outside?!" she hissed angrily at Leo, repeating the orders he'd just given her. "On look out?! No way! I'm not waiting outside like some stupid sidekick!"

 

Leo frowned, and looked like he was going to repeat the order, but April got some unexpected backup in her argument.

 

"Yeah, telling her to sit on her butt isn't going to work, Leo," Miwa said, moving to stand by April, who sent her a grateful glance. "I mean look at her, you could tell her to stay put till your face is as blue as your mask, but she's not going to listen."

 

April nodded, looking determined.

 

"Besides," Miwa continued. "I'm not sure I like the idea of her staying out alone with Mr. StalkerWall here." She jerked her thumb at Kurtzman.

 

Kurtzman had the decency to look embarrassed. "Sorry about that. I tend to get over zealous when I try to get to the bottom of things." He then got serious, and pulled a card from his pocket. "Take this," he said, handing it to Leo. "It's a key card I stole from one of their vans, it'll get you into TCRI."

 

Leo nodded, and took it, before reaching for his cell phone. "Okay guys, since April's coming with us there's gonna be a change of plans. We all know how dangerous this place is, so we'd better bring some back up."

 

Finding his phone, Leo began calling Leatherhead to come join him. From the sound of things, Mondo Gecko was also clamoring to go along as well.

 

Hearing this, Raph fished out his own cell phone. "If that's the way we're going to do this, I'm calling Casey in too. He'd never let me hear the end of it if we left him out of the action."

 

April scowled at the mention of Casey's name, but made no comment. She had not forgiven him for trying to pump her for information, and was still treating him with a cold shoulder.

 

Leo, however, nodded for Raph to go ahead. "Just be sure to tell him to only bring one weapon and no paint cans," he said. "We're still going to try for stealth, and that golf bag of his makes too much noise."

 

Raph nodded as Casey answered his phone, and the turtle began filling his friend in.

 

_________________________

 

A few minutes later, the others were gathered in the alley, and Leo began filling them in on the plan.

 

"It's pretty simple," Leo said to the assembled teens and mutants. "We break in, erase April's DNA codes, and get out. Infiltration only, if at all possible. But with our history with this place, there's a good chance that won't happen, so be ready for anything." He then sent a pointed look at April, Casey, and Mondo. "Last chance to back out."

 

But of course none of them did. They all nodded that they understood. They then took to the rooftops to use a grappling gun that Donnie had invented to get in, leaving Kurtzman to keep watch by the Shellraiser.

 

After some minor difficulties getting one of Leatherhead's weight across the cable, the nine slipped into TCRI undetected, and found themselves in a darkened room full of cubicles.

 

Within each cubicle was a Kraang endoskeleton in its human disguise, sitting as though asleep at its desk

 

Frightened at first, they all drew their weapons and pointed them at the robots, only to pause when they realized they weren't moving.

 

"It's okay. It's alright," said Donnie, after looking around the rest of the cubicles. "I think these androids are just charging." He then moved the Kraang body closest to him so that the others could see the power cord attached to the back of his neck.

 

Seeing that they weren't currently a threat, the teens put their weapons away. But Leatherhead was still snarling under his breath, and glaring at the Kraang with glazed eyes, ready to pounce any moment.

 

Sharing a quick look, Mondo and Mikey both hurried over, and began talking soothingly to the alligator, drawing him back to reality with reminders of April's safety on the line, and promises he could crush all the Kraang he wanted later.

 

Casey, however, moved to study the powered down robots, having not run into them before. "So these are the Kraang guys you told me about?" he asked Raph softly.

 

"I don't know if they have the squishy brain filling right now, but yeah. This is what a lot of them look like," Raph replied, nodding to the robots. "Either like this, or all metal no skin."

 

Casey grimaced. "Freaky. Awesome, but freaky." As he poked at the robot he knocked the arms away, revealing a sleeping alien brain in the stomach compartment, making him jump back in surprise.

 

"Well, that answers that question," muttered Raph when he saw that.

 

Just then a buzz filled the room, and the Kraang's robotic eyes lit up pink.

 

"It wasn't me," yelped Casey, knowing he was the last one to touch it.

 

"I think they're done charging!" said Donnie fearfully. "Let's get out of here!"

 

They all started to rush out of the room. As the Kraang started standing and regarding each other, the team managed to make it to the elevator, and pile into it without being seen, though Leatherhead was making it a tight squeeze.

 

With some difficulty, Leo managed to swipe the key card they'd been given, which made the elevator chime that they were going to level forty.

 

Leo sighed in relief from where he was jammed next to Casey and Donnie by the elevator buttons. "Whew, not bad so far," he said.

 

"Yeah," said Raph sarcastically from a corner with Mikey wedged tightly next to him. "This is just super."

 

"Dude, your shell is crushing my ribs," whimpered Mikey next to him.

 

They then had to endure a few minutes annoying elevator music that Mikey enjoyed, but Mondo and Raph complained was making their ears bleed.

 

Once the elevator stopped Leo slipped out first without a sound, and gave a silent hand signal to the others to follow. The ninjas came out just as silently, and the rest did their best to be as sneaky as possible.

 

They found themselves in a room full of Kraang in their little hover saucers, all in some sort of trance and facing a hologram of the biggest Kraang they'd ever seen.

 

"So, like… what's going on?" asked Mondo as he and Mikey once again had to calm Leatherhead down.

 

They all looked at Donnie for answers, and he cupped his hands to his face and said in a falsetto, "It's a Kraang Sweet Sixteen Birthday Party." Then he shot the others an annoyed glare. "How am I supposed to know?" he snapped.

 

Leo rolled his eyes. "Mikey, you're the Kraang-stuff genius. What do you make of it?"

 

Mikey glanced around, having mostly helped Leatherhead regain control (though the gator was still growling slightly under his breath). He then shrugged. "I don't know, conference call?"

 

"You are not too far off the mark," said Leatherhead, the angry growl still in his voice. "This is how the Kraang communicate with each other. They are a hive-mind race, and are currently relaying information to their leader-"

 

"-Kraang Prime," April interrupted, drawing a surprised glance from the alligator. April winced and clutched at her head. "LH is right, they're meditating, communicating… I can hear their thoughts."

 

Mikey stared at April in awe. "Woah, man. You're like tela-pathetic."

 

"Gnarly," said Mondo, also looking impressed.

 

The others exchanged glances behind the redhead's back. Just what had the Kraang done to April's mother to allow her to do something like this?

 

But April paid them all no attention as she began hearing the voice of Kraang Prime in her head.  _"The experiment is nearly complete,"_  the giant Kraang said. " _Despite setbacks, the mutagen will be ready as planned."_

 

"They're talking about Invasion," April whispered to the others, as she listened.

 

Kraang Prime continued on, oblivious to the fact they were being listened in on.  _"Soon we will transform the Earth, and all of its hideous people."_

 

April couldn't help but gasp at that, her distress alerting Kraang Prime to her presence.

 

" _What!"_  roared the giant Kraang in fury.  _"Intruders!"_

 

Instantly the alarms began going off, and all the Kraang in the room came out of their trances and screeched.

 

"Run!" yelled Leo, and almost all of them bolted back to the elevator. But Leatherhead stayed where he was and roared at the Kraang. He had been waiting all night to crush the aliens, and he wasn't about to pass up on an excuse to do just that.

 

Kraang drones began pouring in along with another Ms. Campbell robot. They quickly destroyed the elevator, cutting off the team's means of escape. Seeing this, the team quickly jumped into battle, and began fighting the Kraang.

 

Leatherhead was in his element, ripping the androids apart, and sending the brain squids fleeing. The teens could all see that they wouldn't be able to reason with him until he got his bloodlust out of his system.

 

Casey was having fun too, bashing apart any Kraang he could with the hockey stick he'd brought as a weapon. But when he got a good look at Ms. Campbell, he did a double-take.

 

"What the heck?! It's the killer robot lady from school!" Casey yelled. He then glared at Raph. "Dude, you told me that that was all a dream!"

 

"I lied. Yell at me about it later," Raph said shortly, too busy taking down enemies to pay too much attention to Casey's annoyance.

 

The hockey vigilante just grumbled under his breath and began taking out his frustrations on the Kraang.

 

As the others took out most of the opponents, April found herself fighting at the rear with Mondo Gecko. The redhead was severely annoyed that the rest had positioned her in the spot that would get the least action, but Mondo was completely okay with it.

 

"Aren't you just a little annoyed they're not letting us fight?" April asked the gecko as she used her tessen to block some laser fire that came their way.

 

Mondo shrugged as he held his skateboard out as a shield from the lasers. "Not really, dudette," he replied. "I'm awesome at a lot of things, but I'm not that bodacious of a fighter, and we all know it. LH has been trying to teach me how to use my animal instincts to defend myself, but I still know if I go up against those bogus creeps, I'll get creamed."

 

"Still, don't you want to contribute something?" April asked in exasperation.

 

"I came here to keep Leatherhead from loosing control when we were doing the sneaky thing," Mondo replied. Then he looked thoughtful. "Although…"

 

He then darted closer to the fight while still remaining in the protective bubble his friends had made around him and April. He shot out his long sticky tongue towards one of the nearest Kraang, and it wrapped around the blaster the android held. Before the Kraang realized what happened, Mondo retracted his tongue and left the alien robot completely disarmed and an easy take down for Mikey.

 

The orange wearing ninja shot his friend a grin. "Thanks Mondo!" he called.

 

Mondo gave him a tooth grin, and began repeating the action with the other Kraang.

 

April was far from pleased. "Great, even the gecko with no fighting skills gets more action than me," she grumbled.

 

Then, finally, a Kraang managed to sneak past her friends' barrier, and she quickly hurried over to fight it.

 

But no matter how much she whacked it with her tessen, the robot didn't stop, and instead grabbed her wrist and began trying to pull her away.

 

"I am  _NOT!"_ she growled stubbornly as she banged her tessen against the robot's head, "Gonna ask for  _help!"_

 

But all her attacks did nothing, and the Kraang grabbed her other wrist and began dragging her away.

 

Knowing she was definitely in trouble now, April swallowed her pride and yelled, "Help! HELP! D-GIFUTO!"

 

Donnie wheeled around at the sound of his codename, and his eyes widened in horror as he saw the Kraang dragging his girlfriend away. "April!" he yelled after her, but was then tackled aside by Leo to avoid one of Ms. Campbell's elbow rockets.

 

"Iyasa! Take down Ms. Rocket Arms!" Leo ordered.

 

The turtle quickly dealt a finishing blow to the Kraang he'd been fighting, and darted towards the female robot. "Already on it!" he called back.

 

Seeing him coming, Ms. Campbell pointed her elbow cannon at the mutant, but with one well aimed throw of his sai, Raph managed to toss his weapon into the cannon, jamming it and making the whole robot explode, taking out several aliens along with her.

 

Raph grabbed his sai as it came flying back towards him, and they all ran after April, Donnie leading the charge.

 

Only to be met by April running back towards them down the hall. "RUN!" she yelled, bolting past them.

 

The sound of Kraang blasters powering up from the direction she'd been running from, had the rest not hesitating to take off after her.

 

But once again, Leatherhead hung back to fight, making Mondo double back and start tugging the alligator's tail to try and get him to follow ("Come on, big guy, stay with the group!").

 

As the teens ran to catch up, April pointed to a door in the hall. "In here!" she yelled.

 

The ninjas piled in, but Casey wasn't able to change directions quick enough, and crashed into April, sending them both sprawling to the floor.

 

"Sorry, Red," Casey said, picking himself up, and holding out a hand to help her up.

 

April smiled sweetly at him. "No worries, it was an accident," she said brightly as she took his hand.

 

Casey then froze, and stared at her in surprise. "What's with the grin? Aren't you mad at me still?"

 

April looked confused. "Why would I be mad at you, strange masked man?" she asked.

 

Casey's eyes widened behind his hockey mask, and he jerked away from her. April was way too much of a spitfire to just forgive him like that, and she knew the codename they'd agreed on for him (Raph had suggested the name Nightwatcher, and he'd jumped on it eagerly, it was better than Gallagher, like Leo had been suggesting). "SHE'S NOT APRIL! IT'S A TRAP!" he yelled to the others.

 

"WHAT!" was all the ninjas could yell in surprise before the door they'd gone through slammed shut, trapping them inside.

 

'April' immediately began laughing like a lunatic, and Casey could only watch in horror as the room his friends were in began filling with poison gas.

 

"There is no escape for the kids," she said gleefully as the ninjas began trying to break through the door. She then looked a Casey with a mad look in her eyes. "Now to dispose of you."

 

With that, she launched herself at Casey, and began attacking him with strength far greater than the real April possessed.

 

Casey blocked her blows as best he could. "Where's the real Red?" he demanded as he searched for an opening to hit her back.

 

"You won't live long enough to find out!" said Not-April with a crazy grin. She then grabbed the front of Casey's hoodie, and threw him against the wall.

 

Casey groaned from the hit, but before he could recover, Not-April was standing over him with her fist drawn back to hit him again.

 

Casey only had time to raise his arms to block his head, before Leatherhead suddenly appeared behind the fake redhead, and slashed into her back with his claws. Not-April only had a second to look completely surprised before she exploded into a pile of black goo.

 

"Oh, that is nasty," said Mondo as he stared at the puddle she left from his position behind Leatherhead.

 

The gator paid it no further attention, and instead used his great strength to force the door back open, allowing the ninjas to scramble out, gasping for breath.

 

"Thanks," Donnie gasped as they recovered. "We couldn't use Karai's Boom Stars since it was too close, and the explosion would have taken us all with it."

 

The genius then stared at the puddle that they'd thought was April. They'd seen the fight as they'd tried to escape, and knew what had happened. "The Kraang must have created some kind of replica," he said staring at it and picking up April's tessen from within the goo and shaking it clean. Panic began to set in for him as he realized what that meant. "We've gotta find the real April. Come on!"

 

He then took off down the hall, and the others followed after him, hoping it was the right direction.

 

They soon came upon a booby-trapped door, and knew whatever was behind it had to be important.

 

Dodging the laser fire from the booby-trap, Leo made his way to the door and swiped the key card through it. Instantly the laser shut off, and the door opened and granted them access.

 

At first glance when stepping into the room, things looked a little familiar. "This place looks like the World Wide Genome Project all over again," said Miwa as she examined the giant vat of mutagen in the center surrounded by a control console, and glass tanks lining the walls of the round room.

 

"Does that mean we'll have to fight Justin again?" Mikey asked in distaste.

 

"Who's Justin?" asked Casey, Leatherhead, and Mondo.

 

"You don't wanna know," said Raph with a grimace.

 

Mondo wandered over to take a closer look at the tanks lining the walls, only to jump back with a scream of horror as he saw what was behind the glass.

 

The others stared equally horrified at the tanks. Floating in each of them appeared to be an unconscious April in a white jumpsuit.

 

"By Darwin's beard," said Donnie in shock. "April  _clones!"_

 

" _Weird,"_  said Mikey, drawing out the word as he examined one of the clones in the tank.

 

"They're perfect genetic duplicates," Donnie continued, as if he hadn't heard him.

 

" ** _Weird,"_** said Mikey again, this time in unison with Mondo.

 

"I bet the Kraang have been growing them to harvest her DNA," said Donnie, still in full scientist mode.

 

Casey was tapping on the glass of one of the tanks, and jerked back as the clone inside opened her eyes and looked at him.  ** _"WEIRD!"_**  he, Mikey, and Mondo all said at once.

 

"I got it,  _okay!"_ Donnie snapped at all of them, tired of their repetition.

 

"So, all these 'perfect genetic duplicates' giving you any  _ideas_ , lover-boy?" Casey asked Donnie suggestively, recovering from his surprise fairly quickly.

 

Donnie turned scarlet as he caught the vigilante's implications, and whacked him over the head with his bō staff, only for the vigilante to immediately afterward get slapped across the face by Miwa.

 

At his confused look at her slap, Miwa shrugged and said, "April wasn't here to do it herself."

 

Ignoring their antics, Leatherhead stated, "Then the question remains, where is the real April?"

 

_________________________

 

April had been having a bad day, plain and simple. First she couldn't get her friends to take her seriously as a member of their team. Then getting them to let her come on this mission had been like pulling teeth, and then when they only agreed with the condition of bringing more along to watch her back, back up which included that jerk Casey Jones. After the mission finally got underway, April found herself being shown up by everyone else,  _including_  Mondo Gecko (which was a new all time low). Then when she finally managed to get something to fight, instead of proving her worth she got herself captured, stripped of her clothes and weapon, stuffed in a white jumpsuit, and strapped to a table in the middle of Kraang Central.

 

Worst. Day.  _Ever!_

 

April struggled against her restraints, trying to break free and wipe floor with the Kraang surrounding her. But it was no use.

 

The Kraang positioned by her head addressed the others. "The DNA that belongs to the April Clones is lacking, Kraang. Kraang needs more real April DNA."

 

April's eyes widened in terror as she saw a large needle descend from the ceiling and make it way straight towards her face.

 

"Eh, uh, Why don't I just give you some hair or something?" she asked fearfully. "That has DNA!"

 

"That is correct," said one of the Kraang. "But this is far more entertaining to Kraang."

 

April could only press herself as much as she could against the table below her as the needle drew steadily closer to her head.

 

Unable to contain her panic any longer she let out a blood-curdling scream.

 

_________________________

 

Back in the clone room, Donnie, Mikey, and Leatherhead were working frantically at the console in the center of the room, trying to get information to where the Kraang had taken April, as well as wiping the computers clean of her DNA.

 

"Okay, the computers are clean," said Donnie as the three stepped back. "But it doesn't look like the Kraang have updated it to say where she is yet."

 

They all froze when they heard the girl in question's scream reverberate through the halls.

 

"April!" yelled Mikey, hoping she would answer and tell them where she was.

 

But instead the door opened on the second story platform of the room, and Kraang started pouring in.

 

"The kids survived," said one of the Kraang. "Open the bin that i-"

 

The speaking Kraang was cut off as Leo took Miwa's earlier advice, and threw a shuriken through its head.

 

But the other Kraang it had been speaking to knew what it had been talking about, and pressed a button on the wall.

 

Suddenly a trap door opened behind them, and they all prepared for what could be coming out of it.

 

A human hand reached through the trap door, and at first it looked like another April Clone was coming out. At least until the Clone started pulling herself out more and more, and they all drew back with cries of alarm.

 

Towering over all of them (even Leatherhead) was a two headed, misshapen, and monstrous version of April. The deformed clone roared down at them all, and glared at them menacingly.

 

"What the heck is  _that?_ " asked Leo as he stared at the monstrosity, only to have to quickly dodge as she tried to squash him with her giant foot.

 

Unfortunately for the Kraang, the monster clone didn't seem to like them either, and she swatted them all off the platform, and crushed them, all while yelling, "DERP! DERP! DERP!"

 

"Some kind of a reject clone," said Donnie to answer Leo's question. "A genetic mishap."

 

"All kinds of ugly," said Casey.

 

"April Derp!" yelled Mikey, naming the clone.

 

April Derp snarled at them, and moved to attack again, only for Leatherhead to roar and launch himself at her.

 

The clone and the mutant began tumbling around the room, both clawing, hitting, and biting any part of their opponent they could reach. Their fight had them knocking against the console, and hit one of the buttons there.

 

Immediately the liquid in the clone tanks drained, and the other April Clones began coming out to join the fight, stalking towards the teenagers menacingly.

 

Backing away from the clone hoard, Mondo called out, "Any chance you babes just want to be friends?"

 

The April clones just snarled at all of them, and began speaking in a Kraang-like manner how they would destroy them all for their masters.

 

"Guess not," said Mondo as the fight broke out between the teens and the clones.

 

During the fight, Raph saw that the door the Kraang had come through was still. That had to be where the real April was being kept. "You guys take care of the Derp, and the clone brigade!" he called. "I'll rescue April!"

 

He then jumped and spring boarded himself off the wall, and up to the door.

 

"I'll go with him!" called Mondo, using his sticky fingers to climb the wall up after him.

 

"You bring her back safe!" Donnie yelled after them, while stabbing his Naginata into another clone. He winced at the sight of her face as she exploded into goo.

 

As the genius fought his way through the hoard, he found himself back to back with Casey. "You know what, you're right, this does make me think of something," the ninja said to the vigilante in a bitter tone. "It makes me think of all the nightmares I'm gonna have for the next month."

 

Casey winced in sympathy as he used his hockey stick to bash in a clone's head. He knew what Donnie meant. Evil clones or no, having to kill something with the face of a person you cared about was traumatizing. It was bad enough for him seeing April as just a friend (even though she currently hated his guts), he couldn't even imagine what Donnie was feeling right now.

 

_________________________

 

Back with April, the redhead was continuing her futile struggles to break free of her bindings. But despite her best efforts, she was still trapped with the needle drawing ever closer.

 

Then suddenly the needle stopped.

 

"April!" called Raph, as he and Mondo Gecko sat on the now sabotaged mechanism the needle was attached too.

 

Despite her relief, April scowled at the sight of them. "Oh, great. Saved by Raph and Gecko-boy. I'm never gonna live this down."

 

"Hey, that's not cool," called down Mondo, insulted that she seemed so ungrateful when they'd come to rescue her.

 

But Raph just shrugged. "Eh, we've all been there, April," he said. Then he drew his sais and jumped down towards the Kraang. He took down one as he landed, and immediately began kicking the butts of the rest.

 

But there were just too many for him to handle. While he was distracted taking out one Kraang, six more came up behind him and pinned his arms. "Grrr! Let Me Go!" Raph yelled as he struggled to get free.

 

" **Cowabunga!** " shouted Mondo Gecko as he cannonballed off the machine, and knocked into the Kraang holding Raph. But all he managed to accomplish was to knock the androids over on top of Raph, leaving the turtle to struggle to get out from beneath them.

 

Before Mondo could do anything more, another Kraang came up behind him, and grabbed him in a vice grip. Mondo struggled to get free, but his arms were pinned at his sides, and the android didn't even seem to care when he tried smacking it with his tongue.

 

"Raph! Mondo!" shouted April as she continued struggling. Now she felt more useless than ever. Her friends were in trouble, and all she could do was lie here pinned.

 

But with Raph stuck under the dog pile, and Mondo caught tight in a Kraang's arms, it didn't look like any help was coming for her this time.

 

Suddenly the needle jerked back to life, and started descending towards her face again.

 

"APRIL!" yelled Raph, his eyes wide.

 

"Stop That Thing, You Bogus Freaks!" yelled Mondo, trying to kick the Kraang holding him in the knee.

 

But the Kraang only watched with their expressionless faces. "Do not struggle," said one of the ones holding Raph. "The one called April O'Neil will soon expire."

 

Disregarding that advise, both mutant boys did struggled with all their might, but could only watch as the needle was now only an inch from April's face, and closing in fast. Mondo couldn't look, so he turned his head away and used his tongue to cover his eyes. But Raph kept his eyes wide open, and he kept struggling against his captors and racking is brain for something he could do.

 

Just before the needle reached her, April squeezed her eyes shut and yelled, "No!  ** _NOOOOOO!"_**

 

With that last 'NO' it was like a shockwave burst from April, rippling around the room, and making the Kraang screech in their cockpits before their robot bodies seemed to shut down completely, releasing Raph and Mondo from their hold.

 

_________________________

 

Back in the clone room, the remaining clones all screeched and clutched their heads as the shockwave passed though. Then to everyone's surprise, the clones all simultaneously burst into puddles of goo.

 

"So, did we win?" asked Mikey in confusion, wiping off some of the goo that had splattered him when the clones burst.

 

"I… think so," said Donnie.

 

"What just happened?" asked Miwa.

 

The rest shrugged, and Leatherhead looked disappointed he hadn't been able to finish his fight with April Derp.

 

_________________________

 

The second Raph and Mondo had been released, they had rushed to April, Raph breaking off her restraints, and Mondo pulling her to safety before the still descending needle could reach her.

 

The needle crunched into the table, and Raph let April lean on him as she still felt dizzy from… whatever it was she just did.

 

"You okay?" the turtle asked in concern.

 

April groaned. "Brain… on fire…," she said weakly, clutching her temple. "Ready to pop… Other than that… meh."

 

"Well, whatever you just did, it was totally sick!" said Mondo excitedly as he hurried along beside them.

 

April winced at his loud voice. "Sick is exactly what I feel right now," she muttered.

 

Just then the rest of the team burst in, Donnie at the front.

 

"APRIL!" Donnie called in immeasurable relief. He quickly grabbed her from Raph and pulled her into a desperate hug. "I'm so glad you're alive," he whispered into her ear. After seeing dozens of Aprils die, some of which by his own hands, he really needed the reassurance his girlfriend was here right now, and safe in his arms.

 

April gently hugged him back, and muttered. "Glad I'm alive too, but if you're not careful, I might puke on you."

 

Donnie immediately pulled back and began looking her over for injuries and returning her tessen to her. As he did that, Raph and Mondo started to fill them in on what happened.

 

Just as they were halfway through their story, the alarms started sounding over their heads.

 

"Uh oh!" yelled Mikey over the alarm. "Time to go!"

 

They bolted from the building, with several angry and armed Kraang at their heels.

 

Just as they bust out of the building, a Kraang van screeched to a halt in front of them. They readied themselves for a fight, but instead the door opened, and Mr. Kurtzman poked his head out. "Get in!" he called.

 

Without hesitation, the team jumped into the van (Leatherhead hunching in the back), and Kurtzman soon had the van careening down the street to safety.

 

"Escaping from the Kraang in their own van!" said Kurtzman, laughing at the irony.

 

"Thanks for the save, Mr. Kurtzman," said Leo from the back.

 

The man shrugged. "I owed you one. So did you wipe out the Kraang computers?" he asked brightly.

 

"We did, by the skin of our noses," said Donnie, as he Raph and April sat next to Kurtzman in the drivers seat.

 

"The only reason we survived was because of April," said Raph, sounding amazed at the fact. He looked at the girl and said, "Whatever you did back there saved us all."

 

April smiled sheepishly. "I have no clue what I did," she admitted. "I was freaking out and then,  _ZAP_ , the Kraang were toast."

 

_________________________

 

Kurtzman dropped them off a few blocks away, saying he was going back to investigate the Kraang more, and gave them his business card if they needed to contact him.

 

After that, Leatherhead and Mondo headed into the sewers, and Casey took off for his home. The rest went to the dojo and crowded into Donnie's lab.

 

Donnie took a blood sample from April, and began running tests on her, hoping to find something that would make heads or tails of what had just happened tonight.

 

Examining a slide of the blood through a microscope, his eye widened to the size of a dinner plate.

 

Seeing his expression, Leo said, "Well? What'd you find out Donnie?"

 

Donnie drew away from the microscope and said, "This… doesn't seem possible," he said in disbelief.

 

"What is it?" asked April worriedly. "What's wrong?"

 

Donnie looked at her seriously. "Based on all the info Mikey and I pulled from the clone lab, your cellular makeup is actually a morphogenesis blend of human and Kraang DNA."

 

April jerked back from him, knocking over some beakers as she did so. She stared at her boyfriend with wide eyes. "Wait, are you saying-"

 

"You're not entirely human, April," said Donnie gently. "That's why you have psychic powers. In fact, you are a half human, half alien… mutant."

 

April's face slackened with shock, and the other Hamato siblings mirrored her expression. "A  _MUTANT!_ " shouted everyone but Donnie.

 

Mikey then broke into a grin. "That is so COOL!"

 

His other sibling glared at him, but April couldn't bring herself to care. She was too busy trying to make sense of her now upside down world.

 

But one thing was for sure, this was most definitely the Worst  _Day **EVER!**_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured that since the team is bigger in this fic than it was in the show, then they would take advantage of their numbers.


	23. Waking Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once again there's something lurking in the sewers.

April spent the next few weeks as though in a daze, trying to wrap her head around Donnie's latest discovery.

 

 _She_  was a  _mutant!_

 

She didn't look the part, but she was just as much a mutant as Raph, Mondo, and Leatherhead were.

 

And until now she'd never knew.

 

And it was all those stupid Kraang's fault! She didn't know what they'd done to her mother to have her be born like this, but if it was the last thing she did, she was going to make them pay!

 

But the discovery of her origins brought up all sorts of unanswered questions to her mind. How did the Kraang get ahold of her mother? Did they have something to do with her disappearance ten years ago? What did April's being half Kraang really entail? What did these psychic powers of hers really mean?

 

And most of all, why hadn't her father told her about this?

 

There was no way her father hadn't known at least something. So, once she worked up the nerve, she confronted him about it.

 

His response was not what she'd wanted to hear.

 

Kirby had confessed that he  _had_  known about the Kraang before they had kidnapped him. And that he had known they had a hand in the disappearance of her mother. When April demanded to know why he'd kept this from her, he tried to tell her it was to protect her, but April wouldn't listen. She was furious at him for keeping all this from her for so long.

 

She'd stormed out of their apartment, and spent the night at her friend Irma's house, before moving back into the guest room of the Renaissance Dojo the next day, and had not gone home since. Her father called the dojo every night to make sure she was alright, but knew better than to pressure her into coming home.

 

To their credit, the Hamato siblings didn't treat her any differently upon the discovery (aside from Mikey occasionally calling her Jean Grey), and April was incredibly grateful for that. They also didn't spread the news of the discovery around to Leatherhead, Mondo, or Casey, leaving it to April to decide if she wanted to tell them or not, even though they likely already suspected at least some of it. April had chosen to keep it a secret for now, but she did intend to tell the sewer mutants at some point. Casey not so much.

 

Still, it was a lot to wrap her head around on top of everything else that had become her crazy life.

 

Which was why she was far from thrilled to find that she'd been given grocery duty with Casey Jones that week. But after much complaining and begging, she found that there was no getting out of it for her.

 

Grocery duty was a weekly ritual the Hamatos had started not long after meeting Leatherhead. When the gator had moved into the abandoned subway station not far from the Renaissance Dojo, Mikey had insisted they all do their best to make his living there as comfortable as possible. Leatherhead had protested their generosity, but had relented after Mikey's promise that they would use recycled things others had thrown away to furnish his home. Several trips to the dump later, Donnie managed to repair and outfit the Lair with all the appliances one would need, as well as several second-hand pieces of furniture to make living comfortable.

 

But the one thing Mikey (as well as the rest of the Hamato clan) had refused to allow Leatherhead to get from the trash was the food that he ate. So, once a week, at least two of the teams' humans would go to the local grocery store, and buy enough food and ingredients to last him until the next trip. The amount of food had increased a bit when Mondo moved in with him, but not too much. April often pitched in some of her allowance to help foot the bill, and she had heard Casey was doing so too upon learning about it. Mondo and Leatherhead had also taken to fishing for any change that fell down into the sewers to help pay for it all, and thanks to that, the mutants managed to live comfortably in their sewer home.

 

Still, that did not help April's dilemma about having to pick up this week's groceries with Casey Jones.

 

From the look on Casey's face when they met at the supermarket that Saturday, he wasn't thrilled either, and they spent most of their time in the store in a stony silence.

 

It wasn't until they were walking out of the store with their purchases that Casey tried to break the silence.

 

"I'm sorry, Red," he said honestly. "I know I've said it a hundred times before, but I really, really am. I didn't mean to hurt you. I was just worried about Raph."

 

April ignored him.

 

"I'm also sorry you got stuck on this with me," said Casey as they neared the manhole they used to get to the Lair. "I'm pretty sure it was Leo's bright idea to try and get us to kiss and make up."

 

"Well, it's not working," said April in a clipped tone, still not looking at him.

 

Casey sighed in defeat. "Yeah, I figured."

 

They made the rest of their way to the Lair in silence. Casey didn't even bother complaining about the sewer smell, even though it seemed worse than it usually did.

 

It had just rained the night before, so the entire sewer was soggy and there were some mushrooms popping up out of the ground, but nothing to really stood out to the teens as any different from the last time they'd taken the trip.

 

At least until they had been walking for a few minutes. Then a sewer worker came bolting down the tunnel towards them.

 

April and Casey quickly shoved their bags of groceries into an alcove of the sewer, and prepared to lie on the spot as to why two teenagers were wandering around in a sewer.

 

As it turned out they hadn't needed to lie, as the sewer worker bolted past them without seeming to even see them, screaming, "SQUIRREL! GIANT MUTANT  _SQUIRREL!"_  as he ran.

 

April and Casey exchanged glances, and took off after the man. The Hamatos and Mondo had told them about the Squirrelanoids, and they needed to know if the creatures had escaped somehow.

 

But when they turned the corner after him, the man was already gone.

 

"Okay, that was weird," said Casey in confusion.

 

April frowned. "Come on, we need to find Leatherhead and Mondo. If the Squirrelanoids are loose again, then we'll need their help."

 

"Right," Casey agreed, heading back to where they'd stashed the groceries.

 

"Leave them," said April, walking past him. "The others told me Squirrelanoids are attracted to food. We take that with us, we might as well hold a neon sign over our heads saying 'Eat Me'."

 

"Oh, Right," said Casey, hurrying after her, leaving the bags where they were.

 

Despite the possible danger of the situation, April made sure she walked fast enough to keep some distance from Casey. Sensing her wish to keep avoiding him, Casey reluctantly slowed his pace so that he kept April in sight, but they were far enough apart to keep her comfortable.

 

As April walked, she suddenly got the feeling that something was watching her from inside a pipe. She paused, and looked inside.

 

Seeing her do so, Casey also paused and watched her. "What? Do you see something?"

 

April ignored his question, and peered into the darkness.

 

Only for something in the darkness to peer back at her.

 

April gasped and jerked back, but not before whatever was hiding there sent a cloud of gold dust at her face. She clapped her hands over her nose and mouth as she breathed the dust in, and began coughing on it.

 

Casey immediately ran over to help her, but she shoved him away.

 

"You okay, Red?" he asked, regardless. "What'd ya see?"

 

But April wasn't looking at him. She was staring farther down the tunnel at something.

 

Turning in that direction, Casey didn't see anything but darkness. "What is it?" he asked.

 

"Dad?" April asked in surprise.

 

Casey squinted at the darkness, but saw nothing that even resembled April's father. But for April, it was clear as day, her father was standing a few yards away down the tunnel, smiling at her.

 

"Daddy, what are you doing here?" she asked, heading towards him. She didn't even hear Casey tell her that her father wasn't really there.

 

Her father just smiled at her and waved, not even noticing several pairs of pink eyes suddenly filling up the darkness behind him.

 

But April saw them, and recognized them immediately. "Dad! Watch Out!" she shouted, running towards him.

 

But she was too late, just as her father turned around a Kraang slugged him in the face, and dragged him off into the darkness.

 

"Daddy NO!" shouted April, taking off after them. She wouldn't lose her father again.

 

Casey tried his best to keep up with April, but she was soon out of sight, leaving him alone in the dark sewers. "Oh man," he groaned. "Donnie's gonna kill me."

 

He then took off back towards the Lair. Leatherhead knew the tunnels down here better than anyone. Maybe the gator could help him find April, and Donnie wouldn't have to know he'd lost the genius' girlfriend.

 

But when he came into earshot of the Lair he heard the sound of loud gator roars.

 

Thinking the mutants might be in trouble, Casey grabbed a lose piece of pipe off the abandoned tracks, and ran towards the Lair to help.

 

However, when he hopped the turnstiles he had to stop and stare at what he was seeing.

 

The Lair was trashed, and from the looks of things, it was Leatherhead that had done it. The mutant alligator in question was thrashing around the main room as if he was fighting something, but nothing was there.

 

"Leatherhead!" shouted Casey as he ran towards the gator. "LH what are you doing!"

 

He tried to tap the gator's shoulder to get his attention, but Leatherhead just rounded on him snarling.

 

"Kraang!" he snarled in rage, and swung his clawed hand at Casey's face.

 

Casey managed to duck out of the way, but noticed that Leatherhead didn't chase after him, but rather continued fighting against the invisible Kraang bots.

 

Casey just stayed crouched out of the way until the gator fought his way into the area Donnie used as a spare garage. Once he was inside, he bolted forward and locked the door behind the rampaging mutant and wedged his pipe into the door handles to bar it, trapping the alligator inside.

 

With Leatherhead taken care of for now, Casey realized that he hadn't seen Mondo. Worried the gecko-boy might have been caught in the alligator's rampage, he rushed over to where Mondo's bedroom was and wrenched the door open.

 

Mondo Gecko was curled up in a ball in a corner of the room, wincing and keeping his hands clapped over his ears.

 

"It's  ** _ME_** , Mom," he was whimpering. "You gotta believe me! It's me, Jason! No _, No_ , Mom! It's me! I'm your son! I'm your  ** _Son!"_**  He trembled and ducked like he was dodging a blow from his imaginary parents.

 

"Mondo!" called Casey, coming over to shake the gecko's shoulder. "Come on, Mondo, snap out of it!"

 

Mondo's eyes focused on him slightly, and he recoiled. "Dad?" he asked pitifully.

 

Casey blinked in surprise at that and his heart sank further when he heard what the gecko said next. "But-! Dad I- No! Don't hurt me! Dad,  _please-!_ "

 

Mondo began crawling back away from him, protesting to insults that Casey wasn't saying, but Mondo still seemed to hear, and thinking the vigilante was his father.

 

Whatever was affecting the others clearly had him too. No matter what Casey said to him, it only seemed to hurt Mondo more.

 

Not knowing what else to do. Casey left the Lair with Leatherhead roaring in the garage, and Mondo whimpering in his room, and raced through the sewers towards the secret passage to the dojo.

 

He was going to need some help for this.

 

_________________________

 

Meanwhile, Leo was in the dojo with Yoshi, practicing his meditation skills before the next class arrived.

 

Out of all his siblings, Leo was the only one to actually enjoy meditation. Miwa saw it as a necessary evil of ninjutsu, and would do it with relatively little complaint. Raph saw it as a waste of time, and avoided it whenever possible, but still tried to do it properly when he had to. Donnie had a hard time shutting down his big brain to focus on one thing for an extended period of time, so he often spent his meditation sessions daydreaming about inventions, or going over formulas. And Mikey had absolutely no patience for it, and would either fidget the entire time and distract the others, or fall asleep.

 

But the spiritual trance that Leo could usually achieve in meditation was eluding him today. No matter how hard he tried, thoughts would continue to filter in and distract him enough to keep him grounded in the real world instead of achieving inner peace.

 

With a sigh, he glanced at his father, and saw he was already in a deep meditative trance.

 

Leo closed his eyes, and tried again, but it was no use. He let out an aggravated sigh. Why couldn't he do this?

 

Suddenly, his father's face was right next to his. "Leonardo?" he asked in concern.

 

Leo yelped, and fell to his side. "Sorry, Sensei," he said sheepishly. "Can't seem to focus."

 

"I noticed," said Yoshi, moving into a standing position. "What is it that troubles you, my son?" he asked.

 

Leo sat up and looked downcast. "I keep having the same nightmare, Father. Every night. I'd let the team down. They're dragged off into darkness, and I'm powerless to help," he admitted. He didn't realize that what he was describing was very similar to Yoshi's own nightmares.

 

Yoshi stroked his beard, and looked down at his son sympathetically. He then placed a hand to rest on Leo's shoulder. "This is not uncommon," he said sympathetically. "All leaders must face the fear of loosing their team. Your mother and I face this every time you and your siblings leave home on your missions."

 

Leo looked at his father thoughtfully. But before they could continue their conversation, the students for Yoshi's next class arrived, and Leo had to leave the dojo. As he tried to think of what to do next, the sound of crashing and yelling reached his ears from the basement.

 

Wondering what was wrong, Leo hurried down in time to hear Casey say, "Guys! April! Mutants! Sewers! Hurry!" He then practically collapsed gasping for breath.

 

Donnie, Raph, and Miwa, who had already been down there crowded around, and Leo heard Mikey coming down the stairs to join them.

 

"Casey, what's wrong?" Raph asked in concern.

 

"Did you get attacked by Foot-Bots again?" Leo asked, coming forward.

 

Casey shook his head frantically and tried to explain, "Me 'n April were taking groceries to the Lair. Next thing I know, April's acting freaked out and runs off. I couldn't find her, so I went to ask LH and Mondo for help, but they were freaking out  _too_. Something is really wrong down there," he said, pointing at the sewer entrance.

 

"Wait, wait, you just  _lost_ April?" asked Donnie looking scandalized.

 

"Relax," said Mikey, trying to calm Donnie down before he pummeled Casey. "I'm sure there's a logical explanation. Like she was eaten by a giant sewer snake, or something."

 

Donnie paled, and bolted down the secret passageway, shoving Casey aside as he went.

 

The others didn't bother to change their clothes and only grabbed their weapons (Casey had a spare golf bag of equipment stashed at the dojo) before following after him.

 

Casey led them through the sewers to the place he'd last seen April. "I think I lost her around here," he said as he came to the semi-familiar tunnel. He then spotted the groceries still stashed away. "Yeah, this is the place, here's the groceries."

 

"Oh great," said Donnie sarcastically, not at all happy his girlfriend was lost in the sewers.

 

Casey looked like he wanted to argue with Donnie, but Leo cut him off. "You said Leatherhead and Mondo Gecko were both acting weird too?"

 

Casey nodded. "Yeah, like they were all seeing things that weren't there. April said she saw her dad, then ran off like he was in trouble or something. LH was going nuts like he was attacking some invisible Kraang freaks, and nearly took my head off when I tried to get his attention. And Mondo was acting like his parents were there yelling at him. It was really messed up, man."

 

The Hamatos exchanged glances, what could be making their friends act like this.

 

"Then we better find April as fast as possible, and get to the bottom of this," said Leo, moving forward.

 

The others followed his lead, though Donnie made sure to bump into Casey on his way past.

 

Casey scowled and sped up in order to bump Donnie back. But as he did so, he yelped as he nearly tripped over a rat scurrying by.

 

"Rats!" he yelped. "Why did it have to be rats?"

 

At the others' confused looks, Raph said, "Casey hates rats as much as I hate cockroaches."

 

"You mean he's scared?" asked Miwa teasingly.

 

Raph scowled, but Casey didn't bother to deny it. Instead he just backed away from the rats and sat down on one of the tunnels.

 

Then, Casey heard a soft squeaking sound. He immediately glanced around, thinking it might be another rat. "You hear that?" he asked, drawing the others attention.

 

The sound seemed to be coming from deeper in the tunnel, so Casey turned to take a closer look. The sound was coming from a pipe sticking out of the wall, so the vigilante leaned over to get a better look. Inside the pipe were a few glowing mushrooms, and three glowing yellow eyes.

 

Before Casey could react the owner of the eyes shot a cloud of gold dust at his face, making him cough and wheeze. "That was hideous," he groaned between coughs.

 

Raph rolled his eyes. "Dude, you put your nose in a New York City sewer. What'd ya expect?"

 

Casey shook his head, still trying to clear away the dust. "I thought I saw-" he started to say before seeing something out of the corner of his eye.

 

Looking back down the sewer tunnel, he saw a rat the size of a man standing there with glowing red eyes, before it darted away.

 

Casey screamed and jumped away from the tunnel.

 

"Casey, what is it?" asked Leo in concern.

 

"I-I-I saw it, man!" Casey said fearfully. "The  _Demon Rat!"_

 

"Demon Rat?" Raph asked, wondering what he was talking about.

 

But Casey was now focused on the tunnel they'd just come down, hearing the sounds of thousands of little feet scurrying towards them.

 

Suddenly a whole flood of rats came pouring out of every entrance, scurrying over the ground and climbing all over him and his friends.

 

The others didn't even react to this, and just kept staring at Casey like they were wondering why he was jumping and screaming. "GET THEM OFF ME!"

 

At a nod from Leo, Donnie and Raph moved forward to pin Casey to the wall before he hurt himself. But the hockey nut just kept struggling and yelling.

 

"What is your malfunction?" Raph asked, wanting to know why his friend was acting crazy.

 

But Casey wasn't seeing Raph anymore. All he saw was a Raph sized pile of rats writhing before him. The sight had him collapsing to the ground, practically crying in fear.

 

Just then, they heard the sound of a feminine scream from a nearby tunnel. Recognizing the sound, Donnie started running down it.

 

He turned the corner, and found April crouched in front of a long drop off, sobbing, "Give me back my Dad! Give him BACK!"

 

"April?" asked Donnie, slowly coming towards her. But April didn't seem to see him. Instead her eyes widened in terror, and she began crawling backwards away from him. "No! No!" she yelped.

 

Donnie had to run forward in order to stop her from going over the edge, which was made all the more difficult by April beating her fists against him yelling, "Let Me GO!"

 

"April, it's alright!" Donnie said, trying to reach her. "Calm down!"

 

But she wasn't calming down, and it was all Donnie could do to drag her away from the edge.

 

As soon as he got her a safe distance away, the others caught up, Raph supporting Casey to help him along.

 

Suddenly, Leo froze, and held up a hand to stop the others. "Hold up, what's that sound?" he asked.

 

They all looked behind them to see a small blue ball rolling down the tunnel towards them. It rolled to a stop at their feet, and flattened out into a blue circle with three yellow eyes staring up at them as it made a squeaking sound.

 

"What is that?" Raph asked.

 

As they watched, the flat blue thing stood up onto noodle-y legs and feet, with long noodle arms hanging from its sides.

 

"It's a mushroom!" crowed Mikey in delight. "With  _feet!_ "

 

"Maybe you shouldn't get so close," said Miwa cautiously as Mikey bent down for a better look.

 

But Mikey didn't listen, and instead cooed, "Aww, it's so cute."

 

But then the little mushroom person launched itself at Mikey, and began clinging to his face, making the youngest jerk back and scream as he tried to pry it off. "GET IT OFF OF ME!  _GET IT OFF OF ME!"_

 

Leo grabbed the mushroom, and tore it from Mikey's head and threw it back down the tunnel.

 

The mushroom curled back into a ball, and started rolling towards them again. Raph darted ahead of his siblings with a cry of, "I got this!" and began trying to stab the mushroom with his sais.

 

But the little mushroom was fast, and dodged every blow. Then it jumped up and sprayed gold dust into Raph's face like it had Casey. Coughing on the dust, Raph collapsed to his knees and looked dazed.

 

"Raph!" yelled Leo, who took over trying to stab the bouncing mushroom. As it kept bouncing around, the rest of them joined the effort, but the little fungus was fast.

 

Finally, Donnie managed to hit the mushroom like a baseball, and send it flying over the drop off.

 

During the confusion, both Casey and April began freaking out again. Casey took off running into the sewers screaming about rats, and April followed after him yelling for the Kraang to give her back her family.

 

"April come back!" yelled Donnie after her.

 

"Casey, get back here!" Miwa yelled along with him.

 

Leo turned his attention to Raph. "Raphael, are you okay?" he asked, kneeling next to his brother.

 

Raph groaned and looked up, before jerking back. "No! It's  _You!_ " he yelled in dismay, scooting back as he did so. "Anybody but you! Keep away from me!"

 

Standing above him was the smirking form of Slash. "Long time no see Raphael," said the other turtle smugly. "I love what you've done with the place."

 

The giant turtle gestured behind him, and Raph turned to see the bodies of his family lying dead before him, cockroaches crawling all over their decaying flesh.

 

Raph scrambled backwards away from the sight, his eyes wide with terror. "Wh-What have you  _done?!"_ he demanded, sounding horrified.

 

"What have  _I_ done?" asked Slash sounding amused. "A better question is what have  _you_ done?"

 

Raph paled in horror, as he saw what Slash was talking about. Slash's mace and claws hadn't made the wounds that had caused his family's demise. No, those marks were clearly made by a sai.  _His_ sais!

 

Raph looked down at the sais still in his hands, and dropped them in horror when he discovered they were covered in blood and more cockroaches. "No!" he said in a panicked voice. "No, how could I-?"

 

Slash came up behind him and wrapped his massive hands around Raph's shoulders. "Like I said before, Raphael. We're the same, you and me. Mutant turtles." He then lowered his head to whisper the next word into Raph's ear. " _Monsters!"_

 

Raph hunched in on himself, but not even closing his eyes could shut out the horror he was seeing.

 

In reality, it wasn't Slash holding Raph. It was Mikey hugging his big brother while trying to find out why he was freaking out.

 

"Come on, dude," Mikey said soothingly. "Calm down. Breathe with me."

 

Mikey then tried to coax Raph to do some calming yoga breaths, but all Raph did was whimper repeatedly, "I'm a monster! I'm a  _monster!_ " and hunch in on himself looking devastated.

 

With their friends gone, and Raph freaking out like they had been, the rest of the teens were lost as to what was happening.

 

"What is going on here?" Leo asked, hoping to get some answers.

 

"It's like crazy has become a disease," Miwa said, trying and failing to help calm Raph down.

 

Suddenly, Donnie felt a light bulb go off in his head. "Fungus!" he burst out.

 

"Language, please!" called Mikey. "I have sensitive ears."

 

"No," said Donnie trying to explain his epiphany. "It's like Raph, and the others are experiencing their worst fears, and I think I know why."

 

_________________________

 

With some difficulty, they dragged a struggling Raph back to Donnie's lab.

 

Master Yoshi was still busy with his class, but Tang Shen came down to see what the commotion was all about. Much to all of their dismay, not even Tang Shen could bring Raph out of his delusion.

 

Donnie set to work immediately, and approached Raph with a pad to take a sample of the dust he'd inhaled from his skin.

 

But all Raph could see were cockroach-infested zombie versions of his family accusing him of murdering them, with Slash taunting him in the corner. When Donnie swabbed his scales with the pad, all Raph felt was a bloody hand smacking his face, and he pulled himself inside his shell in revulsion.

 

His family paused to blink in surprise at this. Despite knowing and accepting Raph's mutation, it still sometimes took them by surprise whenever he did something particularly turtle-like. Mikey and Tang Shen immediately crouched next to the shell, and began speaking in soothing voices trying to comfort him and coax him back out.

 

But Donnie shrugged it off, and quickly went back to work examining the pad. After dunking it in a beaker turned the liquid a certain color, he turned to the others and said, "Raph's been exposed to toxins found in certain types of fungi. Mushroom Man must produce them as a defense mechanism."

 

"Defense against what?" Leo asked. "Being stir-fry?"

 

"This is giving the term magic mushroom a whole new meaning," said Mikey from where he was trying to coax Raph back out of his shell.

 

"But we can't just leave them like this. Can you make an antidote?" Miwa asked Donnie.

 

Donnie frowned and looked at the sample. "I don't know. Most toxins like this wear off on their own. But that mushroom was clearly a mutant. It might not be as simple as making a cure."

 

"So what do we do?" asked Mikey.

 

Leo frowned. "We have to find Casey and April for one, it's not safe for them to be down there, especially in their current state. We also need to make sure that mushroom was the only one. If there are more of those things it'll be trouble."

 

"So what do we do about him?" asked Miwa, jerking her head at Raph's trembling shell. "He's not really in any state to help us search. And if he's not coming out of his shell, he'll only slow us down."

 

Tang Shen stood. "Help me carry him to his room," she said. "I will care for him while you search."

 

The others complied, and heaved Raph's heavy shell into his bedroom, and rested it on his bed.

 

"Be careful, Mother," said Donnie as the rest of them headed back towards the tunnels. "Raph's not in his right state of mind. He might hurt you without meaning too."

 

Tang Shen nodded, but did not budge from Raph's side. "I understand. Go."

_________________________

 

The four remaining teens searched the sewers again, calling out for their missing friends. At Donnie's instance they stopped by the Lair to check on Leatherhead and Mondo. The two of them had been under the dosage of the fear spores longer than the others, and he wanted to see if they'd come out of it.

 

Unfortunately, they found the scene at the Lair to be the same as Casey had described. Leatherhead was still rampaging in the garage, and Mondo was curled up in tears, begging his parents not to hurt him.

 

Donnie had checked Mondo's pulse, and gotten grim upon what he found. "This isn't good," he said as Mikey tried fruitlessly to comfort his gecko friend. "From what I know of fungi, their symptoms should have either stopped by now, or at least changed. For them to still be experiencing their fear this vividly, the spores must be more potent than I thought."

 

"Are you saying they might not snap out of this?" said Miwa looking serious.

 

Donnie nodded. "At least not for a good long while, and to have this much stress on their mind and body… It's really not good in the long run, you guys."

 

Leo looked worried. "Are you saying they could die of fright?" he asked.

 

"If we don't snap them out of this, there is a good chance their heart rate will increase so much they'll experience a heart attack," Donnie said with a nod.

 

"We gotta help them!" Mikey said looking horrified.

 

Donnie nodded again, looking thoughtful. "If I'm going to create an antidote, I'll need a better sample of the spores. We need to get another of those mushrooms for me to study."

 

"Then lets go," said Leo in determination.

 

The ninjas rushed back to the part of the sewers where they'd lost Casey and April. They began searching for their friends while keeping an eye out for more mushroom men.

 

But what they saw when they reached the tunnels clued them in that they might be in deeper trouble than they'd thought.

 

Before there had just been a few normal mushrooms dotted here and there around the sewers, now there were whole walls coated in glowing fungus.

 

"Something tells me that there's more than just one of those mushrooms," said Miwa as she looked over a fungus-covered wall. "And they might be smarter than we thought."

 

"Fungus grows like crazy in the dark," Donnie explained as he examined the sheer number of fungi. "If we don't stop these by sundown, the mushrooms will spread all over the city. Millions of people will go crazy with fear!"

 

Donnie then reached out to where the fungi was growing most prominently, and scrapped it down to see a tunnel behind it.

 

They all peered in to see the tunnel was covered completely in glowing fungi, and looked more like freaky cave than a sewer tunnel.

 

Seeing no other way to go, the teens began traversing down the tunnel, staring in amazement at the colors the fungi gave off with their glow.

 

But their amazement didn't last long, as they became aware of more of the little mushroom men were skittering all over the tunnel, and closing in on them fast.

 

"Ah," said Mikey as he saw them surround them. "Fungus balls!"

 

The ninjas immediately drew their weapons. "Take these things down," Leo ordered. "And no matter what, stay together!"

 

Now that the mushrooms were clustered, the teens were better able to slice through them with their weapons. But the little guys were still fast, and evaded them whenever possible. Still, the siblings were able to take out several of them faster than they had the first one.

 

Mikey found great fun in jumping and stomping on the mushrooms like it was a deranged form of hopscotch. "Check it out!" he called to the others with a laugh. "Super Mikey Brothers!"

 

But his fun was brought to a halt when another mushroom attached itself to his back, making Mikey trip and fall over.

 

"Get it off! Get it off!" he yelled, trying to reach around his back to pull it off.

 

Donnie hurried over to help him, only to see the mushroom crawl up and attach itself to Mikey's head again, making the youngest scream.

 

Donnie tried to whack it off, but missed and only bopped Mikey over the head with his bō.

 

"Oops, sorry. My bad," Donnie said apologetically when Mikey fell over from the hit.

 

But it only got worse when the mushrooms took advantage of Mikey's distress to shoot a cloud of their spore dust into his face, making the youngest gag.

 

Instantly Mikey turned around to berate Donnie for hitting him, only to find he was no longer there. "Donnie?" he called, looking around for his brother.

 

He then turned back towards where Miwa and Leo were fighting. "Guys! Donnie's disappeared!" he yelled.

 

But he froze when he saw Leo and Miwa had vanished too. Mikey was completely alone in the creepy fungus tunnel.

 

"Guys! Where'd you go?!" he called, looking around frantically. They wouldn't just leave him, would they?

 

Suddenly, Mikey felt sick to his stomach. Clutching at his mouth he tried to keep his lunch down, but couldn't stop from gagging.

 

Only it wasn't his lunch he threw up, but squirrels. Lots and lots of squirrels with too wide mouths, and long whip like tongues.

 

Mikey began backing away from them whimpering as the mutant squirrels grew and twisted into a hoard of Squirrelanoids.

 

With a blood-curdling scream, Mikey bolted, trying to escape the monstrosities that chased him, and unknowingly running right past his siblings who were trying to help him.

 

"Mikey Wait! Stop!" Leo called after him, as Mikey took off into the sewers.

 

But the youngest just kept running from his imagined demons.

 

While she was distracted by Mikey's distress, Miwa didn't notice another mushroom sneaking up on her until a cloud of gold exploded in her face.

 

Miwa coughed and wished that she hadn't left her scarf at the dojo. She opened her eyes, and stared when she realized she was no longer in the mushroom tunnel, but rather in the middle of Foot headquarters, and flanked at either side by the Shredder's hench-mutants.

 

As she stared around in confusion, she saw the Shredder's throne slowly rotate around to face the room, and the metal wearing menace glared down at her. "So this is the one who defies me," he said in a bone-chilling voice.

 

Miwa glared at him and reached for her weapon, only to find she was completely disarmed.

 

The Shredder glared at her scathingly before saying, "She is not worth my time, but at the very least she will make a good play thing for my daughter."

 

"Your daughter?!" Miwa asked in shock.

 

But then she heard footsteps coming up behind her, and saw the hench-mutants step away to make room.

 

Sensing the coming blow, Miwa dodged to the side just in time to avoid it, and pirouetted around to see her attacker.

 

Only to freeze in horror when she saw who it was.

 

Standing before her, dressed in a Foot uniform, was  _herself_.

 

The other Miwa gave her a sinister grin, before calling to the Shredder, "So I can do whatever I want to her, Father?"

 

"Yes, Karai," replied the Shredder. "Just so long as she  _suffers_."

 

Karai smirked. "Well this should be fun," she said, and ran at Miwa wielding the Hamato kunoichi's own tantō.

 

Leo could only watch in dismay as his sister ducked and dodged against an invisible foe. "Miwa, snap out of it!" he yelled, running over towards her.

 

But all he got was a punch in the face for his troubles, and Miwa had soon ducked out of sight, still fighting against something Leo couldn't see.

 

Determined not to loose anyone else, Leo ran over to flank Donnie, who had his hands full slicing through any mushroom that came his way with his naginata.

 

But just as Leo got close him, he saw a mushroom Donnie had missed fly towards his remaining brother's head. "Donnie Watch Out!" Leo yelled.

 

But the call came too late. Donnie was soon wheezing on the spores just like the rest.

 

"Donnie!" yelled Leo, running over to his brother to steady him as he fell over.

 

But when Donnie looked up he didn't see Leo at all. Instead he saw April standing in front of him looking at him hatefully.

 

"April?" he asked, wondering why she was mad. He reached out a hand to her, but she jerked back.

 

"Don't touch me!" she snarled. "You make me sick!"

 

Donnie drew back and looked hurt. "Wha- April why? What's wrong? Please, it's dangerous here, take my hand!"

 

But April pulled even farther away from him. "Why?" she spat. "So you can turn  _me_ into a monster too?"

 

Donnie reeled back as if he'd been slapped. "What?!"

 

"Everyone around you turns into a  _freak!"_ April said scathingly. "Look!"

 

Donnie turned to see Timothy standing behind him, grinning at him in his makeshift ninja outfit. Then before Donnie's eyes, his friend began writhing in pain as his skin melted off his bones and Mutagen Man stood snarling in his place.

 

"Look what you did to your friend!" said April, pointing at him. Then she pointed at the ground. "Look what you did to your pets!"

 

Donnie looked down to see Spike and his Spy-Roach crawling along the floor. Then the small box turtle seemed to inflate until the hulking form of Slash stood before him, mace in hand and a growl in his beak. Beside the turtle, the Spy-Roach began twisting and growing until it became a tall, larva-like creature it with cybernetic wings. It stared down at him with an angry hiss.

 

"And look what you did to your own  _brother!"_ April continued, grabbing his head so he had to look in-between Slash and Mutagen Man's girth.

 

Standing at the end of the tunnel was Raphael, looking as human as he had for the first fifteen years of his life. Then suddenly mutagen canisters started raining down around him and one crashed on Raph's head, making him collapse to the ground, and turning him into the turtle form that Donnie's family had had to get used to.

 

Raph looked up at him accusingly with his white eyes. "This is your fault, Donnie," he said.

 

Donnie backed away from the mutants and his girlfriend. "No, no- I-I didn't mean… It was an accident!" he protested as they closed in on him.

 

"It's your fault," hissed April into his ear.

 

"No!" yelled Donnie, trying to get away. But in his haste, he accidentally kicked a mutagen canister on the floor, and sent it flying at April.

 

He could only watch in horror as the mutagen smashed against his girlfriend, making her scream and writhe as the mutation took hold.

 

"APRIL, NO! Donnie yelled, trying to reach her, but it was too late. The monstrous form of April Derp towered over him, and roared in rage.

 

"It's Your  _FAULT!"_  she bellowed.

 

" **IT'S YOUR FAULT!** " echoed Raph, Slash, Mutagen Man, and Spy-Roach as they all closed in on Donnie, reaching out for him.

 

Donnie ducked around them and ran away. "I'm Sorry!" he wailed as he ran. " _I'm Sorry!"_

 

But the only hands that were really reaching out for Donnie were Leo's, and when Donnie bolted, he was helpless to stop him, as several more mushroom men flung themselves in his path.

 

"Donnie! Come Back!" Leo called after him, but Donnie was already out of sight.

 

In frustration, he stabbed a mushroom against the wall, only for it to shoot spores in his face as a result.

 

Leo recoiled, gasping for breath as the world around him took on a darker tone. Before his eyes he could still seeing all his siblings and friends leaving the group one by one.

 

"No!" he yelled, in his distress he fell back on his habit of talking to himself. "Everybody's gone! It's my fault! I failed them!  _It's all my fault!"_

 

Suddenly, Leo felt a sharp slap to the face. Looking up he say his favorite character from Space Heroes, Captain Ryan standing before him in all his animated glory.

 

"It's your fault, Cadet Leonardo," said Captain Ryan, looking at him with a disapproving scowl. "You blew it! What kind of a leader are you? Are you a man, or a turtle, or a  _zero_?"

 

Leo shrank away from his hero feeling two inches tall (though he had to wonder where the turtle comment came from, Raph was the turtle, not him).

 

The lead ninja shook his head, trying to clear it. This wasn't right… He'd had a mission to fulfill, right? He and his siblings (whom he'd failed) were trying to stop something…  _those mushrooms!_ They were messing with his head! He had to pull it together… somehow…

 

…Apparently his attempts to clear his head weren't working, however. There was  _no_   _way_  he could actually be seeing those stupid little mushrooms dancing the Nutcracker around him.

 

He was so distracted by the surreal sight, he didn't see two more mushrooms sneak up on him until they both blasted spores into his face again, sending him stumbling backwards until his foot met nothing but air.

 

With a scream, Leo found himself tumbling off the edge of a cliff and his world went black.

 

_________________________

 

Back in the Lair, Leatherhead roared as he envisioned more and more Kraang coming at him. But he had been fighting so long he could no longer feel his limbs. He could only lie helplessly on the floor as the Kraang came at him with his torture devices.

 

Within his room, Mondo could only lay helplessly in his bed, to exhausted to even muster up the energy to cry as his parents stood before him and verbally tore into him, and making him ache to his very core.

 

_________________________

 

At the dojo, Master Yoshi finally finished teaching his class, and had come down to see what the commotion had been about.

 

Upon learning what had happened, he joined his wife in trying to comfort Raphael, and bring him back out of his shell.

 

But all Raph could hear was them calling him a monster, and could only feel the scuttling of cockroaches crawling on his shell.

 

"Stay in there forever," said Slash's voice tauntingly. "It won't change what you are. A  _monster_."

 

Raph only shuddered inside his shell, and wished he could wake up from this nightmare.

 

_________________________

 

Deep within the sewers, Mikey was still running as fast as he could from the perusing Squirrelanoids. As he ran he called desperately for his siblings to come help him, but they never came.

 

That fact scared Mikey more than the Squirrelanoids. No matter what, he could always count on his family to be there for him. They all knew he hated being alone.

 

But this time he was all alone, and being chased by brain-sucking monsters.

 

Then one of the Squirrelanoids appeared in front of him, and lashed out. Mikey screamed and blocked the blow with his nunchucks. "KEEP AWAY FROM ME!" he yelled as the mutant squirrel tried to bite his head off.

 

He lashed out with the nunchuck, but unbeknownst to him, what he actually hit with his weapon was Miwa.

 

But Miwa didn't see Mikey either. Instead she saw the evil version of herself now attacking her with nunchucks.

 

"Your brother uses these," Karai asked tauntingly, holding them out for Miwa to see. "The stupid one, right?"

 

"He's  _not_ stupid," Miwa snarled back, but then realized that what she was holding wasn't just any old nunchaku. Those were  _Mikey's_ nunchucks.

 

"Where did you get those?!" Miwa demanded when she recognized the weapon.

 

Karai smirked. "I got them from baby brother's cold dead hands," she said flippantly. "Wanna see what I got from the rest of your brothers?"

 

Miwa reeled in shock as she realized what this twisted version of her meant. Then with a screech she threw herself at the Shredder's daughter in a blind rage.

 

But Karai fought back against every blow. "You should have known your screw ups would lead the Foot right to your doorstep," she taunted. "After all, it wouldn't be the  _first_  time."

 

Miwa snarled at the reminder and began fighting harder to wipe that smirk right off the bitch's face. Right now fighting was the only thing keeping her from dissolving into a screaming mess.

 

A few feet away, Donnie was still running and screaming apologies to the monstrous versions of his friends.

 

"I'm sorry!" he yelled, as April Derp closed in on him. "I'm so sorry!"

 

"YOUR FAULT!" was all April Derp said as she hit him.

And it had been April that had hit him. The teenage girl had run into Donnie during her fearful run, and was now envisioning him as one of the Kraang.

 

"Give him back!" she yelled as she beat her fists against the chest of the Kraang before her. "Give my parents back to me!"

 

But the Kraang only grabbed her to keep her from struggling, and April was forced to watch as more Kraang strapped her mother and father down on dissection tables, and began doing horrible experiments on them.

 

Not far away, Casey was curled into a ball as he saw a sea of rats swarm around him at all sides, giving him no place to escape.

 

"GET THEM OFF ME!" he wailed as the rats climbed on him. He searched desperately for an escape. "THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!"

 

He suddenly got the feeling there was something behind him, and as he turned around, he saw two man-sized rats glaring down at him with glowing red eyes.

 

Casey screamed his head off, and was echoed by all the others the spores had affected.

 

_________________________

 

Leo slowly felt awareness return to him, but it was like moving through a fog.

 

He groaned, and tried to pull himself together, but his aching head was inhibiting him from doing so.

 

Suddenly the faces of his siblings appeared in his mind.

 

"Some leader!" Miwa sneered in disdain.

 

"You let us down, bro!" Mikey moaned.

 

"You did this!" Donnie accused.

 

"It's your fault, Leo!" Raph snapped.

 

Like that everything came back to him, and Leo shot up clutching his head. "No! NO!"

 

His eyes snapped open, and gasped for breath. Shaking his head, Leo pushed himself to his feet, trying to regain ahold of himself. "Come on, fight your fear, Leo," he growled at himself, "Get your head straight! FIGHT IT!"

 

But then a loud growl came from behind him, and Leo got the feeling that fighting his fear had just gotten harder.

 

Turning towards the source of the sound, Leo saw the biggest mushroom he had ever seen in his life.

 

The mushroom was massive, roughly the height of a water tower, and as wide as a bus was long. Several giant eyeballs were set into the mushroom's cap, and the biggest one was staring down directly at Leo.

 

Leo could only stare back as he became aware of more of the little mushroom men scampering around his feet.

 

Looking down at the base of the giant mushroom, Leo saw the source of all this trouble.

 

"Mutagen," he said as he saw the canister set into the base, feeding the mushroom its contents.

 

Suddenly, a loud growling voice echoed in his head.  _"Taaaste… Feeear…! Feeeeed…!"_

 

Leo winced and fell to his knees as the voice echoed though his head. It was too loud for him to handle, and there was no way for him to block it out.

 

" _Mooore… Feeear…!"_ The mushroom continued. " _Strooonger…! Spreeead… Myyyy… Spaaawn…!"_

 

All around him, Leo could sense the mushroom men closing in on him as he tried to recover from the splitting headache the giant mushroom's voice had given him.

 

"Fight, Leo," he said to himself. "Fight your fear."

 

The mushroom sent him flashes of his friends and siblings. Glimpses of the terrors they were facing thanks to the spores, making Leo wince in agony.

 

" _Spreeead… Spaaawn…!"_ the mushroom said again.

 

"FIGHT IT!" Leo roared, forcing himself back to his feet.

 

Gathering all his determination, Leo swung his swords, slicing cleanly through the small mushrooms gathering around him in one fell swoop.

 

With a roar, Leo took off across the room, slicing through every mushroom man in his path.

 

This did nothing to dissuade them, and the fungi kept running towards him in droves. Spraying him with more spores every time they got the chance, making it hard for Leo to breathe.

 

"Keep going, Leo!" he shouted at himself through the haze of golden spores. "Don't give in!"

 

With a mighty swing of both his swords, he cut through all of the mushrooms surrounding him, and still kept on fighting.

 

Just as he was starting to make a dent in the mushroom men, more mushrooms started shooting out of the ground, and came flying towards him like tentacles.

 

He was so busy dodging and slicing any tentacle shrooms that came his way that he didn't notice that the giant mushroom had shot some of its many eyeballs at him until they were nearly on top of him.

 

He just managed to dodge, and climbed up the wall to get some height before launching himself at the giant mushroom with his swords raised.

 

But the giant mushroom shot another of its eyes at him, which burst like a bomb on contact and filled his lungs with more spores as he fell to the ground.

 

But he didn't even notice the fall. To Leo it was like he was trapped in a black void with the faces of his siblings looming over him accusingly.

 

"It's your fault, Leo!"

 

"You did this!"

 

"You let us down, bro!"

 

"Some leader!"

 

Their voices slammed into him like freight trains. He tried to clap his hands over his ears to block them out, but they just kept ringing through his head.

 

"Can't do it," he whimpered to himself in defeat. "Failure! I'm a  _Failure!_ I let the others down! I let them down! I-"

 

Leo froze as he caught sight of his sword hovering in space before him.

 

For a second he saw his reflection, before it shifted into his father's face.

 

 _"All leaders must face the fear of loosing their team,"_ said the memory of his father's words.

 

The reflection on the sword flashed back to Leo's face, and he narrowed his eyes in determination. "No," he said firmly. "No, I can't give up!"

 

He closed his eyes and found his focus, clearing his head and steeling his resolve.

 

Glaring up at the giant mushroom he declared, "Your spores won't work on me! I face my fear every single day!"

 

With that he grabbed his swords and prepared himself for the mushroom's next attack.

 

As he did so, the blades flashed in the small sliver of sunlight that had broken through the cracks in the ceiling. At contact with the light the mushroom tentacles recoiled, and the voice in his head growled in fear.

 

Leo felt a smirk spread across his face. "So that's your fear!" he said, remembering what Donnie had said about fungi liking the dark. "Sunlight!"

 

Furious that he'd found its weakness, the giant mushroom sent more spore filled eyeballs flying at him.

 

But Leo leapt into the air and caught one, and used the mushroom tentacles to climb higher towards the light.

 

" _Keeep Awaaay…!"_ yelled the mushroom in his head.  _"Keeep Awaaaaaaay…!"_

 

Ignoring the pain in his skull, Leo threw the eyeball bomb at the crack, plugging the hole.

 

For an instant there was no light but the glow from the mushrooms. Then the eyeball exploded, flooding the room with the sun's beams.

 

As he fell, Leo used his swords to reflect the sun directly at the giant mushroom.

 

The behemoth screamed in pain as the light burned it to ashes. The sound of its agony echoing in his head sent Leo tumbling to oblivion once again.

 

_________________________

 

In the garage of the Lair, Leatherhead blinked, and looked around in surprise. One second he was being set upon by Kraang, the next he was alone in an empty and wrecked garage.

 

Leatherhead wilted on himself. "Oh no, I got angry again, didn't I?" he said in shame.

 

He then went to try the door, only to find it locked. He didn't blame whoever had locked him in there for doing so, so instead he knocked on the door and called to be let out.

 

The door burst open a few seconds later, and Mondo Gecko stood breathlessly in the doorway.

 

"Are you alright, my friend?" Leatherhead asked in concern.

 

Little did the gator know that being called a friend was exactly what Mondo needed to hear. The short gecko threw himself at Leatherhead, and wrapped his arms around the other mutant's waist as far as they would go.

 

"I-I'm okay," said Mondo in a small voice. "I just really need a hug right now."

 

Leatherhead sighed in relief, and returned the hug. "Yes, a hug is exactly what's needed right now," the alligator agreed.

 

_________________________

 

Raph froze inside his shell.

 

All of a sudden the voices and feelings that had been tormenting him were gone. In their place he could hear the gentle sound of his mother singing an old lullaby to him like she had when he was small, and his father's gentle coaxing for him to come out.

 

Slowly, Raph pulled himself back out of his shell, and looked up at his parents in wonder. "What happened?" he asked hoarsely

 

Tang Shen let out a relieved gasp, and immediately drew him into a tight hug. Yoshi smiled at him, and informed his turtle son of what had happened.

 

As all this happened, Raph could only bask in joy at the fact that they were both alive.

 

_________________________

 

In the sewer, Miwa and Mikey blinked awake while locked in mid combat.

 

"Mikey?" Miwa gasped when she saw him.

 

"Sis!" Mikey cried in joy.

 

Both immediately dropped their weapons, and hugged each other in sheer relief.

 

Not far away, Donnie, April, and Casey regained their senses as well.

 

April found herself standing over a cowering Donnie, with her fist pulled back ready to strike.

 

She immediately dropped her fist, and glomped her boyfriend, needing comfort after all that she'd just seen.

 

Donnie opened his eyes and stared at her in amazement. "April! You're Okay!" he cried, hugging her back. Then his face sobered. "So, does this mean you don't hate me?"

 

April gave him a tired smile, and pecked him on the lips. "That answer your question?" she asked.

 

Donnie's dopey grin was all the answer she needed.

 

Casey, meanwhile, pulled himself out of a drain he'd been hiding in. "I will never feel clean again," he declared.

 

Then he noticed what all the others were doing. "Hey, where's my hug?" he asked.

 

The assembled teens burst into laughter as Casey's comment broke the tension hanging over their heads.

 

_________________________

 

The second they'd stopped laughing, Donnie, Mikey, and Miwa filled the other two in about what happened, and they hurried to find Leo.

 

As they searched they could see all the mushrooms in the sewers wilting around them until there was nothing left but dust.

 

They finally found Leo lying unconscious at the bottom of a cave in the middle of the dying fungus.

 

"Leo!" said April in alarm when she saw what state he was in.

 

"Leo!" whimpered Mikey, hurrying to hid big brother's side. "Dude? Speak to me, bro! Do you need mouth to mouth?"

 

That got a reaction. Leo's hand slapped onto Mikey's face, and he looked up at him dazedly. "Absolutely  _NOT!_ " he deadpanned. Then he clapped his other hand over his mouth as he started coughing.

 

"Well, he might not need mouth to mouth," said Donnie looking worried. "But he does need oxygen. Come on, let's get him back to my lab."

 

The others gathered around to help Leo up, but their leader had already fallen back into unconsciousness.

 

Casey and Mikey carried Leo out of the sewer, and April called to check in on Leatherhead and Mondo as well as tell them what had happened, and informing them where their groceries were still stashed.

 

The two mutants thanked them, and from the sound of things they were planning n chasing down an ice-cream truck for comfort food, mutant or no.

 

A few minutes later, Leo was awake again as Donnie strapped an oxygen mask over his face, and told him to take deep breaths until his airway cleared.

 

"What's wrong with him?" asked Miwa in concern as everyone but April (who had run home to her father the second they'd left the sewers) crowded in Donnie's lab to hear the verdict.

 

"He breathed in a lot more of the spores than the rest of us did," Donnie explained. "So much that they filled up his throat and lungs with gunk. But now that the mushrooms' effect is no longer a threat, he should be fine once it clears."

 

Leo pulled the mask from his face, and looked at his assembled team in concern. "You're all okay?" he asked, before a glare from Donnie had him placing the mask back on.

 

Raph nodded, and reached over to put a hand on Leo's shoulders. "Whatever you did, you saved us," he said. "All of us. Thanks, man."

 

All the rest who'd been affected by the spores nodded and added their own thanks.

 

Leo smiled at them. "No problem," he muttered behind the mask.

 

"Still," said Tang Shen, drawing everyone's attention to her. "It had to have been quite and ordeal you all went through. Is there anyone who would like to get anything off their chest?"

 

The teens hung their heads in silence for a few minutes. All of them trying to work up the courage to confess their fear.

 

It was Miwa who broke the silence. "I'm changing my codename," she announced.

 

They all looked at her in surprise.

 

"But you love your codename," Mikey protested. "You thought it had a good edge to it."

 

"I did," Miwa admitted. "But that was before… Before Shredder decided he wanted 'Karai' to be his daughter…"

 

She looked away as realization dawned on everyone's faces. "Ever since that creep came up to me and asked me to join him, I've been freaked out by the idea of how far he'd go to make me actually do it. Chrome Dome, case and point. His obsession with mother makes him want  _me_ … and that-that scares me…"

 

Yoshi immediately went over, and placed a comforting hand on his daughter's shoulder. "He will never have you, my daughter," he assured her. "Not so long as I have breath in my body. Remember, you are who  _you_ chose to be. The Shredder can never change that."

 

Miwa gave her father a small smile, but said, "Still, I do want to change my codename. Something we know the Shredder won't like."

 

"But what?" asked Mikey. "Your name's already Japanese, so it'd be weird if we translated it that way."

 

Miwa smirked. "Then I'll just take the opposite route you guys did. You translated your names from Italian to Japanese. I'll do the opposite. What would my name be in Italian?"

 

Donnie sat at his computer and looked it up. "Well, Miwa means harmony, and harmony in Italian is…"

 

Mikey, who had been reading over Donnie's shoulder, beat him to the punch. "Armonia!" he shouted, not wanting Donnie to steal his naming job again.

 

"Sounds like some kind of flower," said Casey.

 

"It's not," Donnie said bluntly.

 

Tang Shen smiled. "I think it sounds lovely."

 

Miwa nodded. "Perfect. Armonia it is."

 

Seeing Miwa confess her fear gave the others the courage to state their own fears.

 

"I was alone," Mikey said for his. "And I was being chased by a whole pack of Squirrelanoids. But it was the fact I couldn't find you guys that was the scariest part. I thought they'd eaten you."

 

"Donnie, you're sure your tests all say I'm not gonna go nuts like some of the other mutants do?" Raph asked reluctantly. "Ever since Slash I… I've been worried I might hurt you guys."

 

"I'm sure, Raph. You're as sane as you ever were as a human, don't worry about it," Donnie said reassuringly, before getting nervous. "And… do you blame me for, you know, mutating you and Slash? It's beginning to seem like everyone I get close too gets mutated."

 

"Donnie, those were accidents. They're not your fault, and I don't blame you," Raph replied.

 

"Aw man," Casey groaned when it got to his turn. "All your fears are, like, deep. All I saw was a ton of  _rats_."

 

"Everyone has their own fears," Tang Shen assured the hockey nut. "There is no shame in it."

 

Then it was Leo's turn, and his throat had finally cleared enough to take off his oxygen mask.

 

He then told his family and Casey of what had happened after they'd been frightened off. How he'd seen visions of his own failure, but managed to face his fear and defeat the monster mushroom.

 

"Impressive," said Yoshi when he was done. "And would you say you've mastered your fear?"

 

Leo shook his head, much to the surprise of the other teenagers. "No," he admitted. "I-I just faced it, Father."

 

Yoshi smiled proudly at him. "And that, Leonardo, is why you are a great leader," he said.

 

Everyone echoed the clan leader's statement, and Leo smiled bashfully at the praise.

 

He would always be willing to face his fears for people like them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed some of the fears. I figured the different life experiences these guys had would warrant different reactions. Miwa is repulsed by the idea of being the Shredder's daughter, but knows he will stop at nothing to make that happen, there was also a hint of a little something more, but we'll get to that later. In the show, Raph had spent his whole life as a turtle, so he knew he wasn't some monster, but this Raph is still a new mutant and is self-conscious about it all, plus there were still cockroaches in his vision. This Donnie doesn't need to worry about being a mutant affecting his chances with April, and instead focused more on the pattern that seems to be forming around him. April's dad didn't get mutated, so instead April focused on the recent information she'd just gotten on her past. Leo, Mikey, and Casey's fears stayed mostly the same. I also changed a few plotholes I noticed in the show, such as the turtles taking the already hysteric Raph and April back into the sewers when they could have stayed safe in the Lair with Splinter, as well as Donnie looking to make a cure, rather than just wandering the sewers for mushrooms, and Leo being fine despite breathing in so much gunk.


	24. Iron Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donnie fixes up Metalhead once again, just in time to stop a new Kraang plot.

Raph never thought he would actually miss school.

 

But crazy as it was, he really did. It wasn't the learning he missed (he was getting plenty of that from Professor Donatello and his study sessions). What he missed was the ability to actually  _do_ something other than laze around his house all day.

 

Feeling frustrated with sitting on his butt in his bedroom, Raph decided to cut through the sewers and visit his fellow mutants at the Lair. He may not be as close to those two as Mikey was, but it was at least something to do, even if they didn't want to hang out with him, the trip there and back would take up a chunk of his boring free time.

 

When he was halfway to the Lair, he heard the sound of yelling up ahead. Pausing for a second to listen, he recognized the voice to belong to Mondo.

 

So much for boring.

 

Hoping it wasn't another mutant mushroom thing, Raph drew his sais, and hurried towards the shouts.

 

When he got there, he saw Mongo Gecko surrounded by three Kraang, all of whom were leveling their blasters at him.

 

Mondo had his skateboard up in front of him like a shield, and he licked his eyes nervously. "Can't we talk about this?" he asked the Kraang hopefully.

 

But the Kraang only shot their blasters at him, making Mondo scream and jump away.

 

The Kraang turned to shoot at him again, only for a round green foot to fly out of the shadows, and knock the lead Kraang back into the other two, sending all three sprawling on the sewer floor.

 

Raph landed from his kick, and spun a sai casually in his hand. "The sewers are getting to be a pretty exciting place," he said casually to the fallen Kraang. "First mutant squirrels, then giant mushrooms, and now this."

 

"Dude! That was  _Radical!_ " cheered Mondo, hurrying to hide behind Raph. "But these creeps have been chasin' me, like, all day. I couldn't lead 'em back to the Lair, and no matter what I did, I couldn't shake 'em."

 

"I got this," Raph said confidentially, keeping his eye on the Kraang as they pulled themselves back to their feet. "You go hide, I'll turn these creeps into scrap metal."

 

Mondo nodded, and took off down a dark tunnel, leaving Raph to fight the aliens.

 

The expressions on the Kraang's human disguised faces were as blank as ever, as they turned their blasters onto him now that Mondo had escaped. For once not bothering with chitchat, the three immediately started shooting at him, making the turtle duck and dodge the lasers, while trying to get close enough to take them out.

 

Using the sewer wall as a springboard, Raph managed to jump over the Kraang's fire and land another kick to one's face.

 

Smirking as the robot went down, Raph had to duck as the others started shooting at him again, regardless of their comrade.

 

The turtle was so busy trying to avoid the laser fire that he didn't notice the Kraang he kicked wasn't out of commission yet. All of a sudden, Raph felt a hand close around his ankle, and before he could pull away, he found his foot pulled out from under him.

 

Raph groaned as his carapace hit the sewer floor, but the Kraang wasn't done yet. Still holding Raph's ankle, the Kraang swung the turtle like a ragdoll so that he hit the sewer wall hard. The Kraang slammed him against the concrete wall several times until it was convince Raph was unconscious. Then it dropped him to the floor, where Raph lay unmoving.

 

The three Kraang then turned their attention to the tunnel Mondo Gecko had run down. After a brief search one said, "The one that Kraang was pursuing to this place is no longer in this place, Kraang."

 

"Indeed," agreed another Kraang. "Kraang will have to pursue the one they pursued to this place at a time which is known as 'a later date'."

 

The third Kraang kept its attention on the unconscious form of Raphael. "Still, if Kraang had not pursued the one they pursued to this place, then Kraang would not have found the one of the ones known as the kids who is now a turtle."

 

"Indeed," agreed the first Kraang. "Kraang must now take the one of the kids who is a turtle to the place the turtle must be taken. Then Kraang may resume pursuing the one Kraang pursued to this place."

 

With that, the three Kraang dragged Raph away.

 

Within the dark sewer tunnel, a terrified Mondo Gecko clung to the ceiling, having witnessed the whole thing but was unable to help.

 

Once the Kraang were out of sight, Mondo dropped to the ground, and paused only long enough to snatch up his discarded skateboard, before taking off after the aliens.

 

He arrived on the surface in time to see the Kraang load Raph into one of their vans and drive away. The Gecko did his best to keep up on his skateboard from rooftop to rooftop, but it wasn't long before the van left him in the dust.

 

Stopping his skateboard on a high roof, Mondo searched frantically for any sign of the van, but it was nowhere in sight.

 

The gecko groaned. "Major bummer! I gotta tell the others," he said to himself, and took off towards the Lair.

 

________________________

 

At the Roosevelt High School Auto Shop classroom, Casey Jones checked to make sure the coast was clear, before unlocking a window and letting Donnie climb in, the genius pulling along a bulky blanket wrapped bundle as he went.

 

"Let's get this over with, man," Casey said, looking nervously at the classroom door. "Lunch break's not that long, and I could get in a lot of trouble if we're caught. We're not supposed to let people not taking this class in this room, ya know."

 

Donnie looked far from concerned. "Don't worry about it," he said, "I'm a ninja, remember. I won't get caught."

 

"What's so important that you need to be in here anyway?" asked Casey curiously. "Don't you have your own tools and equipment?"

 

Donnie nodded as he set his heavy bundle on a worktable. "Yeah, but Mikey stole a bunch of them for who knows what, and then lost them, and I'm a little worried about the state they'll be in if I ever get them back. Not to mention, I've got this great idea that I want to work on  _now_ , so it's either buy all new tools, or just borrow some of these."

 

With a flourish, Donnie pulled the blanket off to reveal robotic turtle sitting on the table. "Allow me to introduce you to my greatest invention, Metalhead," he said proudly. "Metalhead, this is Casey Jones," he added by way of introduction.

 

Metalhead turned to look at the other boy and gave him a thumbs-up.

 

Casey, however, was staring at the robot in surprise. "You built a little robot Raph?" he asked incredulously.

 

"Nah, I built Metalhead months before Raph mutated," Donnie replied as he pulled his laptop from his bag. He then paused and looked over Metalhead's physiology. "Although… now that you mention it, that is a pretty weird coincidence," Donnie muttered as he noticed the similarities between his mutant brother and his robot.

 

The genius then shrugged it off, and got to work. "But no, Metalhead's turtle shape wasn't based on Raph. It was based on Spike, who was crawling around when I was in my designing phase."

 

Casey nodded thoughtfully as he heard that. "It's too bad Spike died, though," he said sympathetically. "Raph really loved that little guy."

 

Donnie stopped working, and stared at Casey with an unreadable expression. "No one told you what happened to Spike, did they?" he asked rhetorically.

 

Casey looked at the genius in confusion. "Mikey told me he was gone. That's pet-code for he died, right?"

 

Donnie sighed, and turned his attention back to Metalhead. "Unfortunately, no," he explained as he worked. "Spike didn't die. He got into the mutagen I kept in my lab, and, well…"

 

"He  _mutated?"_  Casey finished, looking goggle-eyed.

 

"Yup," Donnie said.

 

Casey frowned, and leaned against the table Donnie was working on. "But wouldn't that mean he's still around?" he asked. "I mean, it's not like you guys are anti-mutant or anything. You just fight the evil ones."

 

Donnie frowned at Metalhead's circuitry. "The problem with that is, Spike, or as he now calls himself, Slash,  _is_  one of the evil ones," the genius replied darkly, making Casey stare at him. "You know how Raph would go to him to vent when he was upset. Well, Slash took all those words to heart, and thought we were treating Raph poorly. First thing he did when he mutated was try to off us all. Raph had to fight him to protect us." Donnie's face twisted into a grimace. "The worst part is, through out all of it, Slash only seemed to have Raph's best interests in mind. In some twisted way he was trying to protect him."

 

Casey frowned as he remembered something. "Was that why you came to school a few weeks back with your arm in a sling?" he asked, remembering seeing Donnie and the others supporting some nasty injuries when they came to school shortly before he'd learned the truth. "When you told everyone you guys got mugged?"

 

Donnie winced at the memory, and said, "Yeah, that was Slash's doing," he admitted.

 

Casey winced, but before he could say anything, they both heard the sound of the classroom door rattling as someone opened it.

 

Casey jumped at the sound, and looked at the opening door with horror. "Donnie, you gotta-" he started to say, but broke off when he saw that both Donnie and his robot were nowhere in sight.

 

The door swung the rest of the way open, and the shop class teacher stepped in. Spotting Casey, the teacher smiled. "Hello, Jones," he said.

 

Casey waved back and tried to look casual. "Uh, hey Mr. Burns. I'm just, um, cleaning up."

 

Mr. Burns nodded at him. "Well, I appreciate that Jones, but don't think it'll give you extra credit." The man shot him a smile. "Not that you need it, you're one of my best students."

 

"Thanks…" Casey said vaguely.

 

The teacher didn't notice. Instead he gathered up some papers from his desk, and walked back out the door.

 

"We'll need to work on your acting skills," said Donnie's voice right next to them.

 

Casey jumped again, and wheeled around to see Donnie working at the table again as though he'd never left.

 

"Dude, way to give a guy a heart attack!" Casey shouted.

 

Donnie sent him a smirk. "You better get used to it if you want to be on a team of ninjas," he replied.

 

With a few more adjustments, Donnie stepped back from Metalhead with a smile. "Done," he said brightly.

 

Casey looked the short robot over, and didn't really see any difference from before. "So what'd you do anyway?" he asked.

 

Donnie smirked. "Aside from some updates to his weapons an maneuverability, I've been upgrading his artificial intelligence so that he can do more things on his own without me guiding him. I originally planned to have him help me the others train, but Father vetoed the idea. He said that it'd be too hard to explain the plasma burns in the dojo to his students."

 

Casey looked at Metalhead skeptically. "Are you sure giving him AI is a good idea? What if he decides to go all HAL 9000 on us?"

 

"Aw, he wouldn't do that. Right, buddy?" Donnie said with a glace at Metalhead.

 

Metalhead gave him a thumbs-up.

 

"Besides," Donnie continued, "I installed protocols into him to keep him from harming people. Beat 'em up if they deserve it, sure, but not any lasting damage."

 

Casey still looked skeptical, but shrugged. "Whatever you say, D."

 

Donnie looked smug, but before he could say anything more his cell phone rang. Pulling it out, he answered it and promptly paled at what he heard.

 

Hanging up, he hurried back to the window and shoved it open. "Come on!" he yelled to Casey and Metalhead. "That was Mondo just now! Raph's in big trouble!"

 

Casey and the robot exchanged glances before taking off after him.

 

________________________

 

The teens gathered in the Lair to listen to Mondo's tale.

 

But as they waited for Mikey to arrive, Leo caught sight of Metalhead trailing behind Donnie and Casey. "What's he doing here, Donnie?" he asked in a disapproving tone. While he understood Metalhead was Donnie's favorite invention, he didn't have much patience for when the robot would inevitably glitch or break.

 

"I was working on him at school when I got the call, I didn't want to go home to drop him off before coming here," Donnie replied.

 

"I thought you said-" Casey started to say, but Donnie elbowed him in the gut to shut him up.

 

Once Leo turned away, Donnie turned to Casey and whispered. "Yeah, I did bring Metalhead to help, but Leo's… iffy about him, and if I said I brought him on purpose he'd go all leader lecture mode."

 

Casey raised an eyebrow at Donnie, but kept quiet.

 

Then Mikey finally skated in on his board, out of breath and worried. With everyone gathered, Mondo Gecko told them all about what he'd gone through earlier.

 

"And you just let them take him away?" asked Miwa scathingly.

 

Mondo wilted. "I totally didn't want them too. But I couldn't do anything. I tried following the van, but it disappeared. Poof!"

 

Miwa gave him a sour look, but Leo stepped between them. "It's not Mondo's fault, Miwa," he said. "He wouldn't have stood a chance against those guys, and if he hadn't run, then who knows when we'd figure out Raph was missing. Right now let's just focus on getting him back."

 

"Why did the Kraang want you anyway?" Mikey asked his friend curiously. "Did you do something to them?"

 

"Nah, man," replied Mondo. "I was just practicing on my skateboard in the sewer pipes, and they just showed up. Although…" he paused and thought about it. "From what one of them said, I don't think they were looking for me specifically. It sounded like they were down here hunting mutants in general."

 

"Well, that doesn't sound good," said April.

 

Leo looked over at Leatherhead. "Do you have any ideas why they might be after mutants, LH?"

 

Leatherhead growled. "There could be any number of reasons," he said darkly. "They could wish to experiment on their mutations to perfect the mutagen. They could be forcing them into slavery, or to turn them into some type of army. It might even be that they just enjoy torturing them for fun. There is no low the Kraang will not stoop too."

 

The Hamato siblings paled as they heard what might be in store for their brother. The rest didn't look much better.

 

"We gotta find him now!" Casey insisted worriedly.

 

Miwa tapped her chin thoughtfully, then looked over at Mondo. "You said they were after you initially, right?"

 

Mondo shifted uneasily under the kunoichi's gaze. "Uh, yeah," he said.

 

Miwa then smirked at him sinisterly. "In that case I have a plan."

 

Mondo Gecko gulped. Something told him he most definitely wouldn't like this plan.

 

________________________

 

Raph slowly came too to the sensation that someone was dragging him along the floor on his shell. He groaned and pinched his eyes tighter shut. Pain was pounding in his skull, and it felt like he'd been hit by a truck. Why did it hurt so much…?

 

Raph's eyes snapped open as the memories of what happened came flooding back to him. Mondo, the Kraang, getting thrown against a wall.

 

The sight that met his eyes when he opened them was anything but reassuring.

 

He was being dragged through what looked like a Kraang prison. The place reminded Raph of an evil snow globe, with a Kraang Control center on the bottom, and a large glass dome stretching above it, keeping the prison contained and giving a view of glittering stars off in the distance. Above him were dozens of floating prison cells with cylindrical pink force fields trapping the prisoners inside. At the very top, a large pink vortex swirled ominously.

 

Before Raph could get his bearings, he was thrown forward onto a platform. The second he landed on it, a pink force field came down around him trapping him inside.

 

Raph forced himself to his feet, and began stabbed at the portal with his sai. When that didn't work, he began attacking it with his fists, but it didn't even leave a mark.

 

Outside he could hear the sound of the Kraang talking to each other.

 

"Kraang has done good work capturing one of the ones called the kids," said one Kraang to the other.

 

"Indeed," agreed the other Kraang. "The one known as the Shredder will be quite please when Kraang delivers the kid known as Iyasa to the one called the Shredder."

 

"Delivery of the one called Iyasa will be done in the time that is known as later. After Kraang finishes capturing all other mutants to be used by Kraang as slaves," the first Kraang concluded.

 

"No Way!" snarled Raph, beating on the force field with all his might. "When I get out of here, I'm gonna rip your slimy-!"

 

Raph was cut off when one of the Kraang pointed its blaster at him. But instead of the usual blaster, this one had a round pink dot at the end.

 

"The one known as Iyasa will do that which is called 'shut up'," said the Kraang with the blaster, and fired it at Raph's head.

 

Raph yelled in pain as the dot latched itself to his head, sending a shock through his system, and making him slump to the floor of his cell.

 

He immediately tried to get himself back to his feet and yell some more, but found that his body wouldn't move. No matter how hard he tried, his body would do nothing but sit still with his eyes white behind his second eyelids. All he could do was watch as the Kraang stepped back, and his cell rose up to join the others hovering above their heads.

 

________________________

 

Mondo Gecko definitely did not like this plan.

 

"Er, helloooo!" he called as he wandered around the sewer near where Raph had been captured. "Major evil Kraang dudes, I'm right here?"

 

He waited a few seconds, and nothing happened.

 

"This is totally bogus, you guys!" Mondo called back to where the others were hiding.

 

"SHHHHHHHH!" hissed the ninjas, irritated that he gave away their hiding spot.

 

"Look, it's simple, Mondo," said Leo. "You act as bait, and we'll take out the Kraang when they get here and make them tell us where they took Raph."

 

"Yeah but, does it gotta be  _me_  who's bait?" Mondo whined.

 

"Well, yes," said Donnie. "You're the only mutant here aside from Leatherhead, and the Kraang have a kill on sight order out for LH."

 

Casey shot Leatherhead an impressed look. "You've ticked off these alien freaks that much?" he asked.

 

Leatherhead nodded, and looked somewhat proud. "It seems they are quite terrified of me."

 

"Look the point is, you're the only one who works as bait," said Miwa, making a shooing motion at him. "So be bait."

 

"Sorry, bro," said Mikey apologetically. "I'll make it up to you later."

 

"Trust me, I know your pain," added April, remembering when they'd had her play bait to catch Pigeon Pete.

 

Mondo Gecko let out a frustrated sight. "This is turning out to be a mondo bummer, dudes," he grumbled.

 

As he began wandering the sewer again, he caught sight of two glowing blue eyes in one of the tunnels. Looking closer, he could vaguely make out Donnie's robot turtle hiding in the shadows.

 

"Yo, Donnie, is that your bot?!" he called to the purple wearing ninja.

 

Leo shot a glare at his younger brother. "You brought that thing along?" he asked in exasperation.

 

Donnie shrugged sheepishly. "I thought he could help. I've been upgrading him, and-"

 

Donnie was cut off when Mondo suddenly let out a yelp of fear.

 

"The Kraang Are Back!" he yelled, running back towards them. "THE KRAANG ARE BACK!"

 

The teens and Leatherhead burst out of their hiding spot, and began taking on the Kraang bots. More had come this time, but they were no match for the six teens and the mutant alligator.

 

Seeing this, the Kraang ordered a retreat, and began running back out of the tunnels.

 

"After them!" Leo ordered, and they started to run after the aliens.

 

But before they got far, one of the Kraang turned back and fired its blaster towards the ceiling. The concrete cracked from the blasts, and the tunnel started to cave in.

 

"Get Back!" yelled Miwa, and the team eagerly complied and ran for cover.

 

When the ceiling finally settled, the teens and mutants were left choking on dust.

 

"Everyone alright?!" April called out.

 

Slowly everyone called affirmatives. They were filthy and bruised, but they were alive.

 

Donnie looked around at the gathered group, and noticed something missing. "Hey wait a minute!" he said looking again, frantically this time. "Where's Metalhead?"

 

________________________

 

There were three things that Metalhead knew for certain in his short time functioning.

 

The first was that his creator, Donatello, was good, and was always looking out for him and fixing him when he broke.

 

Two, Donatello had others who lived with him called a Family consisting of a father, a mother, a sister, and three brothers. Donatello cared very much for these people, and would do anything to protect them. The same also seemed to be extending to those he called Friends as well.

 

And Three, the other robots with pink brain-like creatures were called the Kraang, and they were very bad and wanted to harm Donatello and his family.

 

One of the Kraang had once forced Metalhead to attack those Donatello cared about, and made Donatello have to break him to get him to stop. They also were responsible for the strange creatures that Donatello and the others often encountered, as well as turning one of Donatello's brothers, Raphael, into a giant turtle.

 

So when Metalhead processed that the Kraang had captured Raphael and taken him to someplace unknown, the short robot decided to assist his creator in finding him.

 

When the plan Donatello's sister, Miwa, concocted had failed, Metalhead had seen an opportunity to follow the Kraang, and took it. The odds were high that by following them he would be led to where Raphael was being kept.

 

So Metalhead followed the Kraang until he saw them enter a porta potty in an abandoned lot.

 

Metalhead found this an illogical course of action for them to take. His internal computers told him very clearly what a porta potty's purpose was, and what information he could find on Kraang physiology told him that the alien creatures would have no use for such facilities. It was also physically impossible for so many Kraang to fit inside that one cramped space.

 

Seeing no other way to solve this enigma then to observe for himself, Metalhead strode over to the porta potty and opened the door.

 

What greeted his sensors was a swirling pink vortex. That explained things.

 

Metalhead quickly updated his computer databases about this new function of porta potties, and sent the coordinates of the portal's location to his creator, before stepping through the portal himself. Odds where high that Raphael was located on the other side.

 

________________________

 

In South Carolina, a bored high school student was browsing Wikipedia on her computer when she really should have been doing classwork.

 

For the hell of it, she clicked on a link about porta potties and skimmed the web page.

 

She did a double take and nearly fell out of her chair as she read a section at the end.

 

"Porta potties can also be used to access inter-dimensional portals?" she read aloud incredulously. "What the hell?"

 

The sound of someone clearing their throat behind her made the student look around and realize she was now the center of attention.

 

"Is there something you want to share with the class?" asked her teacher in an unimpressed tone.

 

The girl let out an embarrassed squeak, and quickly pulled up the work she was supposed to be doing onto her computer, her face burning bright red.

 

________________________

 

Back in the sewers, Donnie was still searching for his robot as the others debated a new strategy to find Raph.

 

All of a sudden, Donnie heard his phone go off. Pulling it out and reading the text, his eyes widened.

 

"Guys!" he called getting the others' attention. "I just got a text from Metalhead! He says he followed the Kraang and found a portal they'd hidden not far from here. That might be where they're keeping Raph!"

 

Leo looked skeptical. "Or, the Kraang could have found Metalhead, and programed it to send you that text as part of a trap," he pointed out.

 

Donnie frowned. "Either way, it's more than we had before."

 

Leo had to give him that, and they all hurried towards the coordinates Metalhead had sent.

 

________________________

 

Raph had never known sitting in one position for so long could be so boring. It was getting to the point he'd kiss the Shredder if it got him a different view of things.

 

But without the ability to move his body other than to blink, Raph had to entertain himself with the view he'd been given.

 

His cell in the prison was one of the highest up, giving him a good view of the place. At first he'd tried to use it to his advantage and use what he saw to form an escape plan. But five escape plans later he gave up on that idea. There wasn't much point thinking of ways to escape if he couldn't even move to use them.

 

So instead he spent his time internally counting all the different mutants he could see floating in the other cells below him.

 

' _Snakeweed. Rockwell (I wonder why the Kraang dragged him off somewhere an hour ago, not for anything good, that's for sure). Pigeon Pete (no surprise he's here). Dammit, that's one of those wasp things, I thought we splattered those. Is-is that Justin? Just great. Squirrelanoid. Metalhead- **Wait METALHEAD?"**_

 

If Raph could, he'd be staring in shock as his brother's robot hopped onto the platform of his cell. Metalhead knocked his fist against the force field, and seemed to scan the entire thing. Then the short robot looked at Raph and gave him a thumbs-up.

 

Raph struggled harder than ever to give some sort of response.  _'No, things are not okay, you tin can! Is Donnie here?'_ he thought furiously, but his outward appearance didn't change in the slightest.

 

Unfortunately, Donnie didn't program Metalhead to be a mind reader. Still the robot seemed to see that something was wrong, and slowly he turned his thumbs-up to a thumbs-down.

 

' _Now you're getting the picture,'_ Raph thought bitterly.

 

But before Metalhead could do anything, a new voice rang out through the prison.

 

"Just wait till I get out of here!" came an angry yell below them.

 

' _Spike?!'_

 

Metalhead moved so that he was out of sight, but still able to observe what was happening below.

 

From the corner of his eye, Raph could see his former pet turtle being shoved by Kraang with electric rods towards another cell.

 

The massive turtle was not at all happy about this. "When I do, I'm gonna break every tentacle in your-!" Slash broke off as he glanced up and happened to catch sight of Raph's cell.

 

"Ra-Iyasa!" Slash called at the sight, only just remembering to use the codename. "Iyasa! Can you hear me?!"

 

But Raph could give no response, just sit there and stare like he'd been doing for the last few hours.

 

"IYASA!" yelled Slash again, rage overtaking his features. He rounded on the Kraang regardless of the weapons they had pointed at him. "What have you done to him?! You Monsters!" he roared as he threw himself at the aliens.

 

Taken by surprise, the Kraang were slow to react, giving Slash an opportunity to crush several before they could aim their blasters at him again.

 

' _Slash, Watch Out?'_ Raph wanted to shout. He hated that he couldn't do anything to help.

 

Metalhead scanned the scene below and seemed to be thinking about something. Suddenly, Metalhead's mouth popped open and he replayed an audio clip he'd recorded earlier that day. "Through out all of it, Slash only seemed to have Raph's best interests in mind," said Donnie voice over the speaker. "In some twisted way he was trying to protect him."

 

' _What the heck?'_ Raph had to wonder.

 

But Metalhead seemed to make up his mind, and he dove off Raph's cell platform towards the fight below. He sent his fist rocketing towards the Kraang aiming at Slash ramming it into the other robots' heads, sending them sprawling to the floor.

 

Slash stared at the robotic terrapin as it flew down next to him. "Metalhead?" he asked in surprise.

 

Metalhead let out a chirping sound and gave Slash a thumb-up. Then he turned his hand into a plasma cannon and started shooting some of the remaining Kraang.

 

Slash laughed at the sight. "Now that's what I'm talking about," he said as he watched the Kraang fall under the fire.

 

Given some breathing room for them moment, Slash looked down at the short robot. "Do you know what's wrong with R-Iyasa?" he asked in concern.

 

Metalhead shook his head, and turned to the control panel of the prison to find out.

 

"Are the others nearby?" Slash asked, scanning the area for Raph's siblings.

 

Metalhead looked at him and made an unsure sounding warble, and plugged himself into the control panel.

 

"I'll take that as a no," said Slash, picking up one of the Kraang's blasters to use as a melee weapon to replace the mace they had taken when they had captured him.

 

Just then the portal opened and more Kraang came pouring in.

 

"Oh, that's not good," said Slash as he prepared himself for the oncoming fight.

 

Still plugged into the control panel, Metalhead shifted his other arm back into a plasma cannon and made an affirmative sounding beep.

 

________________________

 

Back in New York, Donnie led the team to the coordinates Metalhead had sent him.

 

"It should be right around… here!" Donnie said as he followed his GPS to the exact spot Metalhead had told him to go.

 

"Uh, Donnie?" said April, sounding unsure.

 

Donnie looked up from his GPS and saw that he was standing directly in front of a porta potty. "What the heck?" Donnie said in surprise. Hesitantly he reached out and opened the john, revealing nothing but the disgusting inside of a public porta potty.

 

"Maybe Metalhead had to change his oil," suggested Casey.

 

But Mikey's eyes lit up, and he snapped his fingers. "Wait! I saw this in a magic show."

 

The youngest ninja stepped forward and poked his head in the bathroom. "There's a secret door down here," he said pointing down the toilet. He then peered down it and called out, "Helloooo!"

 

Mikey then quickly reeled back when the smell hit him and slammed the door to the porta potty shut. "Ugghhh," he groaned as he clapped his hands over his nose and mouth. "Definitely not a secret door!" He coughed and gagged. "I think I'm gonna hurl."

 

He opened the door again to use the porta potty, only to completely forget his nausea at the sight before him.

 

The others gapped at the sight of the swirling pink vortex in front of them. Panicking at the sight, Mikey slammed the door back shut.

 

"What was that?" asked Leo in shock.

 

"The portal!" gasped April. "Just like Metalhead said."

 

"They stick portals in those things?" Mondo asked Leatherhead incredulously.

 

"They would hide them anywhere they believed humans would not stumble across them," the alligator replied.

 

"Well, from what that porta potty looked like before the vortex, I'd say it's a pretty good hiding spot," Miwa deadpanned.

 

April nodded in agreement, her nose wrinkled in disgust. "The smell alone would keep most people away."

 

Donnie leaned in to examine the porta-potty. "Fascinating," he said. He the opened the door again to get a better look at the portal, only to once again be greeted by the disgusting sight of the public bathroom.

 

Frowning, Donnie shut the door again and began tapping it for a secret mechanism. "I don't understand," he muttered to himself. "It-it was just-"

 

Looking at the neighboring porta potties for some answers, Mikey opened the door again, once again revealing the portal. Mikey blinked then gave a flourish of his hands. "Ta-Daaa!"

 

Donnie blinked in surprise, and shut the door again. Then he opened and closed it several times but never once was greeted by the portal. "How did you do that?" he asked Mikey.

 

Mikey grinned. "I just got the touch," he said, opening the door again to reveal the portal.

 

Donnie pouted at the sight.

 

"Let it go, Donnie," said Leo. "It's probably another Kraang thing that Mikey's good at."

 

Donnie nodded, and stepped forward to examine the portal. "It's weird, before Mikey opened it I saw no indication that there would be a portal here. No Kraang tech or anything."

 

"Then the Kraang have improved their portal technology," growled Leatherhead. "It may be soon that they do not need the large one in TCRI."

 

"Well, that's not good," grumbled Miwa. "If these guys can just pop up anywhere, how are we supposed to stop them?"

 

The others shared uneasy glances, unsure how to answer her question.

 

Donnie, meanwhile, reached out to touch the portal. His finger went in and pulled out without trouble, but when Donnie pushed more of his hand in, he suddenly found himself being sucked in.

 

"Whoa! Guys!" he yelled as he felt himself be dragged towards the portal.

 

Leo and Leatherhead jumped forward and grabbed him, dragging him back out of the portal.

 

"You okay, Donnie?" Leo asked once his brother was free.

 

Donnie flexed his hand a few times, but nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay." He the looked the portal over again. "Through there is probably where Metalhead is. And there's a good chance that's where the Kraang took Raph as well."

 

Leo looked at the portal and nodded. "Okay, Donnie, Miwa, Mikey, and Casey, you guys come with me through the portal and get Raph. Leatherhead, April, and Mondo, you guys stand guard out here, in case more Kraang come. We're rather not have more showing up while we're trying to spring Raph."

 

Everyone nodded, and the teens eyed the portal nervously.

 

"Well, ladies first," said Casey nervously to Miwa.

 

Miwa smirked a put a hand on Casey's shoulder. "Oh, I quite agree."

 

She then shoved Casey into the portal first, and dove in after him. Her brothers exchanged glances before jumping in as well.

 

The portal closed behind them, leaving April and the two mutants alone in the alleyway.

 

________________________

 

Slash knew he and Metalhead were in trouble. For every Kraang they took down, four more seemed to show up in its place. Metalhead lacked maneuverability, as he had to stay plugged into the Kraang computer in order to find out how to save Raph, leaving Slash to try and clobber all the Kraang before they got too close to the control panel.

 

"If something doesn't change soon, we're done for!" Slash yelled over to Metalhead while holding up two empty Kraang bodies in front of his as a shield from the laser fire. "Got any bright ideas yet?"

 

Metalhead chirped as he processed a new set of information and pointed his free hand up towards the portal.

 

Slash looked up in time to see the vortex open and Raph's siblings and best friend come tumbling out of it.

 

"That could work," Slash admitted grudgingly.

 

Casey landed hard on one of the prison cell platforms, and the rest landed on the floor near Slash. Most of them managed to roll off the fall, but Mikey belly-flopped hard onto several of the attacking Kraang, taking them out.

 

"About time you showed up," Slash yelled scathingly at them.

 

Their eyes widened at the sight of him, and watched him wearily while dodging the Kraang's fire.

 

"What are you doing here, Slash?" demanded Leo, drawing his swords to slash through an approaching Kraang, all the while keeping a weary eye on the large turtle.

 

"What's it look like?" Slash snapped as he clubbed a Kraang over the head. "These chumps got the drop on me and brought me here."

 

"And we're just supposed to help you?" snarled Miwa as she sliced through a Kraang with her tantō.

 

"I don't need your help!" Slash growled back. He then jabbed a thumb up towards Raph's cell. "Him, on the other hand…"

 

The ninjas looked up to see all the caged mutants and their brother slumped inside a pink force field. "Iyasa!" shouted Donnie.

 

But Raph was silent.

 

"I already tried that. He's not answering," snapped Slash.

 

Leo turned his attention to Casey. "Nightwatcher! Go check on him!"

 

"Right," Casey called back, and began jumping from cell to cell in order to reach the turtle, occasionally dropping an exploding puck into the battle below.

 

When he reached the cell, he beat his fists against the force field and shouted, "Iyasa! Dude, wake up!"

 

Raph could only blink slowly in reply.

 

Turning to look back over the side, Casey yelled, "Guys! Something's wrong! He's not moving!"

 

"Is he-?" yelled Mikey, worried that the worst might have happened.

 

"Nah, he's still breathing!" Casey yelled back. "But there's some weird metal thing on his head! I think it's messing with him, or something!"

 

"It's probably one of the Kraang's mind control probes!" yelled Donnie to the rest as he stabbed a Kraang with his naginata. "Like they tried to use on Mr. O'Neil!"

 

"We gotta get that off him!" shouted Miwa.

 

Leo looked at his youngest brother. "Tenshi, go help Metalhead at the control panel! We need to get the control probes off him and the other mutants and get them out of those cages!"

 

"I'm on it!" cheered Mikey as he back flipped over to stand beside Metalhead. He flashed the robot a grin. "Well, hello governor. How shall we mess with the Kraang today?" he asked in a fake British accent.

 

Metalhead let out a series of beeps in reply.

 

"Smashing!" said Mikey, still keeping the accent as he cracked his knuckles and began mashing buttons on the control panel with seemingly no rhyme or reason.

 

As the others fought around them, Mikey and Metalhead found the information they were looking for. "Awesome!" cheered Mike when he saw the solution. He turned to the others and yelled. "Guys! Toss me a Kraang arm!"

 

As soon as he asked, Slash ripped off said appendage of the Kraang he was fighting and tossed it towards the orange wearing ninja.

 

"Thank you!" Mikey sang as he handed the arm to Metalhead. "Would you care to do the honors?"

 

Metalhead took the arm, and placed it on a glowing pink ball in the center of the control panel.

 

Instantly the mutants began shifting in their cages, and attacking the control probes on their heads.

 

Raph found himself beating his fist against his own head until the probe was crushed beneath his knuckles. Yanking the remains off his head with a groan, he got to his feet, and looked out at Casey.

 

"You okay, man?" Casey asked.

 

"I'll be fine," Raph said, placing his hands against the force field. "Just get me out of this thing."

 

From bellow, Mikey gave one of his fingers a lick, then slammed it onto the release button, shutting down all the force fields on the cells.

 

Raph grinned as he was granted his freedom, and jumped out of the cell.

 

"Ready to go bust some heads?" Casey asked as he got ready to jump off the platform.

 

"Born ready," Raph agreed, and they both leapt down to the battle below.

 

The Kraang soon found themselves facing overwhelming odds. Not only were the kids messing up their plans once again, but all the prisoners they had gathered were now running amuck, and none of them had been happy about their capture.

 

"The Kraang must do the action that is known as retreat!" ordered one of the Kraang finally, and they all flooded up towards the portal above. One of the Kraang managed to get close enough to the control panel to hit some things to open the portal, and all of the Kraang fled the facility, many of the mutants chasing after them.

 

Mikey paled at the readings he received, and hurried to set the portal to say open, before he started climbing towards it as well. "Guys, we've gotta bail!" he yelled to the rest. "That Kraang just set this whole place to blow in three minutes!"

 

The teens and remaining mutants didn't hesitate to follow him up to the portal, Metalhead bringing up the rear to shoot down the few remaining Kraang that were to damaged to reach the portal.

 

Then the entire place was engulfed in a fiery explosion.

 

________________________

 

In the alley where April, Leatherhead, and Mondo had been left to stand guard, they had had their hands full when suddenly several Kraang had come spilling out of the portal in the porta potty.

 

April and Leatherhead made sure none of the Kraang left the alley intact, and Mondo used his long tongue to disarm the aliens to make the fight easier.

 

Just as they were finishing off the last Kraang, two more figures bust out of the portal.

 

" **FREEDOM!"** bellowed Pigeon Pete as he took to the skies, so happy to be out of the Kraang prison that he didn't even notice the other three.

 

Dr. Rockwell came out after him, and screeched at the sight of April and the other mutants, before climbing a fire escape and taking off across the rooftops.

 

"What was that?" asked Mondo to confirm if he'd just seen what he thought he'd seen.

 

"That was Pigeon Pete and Dr. Rockwell," April explained. "They're some mutants the others and I met before. They're harmless for the most part, and they just want to be left alone."

 

Leatherhead had been watching where the other two mutants had vanished. "That is a shame," he said. "In my time here, I have found that it is better for those like us not to be alone."

 

Mondo shot Leatherhead an odd look. "You wanna offer them space at our pad?" he asked.

 

The alligator shrugged. "Perhaps one day," he admitted. "It is good to have friends."

 

Just then the porta potty began shaking in its spot.

 

The others turned and watched as the porta potty lifted itself up in the air and seemed to twist in on itself before winking out of sight.

 

April's face etched into a worried expression. "The others!" she said fearfully. She then reached for her phone and prayed that someone would answer.

 

________________________

 

Metalhead burst through the portal just before the prison blew. The exit of the portal was a mailbox a few blocks from the porta potty was, and once the robot was out, the mailbox twisted and winked out of existence.

 

The six teens lay groaning on the ground, and the mutants scattered in their own directions.

 

Miwa groaned as she sat up, grateful she'd landed on something soft when flying out of the portal. She looked down to see that she was lying on top of Casey, who was missing his mask and staring back at her with an equally surprised expression.

 

Then the vigilante's face broke into a smirk. "Comfortable, Babe?" he asked.

 

Miwa rolled her eyes, and got up off him, making sure to jam her knee into his stomach as she did so, causing Casey to groan in pain. She was distracted from any scathing remarks she might have given when she heard her cell phone start ringing, and reached into her pocket to answer it and assure a frantic April that they were all okay.

 

Meanwhile, Raph pushed himself into a sitting position and looked up to see Slash standing over him, observing his siblings with an odd look in his eyes.

 

"Maybe… maybe I was wrong about them," the larger mutant admitted reluctantly. "We both would have been toast if they hadn't shown up."

 

Raph sent his former pet a wry grin. "Spike-" he started to say, but the other turtle was already taking off into the night.

 

Shaking his head, Raph pushed himself to his feet, and went to help Casey (who was still moaning dramatically at Miwa's feet) get up.

 

"Urgh, remind me to never travel by portal again, especially with your sister," the vigilante said. "I've ridden rollercoasters that are tamer."

 

"I hear that," Mikey agreed from his sprawled position, looking sick. "No rollercoaster out there beats Miwa."

 

Miwa shot them all dirty looks, and kicked Casey's feet back out from under him, sending him sprawling again.

 

Meanwhile, Leo and Donnie were both being helped to their feet by Metalhead.

 

Seeing the look on Donnie's face, Leo sighed. "Alright, I'll admit it," he said with a small smile. "Metalhead did good tonight. Heck, if it wasn't for him we may have never found Raph. Thanks, Donnie."

 

Donnie grinned proudly down at his invention. "Don't thank me, thank Metalhead."

 

He then knelt down to speak to his robot. "I know I programmed you to be intelligent, but I didn't realize 'til now how much you've evolved," he said to his creation. "I'm proud of you, Metalhead."

 

Metalhead let out a happy sounding whirr.

 

"So, Metalhead, would you like to start helping out on more missions?" Leo asked the robot.

 

Metalhead looked up at him and gave a thumbs-up in reply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of changes here. Some development on Donnie and Casey's friendship, some development with Slash, Metalhead getting saved, what do you think of it all. It started with me wondering what would happen if Raph had been the one captured in the sewers (since Spider Bytz didn't get mutated in this fic, he's still a fat, angry, old guy with his butt in front of the TV), and just evolved from there.


	25. Earthquakes, Portals, and Worms, Oh My! Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are shaking up in New York City, in more ways than one.

After the fiasco at the Kraang prison, things only started to heat up for New York City, and as always the Hamato Clan was at the dead center of it.

 

Not even a week past before the next disaster occurred. The Rat King made a reappearance, once again commanding every rat in the city to attack the people above.

 

The difference was that this time the Rat King had somehow gained access to mutagen, and planed to mutate the entire world into rat people, allowing him to rule over them all.

 

But with the team's combined efforts (even Casey, despite his overwhelming fear of rats) they were able to fight the maniac off, and rescue the hostages his rat minions had grabbed, including Mikey and April's friend Irma.

 

"How'd you guys find us?" Irma asked as April led the civilians to safety.

 

April glanced over to where Leatherhead was barely concealed in his attacks on the Rat Kings first experimental rat mutants.

 

"Let's just say I know someone who knows these tunnels really well," April replied.

 

After another fight with the Rat King and his forces they managed to defeat the insane scientist, and the last they saw of him he was tumbling over the edge of a cliff.

 

On another note, on the same day the Rat King tried to take over, April brought a stray cat she'd found to the dojo in hopes the Hamatos could take it in.

 

Mikey had loved the animal instantly, and let it lap at the ice cream cone he'd brought down to the lab for the group study session.

 

Unfortunately, this had unforeseen, but completely predictable consequences.

 

Miwa massaged her forehead. "Let me get this straight," she said. "April gave you a cat, and not even five minutes into owning her, you got her mutated her into…  _this?"_

 

Miwa pointed inside the open freezer in the kitchen. Inside was a cat made entirely out of Neapolitan ice cream.

 

The cat wobbled and let out a happy sounding meow.

 

Mikey twiddled his thumbs and looked sheepish. "Uh yes," he said in a tiny voice.

 

Miwa groaned and rubbed her forehead. "Well, at least now Donnie has his retro-mutagen guinea pig."

 

Mikey's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, and he scooped up his cat and hugged it to his chest protectively.

 

The Hamato family later found Mikey trying to smuggle the entire refrigerator into his room to protect his new pet from being experimented on, and didn't calm down until Donnie had sworn on pizza, his honor, their grandparents' graves, and their pinkie fingers that he would not experiment on the cat.

 

________________________

 

After that, things were quiet for a few days. But then things started shaking up, literally.

 

It was an average night at the Renaissance Dojo. Yoshi was leading his last kendo class for the evening in Ji geiko (practice spars) before they cooled down for the evening.

 

Yoshi stood at the head of the room watching his students pair up and practice against each other, occasionally calling out for them to stop and switch partners.

 

Just as he was about to order the end of the class, the ground suddenly started shaking violently beneath their feet.

 

"Get under the doorways and stairs! Keep your heads down, and your hands over the backs of your necks!" Yoshi ordered, and the students crowded into the area beneath the door, and under the stairway to the upper level of the dojo until the shaking subsided.

 

"What was that, Master Splinter?" asked one of his students once it had stopped.

 

"An… earthquake?" said Yoshi, voicing it more as a question than a response.

 

"In New York?" asked another student skeptically. "That's unlikely."

 

"Then what else could it be, genius?" asked a third student sarcastically.

 

' _What indeed,'_ thought Yoshi, having a sinking suspicion that there was more to the quake than it seemed.

 

But without any answers to his students, he ended the class and sent them on their way with a warning to be more careful. Things were no doubt about to become far more dangerous for everyone.

 

________________________

 

Within Foot Headquarters, the assembled Foot Ninja bowed as the Shredder stalked through them and sat himself down on his throne. He then looked down upon his three hench-mutants, who were kneeling at the foot of the stairs before him.

 

"Are all the preparations made?" the Shredder asked his minions in a tone that made it clear any a negative answer would be met with dire consequences.

 

"All is as you requested Master Shredder," said Tiger Claw, glancing up at his master as he did so. "The Kraang have agreed to your terms, and will prepare the trap to your specifications."

 

"Excellent," said the Shredder, turning his throne to stare out the window over the city. "If all goes as planned, by this time tomorrow Tang Shen and her children will be  _mine_."

 

Behind him, his minions snapped to attention, and marched out of the room to begin the proceedings.

 

________________________

 

In Donatello's basement lab, the genius in question was working diligently at his computer to discover the source of the recent shaking, his siblings watching him from over his shoulder.

 

"So what have you found, Donnie?" Leo asked when he saw his brother stop typing.

 

"I've been graphing the earthquake epicenters," Donnie explained, pointing at his computer as he did so. "They're happening in a pattern that's not at all random."

 

'Well, whatever it is, I don't like it," Mikey declared, looking disgruntled. "The guys down at the Lair sent me a text. Those stupid quakes made the tunnels around their home collapse. Leatherhead and Mondo are both stuck down there clearing it out some of the debris so they don't always have to take the long way when they want to come and visit."

 

"Are they alright?" asked Miwa.

 

"They're fine, LH says the Lair is sturdy enough," said Mikey. "Just a lot of collapsed tunnels between there and here."

 

"Well, that doesn't sound good," said Donnie with a frown. Then he looked over at Metalhead. "Hey, Metalhead, do you mind going to help them out?" he asked.

 

Metalhead gave them a thumbs-up, and left down the secret passageway to start clearing the rubble.

 

"Thanks, Robo-dude!" Mikey called after him.

 

Once he was gone, Donnie turned his attention back to his computer and continued his explanation. "Another thing that's strange is I'm getting weird energy readings under the epicenter. It looks like some kind of tech is causing the quakes."

 

Raph shared a knowing look with the rest of his siblings. "You guys thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked.

 

Leo and Miwa nodded, but Mikey looked clueless. "Kitties?" the youngest asked innocently.

 

With a growl of annoyance, Raph smacked his little brother on the head. "Mikey, who has that kind of technology?" Raph asked in exasperation.

 

Mikey thought hard for a moment before his face lit up. "Kitties with tools," he said happily.

 

Raph smacked him again. "The Kraang, nimrod," he growled.

 

"Oh, right," said Mikey, looking like that thought had just occurred to him.

 

The others rolled their eyes and started planning their investigation on the Kraang's latest plot.

 

________________________

 

While April had been let on more missions after their most recent assault on TCRI, she still felt the need to prove herself.

 

So in order to do that, she secretly started doing patrols on her own around her neighborhood. Nothing too dangerous, she wasn't stupid. Just a run around the rooftops on her block each night to make sure the area was still safe.

 

Despite the earlier quakes, it was looking to be a regular night. The neighborhood was as quiet as any in New York City could be, and there was not even a Purple Dragon in sight.

 

She had just been about to head in when she got the sense that someone was following her.

 

Making sure not to show that she'd realized her stalker was there, April hurried along the roofs and quickly ducked into a dark corner to wait for him to pass.

 

As the one following her got close, she leapt from the shadows with a yell, kicked the stalker's feet out from under him, and pinned him to the ground with her tessen at his throat.

 

Below her, a familiar hockey mask-wearing figure looked up at her. "Ow," Casey groaned. "Nice moves, Red."

 

" _Casey!"_ April asked incredulously. She then pushed herself back to her feet, making sure to jam her knee into his gut as she did so.

 

Casey let out a grunt of pain, before pushing himself back to his feet as well. "What is with girls and doing that," he muttered to himself as he brushed himself off.

 

"What are you doing here, Jones?" April demanded angrily. She had still not forgiven the boy for his previous actions. She was no longer as openly hostile towards him for the sake of the team, but still treated him to an icy cold shoulder whenever he was around.

 

"I saw you on patrol, and thought I'd join you," said Casey, trying to look casual. In truth, he'd been hoping for another chance to once again try to apologize. He was really missing having April as a friend. But it was really starting to look like she would hate him forever.

 

"Why?" she demanded scathingly. "You think I can't handle this on my own?"

 

"No-no-no," said Casey quickly. "I just- I was free and- I just wanted to help?" he finished as a question, not really certain if it was the right response or not.

 

April scowled, turned her back on him, and started to walk away. "Well I don't need your help. So you can go and-"

 

But whatever Casey should do was left unsaid as April reached the edge of the building and stopped dead at the sight below her.

 

"What is it?" Casey asked walking over to join her.

 

Looking down at the alley below, Casey quickly saw what had caught her attention.

 

Below them a line of Kraang was marching into a pink triangle shaped portal set at the end of the alley.

 

"There's so many of them," April whispered. Forgetting for the moment that she was mad at Casey.

 

"Looks like LH was right about them upgradin' their portal stuff," Casey said with a frown as he looked at the triangle shaped portal. This one just appeared to be a door set into nothing. It wasn't attached to some big machine, or hidden behind some door. It was just  _there_.

 

Finally, the line was growing shorter, and as the last few Kraang stepped through the portal, April and Casey dropped down to the alley to get a closer look.

 

Impulsively, Casey pulled his mask down over his face and snuck up on the last Kraang before it entered the portal. Smacking it over the head with a cricket bat, Casey knocked it away from the portal, and blocked as the Kraang tried to punch him in retaliation.

 

Then April ran up with her tessen, and sliced through the android, making the alien inside leap for freedom, only to be smacked away by Casey's cricket bat.

 

"When you play cricket, you gotta have some crumpets," said Casey with a laugh as the Kraang slithered away.

 

April, meanwhile, was examining the portal the other Kraang had gone through. At the tip of the triangle shaped portal was a small mechanical device. Pressing a button on it the portal closed, and the devise dropped to the ally floor.

 

"Wow," she said, picking the device up off the ground. "Let's take this to Donnie. Let him check it out."

 

"Doesn't he have enough on his plate?" asked Casey. He and Donnie had been getting along better now that Donnie was actually getting to know him, rather than simply disliking him because April did. Casey had quickly become aware just how many problems the genius was juggling in his big brain, from school to the development of retro-mutagen, to maintaining their equipment, not to mention his own personal science projects. In fact, Raph had been complaining about how much trouble they'd been having getting him to take a break long enough to eat and sleep.

 

But April frowned as if she suddenly remembered that she was still mad at him. "Trust me," she said bitingly. "Donnie can handle it."

 

Casey sighed and got the feeling April wasn't going to accept his apology this time either. Instead, he silently followed after her as she led the way to the dojo.

 

________________________

 

A few minutes later, April was explaining to the Hamato siblings what the two of them saw, and demonstrating the new portal for them. Before she did, however, the siblings ran to grab their gear in case something nasty came out of it.

 

"-And then, you press this button," said April pressing the button and stepping back. The triangle shaped portal opened up and the pink glow filled the lab. "And Portable Portal."

 

"Wow," said Donnie as he looked the portal over in amazement. "The Kraang are always one step ahead." He then looked thoughtful. "I wonder if this is what's behind the earthquakes. We're gonna have to test it."

 

"I don't know, Donnie," said Leo skeptically. "You think that's a good idea?"

 

"What would a portal have to do with an earthquake anyway?" asked Miwa. "I mean, this one's open, and the ground isn't shaking."

 

"Maybe it leads to the source of them," said Mikey eagerly. "Like how the porta-potty led to that prison."

 

"Don't remind me," grumbled Raph, still sore he'd gotten captured.

 

"Well, there's one way to find out," said Casey in a cocky voice. "I'm going."

 

Raph rushed forward and grabbed him. "You're crazy! Nuts! Out of your gourd!" he said, shoving his friend aside. "I'm going first."

 

And before anyone could stop him, Raph leaped through the portal and vanished.

 

"Hey!" shouted Casey indignantly, and dove in after him.

 

"Oh for the love of-" growled Miwa, annoyed by their impulsiveness. She then hurried after the idiot boys to keep them from doing something stupid.

 

"Mi! Wait!" yelled April, running after her friend, quickly followed by a worried Donnie.

 

Mikey glanced at Leo once they were the last ones there. "We can't let them go alone, dude," the youngest said with a shrug. Then he dove in after the rest with a yell of "Booyakasha!"

 

Rolling his eyes at the crazy stunts his team pulled, Leo dove in after them as well.

 

Little did they know that the second they left, another earthquake rocked Manhattan, dislodging a piece of the lab's ceiling and knocking the portal out of commission.

 

________________________

 

When Leo reached the other side of the portal, he could do nothing but stare in awe at the sight around him.

 

It was like he and his team were standing on a transparent walkway in the middle of the sky. Dark puffy clouds slowly drifted by and thunder clapped in the distance, giving the whole place an eerie atmosphere. Set on either side of the walkway was a line of pink portals, each going to a different place.

 

"Okaaaay," said Raph looking around. "This is  _weird_."

 

Miwa cautiously stepped forwards a few times, careful about placing each step. When despite seeing nothing there her foot never met anything but solid ground, she looked over at the rest in alarm. "Is anyone else wondering just what the heck we're standing on?" she asked.

 

Casey followed her example, tapping a hockey stick in front of him like a blind man's cane. "Yes," he agreed. "But something tells me I don't want to know."

 

Mikey and April wandered over to peer through one of the other portals. Through it they saw a sky filled with stars, and eyeballs the size of planets dotted among the blue.

 

Leo looked into a different one to see a dismal dimension full of dark towers and gray skies.

 

"Wow!" breathed Donnie as he looked around in awe. "It's like the Grand Central Station of dimensional travel! The Kraang must use it as a gateway between realities."

 

Just then, Mikey saw the portal they'd come through close behind them. "Guys, The Door's Gone!" he yelled in a panicked voice. "We're  _Trapped!_ "

 

Leo frowned. "There's thousands of doors!" he said to the others. "Everyone! Start searching for a way home!"

 

The teens spread out and began looking in the doors, hoping to find one to their own dimension.

 

Just as Donnie was showing April a beautiful dimension of what looked like a cross between clouds and jellyfish, Casey started yelling for the others to come look at what he'd found.

 

Casey stared at the portal in front of with a freaked-out expression, and the others quickly saw why.

 

Within the portal they saw a redheaded woman in yellow, a dark-haired man in a hokey mask, and an Asian woman in a gray ninja outfit, walking along side four identical mutant turtles each wearing a different colored mask. Blue, red, purple, and orange masks to be exact.

 

Mikey's eyes widened as he made the connection. "It's  _US!"_  he exclaimed. Then he frowned. "Why do we look like  _dorks_?"

 

The others all turned to stare at the youngest incredulously. "We're in there as mutant turtles, and all you can say is how goofy it all looks?" Leo asked in disbelief.

 

Mikey's eyes widened as he realized that. "Awesome!" he cheered, punching the air. "I wanna be a kick butt ninja turtle too."

 

"Seriously?" Raph asked. Then he noticed that Leo and Donnie had both shifted away from him slightly.

 

Glaring at the two, he deadpanned, "You do know being a mutant's not contagious, right?"

 

Leo and Donnie both looked sheepish, and went back to their original spots.

 

"Still," said Miwa, looking concerned, "With how much mutagen has been flying around, it could only be a matter of time before…" She trailed off, but the others caught on to what she hadn't said.

 

Aside from Mikey (who looked excited at the possibility) the other humans in their group looked ill at ease with the prospect.

 

"I'm gonna start designing mutagen proof clothes once this mission is done," Donnie vowed.

 

"Any chance you could start it sooner?" Leo had to ask.

 

Raph turned his attention back to the portal. "Is that really supposed to be April and Mi?" he asked skeptically. Both women were clearly older than the teenagers in question.

 

"Nice jumpsuit," Donnie sighed dreamily, imagining his girlfriend dressed in one.

 

"That ninja outfit's not bad either," said Casey, sending a wink at Miwa.

 

Miwa rolled her eyes at him, and walked away to search more portals. The others reluctantly followed her example, still sending the offending portal wary glances.

 

As Mikey wandered past some of the portals, one of them caught the corner of his eye. Backtracking, he stopped in front of a portal that looked almost like a mirror. Inside it there was another lane of portals floating in a dark cloudy sky. The only proof that it was not a mirror was the fact that where his reflection would be, there was instead another mutant turtle in an orange mask standing in front of him staring back.

 

Mikey blinked in tandem with the turtle as both of them processes what they were really seeing. Mikey had to admit, this turtle looked far more like him than the one in the other portal. Aside from his orange mask, the turtle also had the same blue eyes and freckles that Mikey had, leading to an uncanny resemblance.

 

Mikey stuck out his tongue as he scrutinized the turtle, but jumped back in surprise as he saw the turtle do the exact same movements as him.

 

Maybe it actually was a mirror… A weird funhouse kind of mirror at least.

 

Mikey then struck a silly pose, and the turtle did the same at the exact same time as him. Frowning, Mikey blew a raspberry and made a face at the turtle, only to again be met with a mirrored movement.

 

Knowing there was only one way to be sure if it was a mirror or not, Mikey reached out and poked his finger at the portal. The turtle version of him did the same on his side, and their fingers met through the dimensional barrier.

 

Mikey jumped back in surprise as he felt the scaly texture of the large green finger. The turtle Mikey did the same, no doubt equally surprised to feel the human finger through the portal.

 

Both Mikeys looked at each other and opened their mouths to speak, but before they could Mikey heard a shout from Leo, which echoed through the portal on the other side.

 

"Guys, Look!" Leo called, pointing to the portal he was next to.

 

Mikey instantly forgot the turtle Mikey (and on the other side, Mikey 2012 forgot about the human version of him just as quickly), and hurried to join the others by the portal.

 

"I think it's Dimension X," Leo said to them as they peered through the portal.

 

Inside was a predominantly pink world with floating islands made of a metal-like substance and spiky constructs.

 

"Home of the Kraang," Raph said to himself as he gazed into the portal and got his first look at their enemy's home world.

 

"No wonder they want to leave," said Miwa as she studied the place. "It looks like a cross between a six-year-old girl's fantasy, and a torture chamber."

 

"This place is making my brain melt," whimpered Mikey.

 

But then April clapped her hand over his mouth and hissed, "Shhh! I-I sense something coming."

 

Just as she said that, a platform started coming towards the portal carrying two Biodroids and two other Kraang in saucers with lasers on the front. The teens jumped back as the Biodroids stomped through the portal towards them.

 

"Get ready team!" Leo yelled, pulling out his swords.

 

They ducked as a laser came their way, and scattered as the Kraang came out of the portal at them.

 

"Biodroids destroy!" said one of the Kraang as a Biodroid aimed a fist at Mikey's head. The youngest tried to use his nunchucks to attack the Biodroid, but was smacked away for his efforts.

 

The fight continued, making the team scatter as they worked in tandem to fight the aliens.

 

Casey managed to knock one of the Kraang on saucers into the eyeball planet dimension, lessening their enemy count, but the Kraang on saucers were mostly a nuisance, the real problem was the Biodroids.

 

Leo managed to take out on of the gorilla suits with his swords thanks to the help of Raph and Mikey. But before they could celebrate, the second Biodroid managed to take the three of them by surprise and knocked the ninjas into a portal.

 

Seeing this, the others tried to run towards the portal, but then the second Kraang in a saucer shut the portal down using some kind of remote. The Kraang then tried to toss the remote away into another portal, but it didn't expect Miwa to dart forward and catch the remote before it could go through.

 

"Ha!" shouted Miwa triumphantly, holding up her prize.

 

The Kraang was not happy about that, and fired his laser at her in retaliation, making Miwa dodge farther away from the others.

 

While Miwa was chased by the Kraang in the saucer, Donnie, April, and Casey had to flee from the second Biodroid, as it fired its butt-cannons at them. But once the three were too far away to shoot at, the Kraang in the gorilla suit turned its attention over to Miwa.

 

Miwa quickly found herself having to dodge both the Kraang in the saucer and the Biodroid on her own.

 

Turning back, Donnie's eyes widened at the sight of his sister fighting them. "Armonia!" he yelled worriedly. "Watch Out!"

 

Miwa over compensated a dodge from a laser blast, and stumbled. Swinging her arms to regain her balance, she reached up to grab hold of something and managed to snag the device at the top of the portal.

 

Falling backwards, Miwa stumbled through the portal, dragging the portable portal device with her, making the whole portal vanish as she went through.

 

"ARMONIA!" shouted Donnie as he tried to run back, but Casey and April grabbed his hands and forced him to keep going forwards so the Kraang wouldn't catch them as well.

 

They ran on through the rows of portals, but the Biodroid was faster than it looked, and soon caught back up to them.

 

With a mighty leap, the Biodroid flew over their heads, and landed before them, blocking their path.

 

With an angry yell, Casey rushed forward, and hit the gorilla suit hard enough to knock it off balance, and stick its head in one of the neighboring portals. With the combined effort of Casey, April, and Donnie, they managed to shove the Biodroid the rest of the way in, making the Kraang screech as it fell from a great height to the dimension below.

 

"That was too close," said April.

 

Casey then turned his attention to Donnie. "Alright Donnie, how do we get out of here?" he asked. "Or better yet, how do we find the others?"

 

Donnie gave a helpless shrug. "I'm guessing we look through more portals, they have to be-"

 

But before he could finish, April wandered over to a different portal and peered inside. "Guys, check this out!" she called to the boys.

 

They both moved to stand beside her and peer through. "Wow, looks like another part of Dimension X," said Donnie as he looked though the portal and once again saw the spiky pink world.

 

As they looked they saw a group of Kraang below them using electric rods to force something big through another portal.

 

Casey made a sound of disgust. "What is  _that_?" he asked as whatever it was disappeared through the portal.

 

The Kraang apparently heard him, and turned their attention towards the teens' portal.

 

"Kraang is aware of spies in the doorway where Kraang is not, but soon will be," one Kraang said.

 

"I think we're in serious trouble," said April worriedly, backing away.

 

As if to prove her point, the sound of a Kraang blaster firing up came from directly behind them, and they looked around to find themselves completely surrounded by Kraang.

 

"Surrender is optimum," said one of the Kraang surrounding them.

 

"Non-surrender means disintegration," added another.

 

"Which is less optimum," said a third.

 

Seeing no way out, Donnie whispered, "For now, play along."

 

He, April, and Casey raised their hands in surrender, but Casey couldn't help but announce, "For the record, I  _don't_ count this as a surrender."

 

________________________

 

Meanwhile, Leo, Raph, and Mikey fell out of their portal and into a dumpster in a trash strewn alley. The portal then snapped shut behind them, keeping then from going back to the others.

 

Mikey groaned and sat up with a lampshade on his head. "Guys, what dimension are we in?" he asked woozily.

 

Raph smacked the shade off, allowing Mikey to see they were back in their own world.

 

Leo pulled himself from the dumpster and looked up at where the portal had been. "The others are trapped over there," he said despairingly.

 

"Yeah," agreed Raph as he followed Leo out of the dumpster. "We gotta find a way back to them."

 

As Mikey pulled himself out as well, he looked thoughtful. "That portable portal April brought us might still be in the lab. Maybe we can use it to get back."

 

Raph and Leo exchanged surprised looks. "Mikey had a good idea?" Raph asked in disbelief.

 

"Mikey had a good idea," Leo confirmed, looking just as surprised.

 

Just then the ground started shaking under their feet once again, making the ninjas wobble and work to keep their balance.

 

"We also gotta find the source of these quakes," Leo added as they turned to run home.

 

But before they could even leave the alley, a shadow passed them overhead, and landed in front of them.

 

"Tiger Claw!" Leo said, grabbing his swords at the sight of the giant cat. His brothers grabbed their weapons as well.

 

"It seems the aliens made good on their word to send you here," said Tiger Claw menacingly, pulling out his guns.

 

"Wait!" said Mikey. "So this is a-"

 

Out of the shadows slipped several Foot-Bots, surrounding the teens completely.

 

"-A trap," Leo finished for Mikey as the three brothers closed ranks, and kept their backs to each other, and their eyes on their enemies at all times.

 

"I ask only once, summon your master!" Tiger Claw demanded, aiming his guns at the three of them.

 

Raph scowled at the larger mutant. "Sorry pal," he snarled. "He's not a cat person."

 

The teens then had to scatter as Tiger Claw's gun went off, leaving a singed crater where they had once stood.

 

While Mikey and Raph took on the assembled Foot, Leo focused on taking down Tiger Claw. It was clear the tiger mutant had been training since their last fight, and the leader was hard pressed to land a hit on him.

 

The Foot-Bots were eventually thinned out and the fight moved up to the roof tops, leaving it to be the Hamato brothers against Tiger Claw.

 

But Tiger Claw had brought his A game that night, and even with the three of them, they could not seem to take the tiger down.

 

Finally, Tiger Claw managed to trip up Mikey, and send a bola to wrap around Raph, tying him up.

 

Landing his jetpack next to Mikey, Tiger Claw lifted the youngest up by his ankle, and carried him over to a large smoking chimney. "You are defeated!" the feline said to Leo. "Summon your master, or the little one goes into the furnace."

 

"Don't do it, Raion!" yelled Mikey.

 

"It's a trap for Sensei!" added Raph from where he was tied up.

 

"Of course it's a trap!" Leo shouted back. He looked over at where Mikey was dangling helplessly. "Tell me the part where I have a choice?"

 

When neither of his brothers managed to offer one, Leo reluctantly pulled out his cellphone, and dialed their emergency hotline.

 

________________________

 

In the Renaissance Dojo, Master Yoshi was meditating in his and his wife's room, when the cheese phone rang.

 

The cheese phone had been a gag father's day gift from his children when they were much younger, and the family had set it on a private line to be called if there was ever an emergency.

 

So when Yoshi and Tang Shen heard it ring, they new it was serious, no matter how silly a shape the phone was.

 

Answering it immediately, Yoshi held the phone to his ear, and Tang Shen hovered worriedly next to him, and pressed her head close to his ear in order to hear the conversation.

 

"Moshi moshi?" Yoshi said into the phone. Hearing his son's voice he said, "Leonardo, what is the problem?"

 

Yoshi's eyes then widened in alarm as he heard his son cry out in surprise and the sound of him dropping his phone. The phone was then picked up by someone else, and a familiar voice came over the speakers.

 

" _We meet again, Hamato Yoshi,"_  said Tiger Claw's voice.

 

"Tiger Claw," Yoshi hissed. "What have you done to my-"

 

" _Your sons are safe, for now,"_  Tiger Claw replied.

 

Yoshi froze at his words, and could hear the sounds of Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo letting out calls of alarm in the background.

 

" _Yes, I know they are your flesh and blood,"_  Tiger Claw taunted _. "I also know that their mother is not as dead as my master was led to believe."_

 

Yoshi's grip on the phone went slack, and Tang Shen caught it and held it to her own ear.

 

"What do you want?" she demanded, having heard what was said, and knowing there was no need to hide anymore.

 

" _Tang Shen, I presume,"_  said Tiger Claw arrogantly, making her children cry out warnings in the background.  _"It is quite obvious what my master wants. You, of course, and your cubs as well. Along with Hamato Yoshi dead at his feet."_

 

Tang Shen gritted her teeth, and gripped the phone so hard the plastic started to crack. "If you hurt my babies, I swear to you, there is no where in this world I will not find you."

 

Tiger Claw had the gall to laugh at that.  _"If you ever want to see your cubs again, come to this address with Hamato Yoshi."_  The Tiger Mutant then rattled off an address and hung up.

 

Tang Shen all but threw the phone back into its holster, and threw her arms around Yoshi. Her husband hugged her back, and they took a brief moment to seek comfort in each other before hurrying to prepare themselves for what would no doubt be a trap.

 

The event they had always feared had finally come to pass. The Shredder knew Tang Shen was alive, and they knew he would stop at nothing until he had her.

 

________________________

 

Miwa groaned as she picked herself up off the rooftop she'd landed on after falling from the portal. Seeing it was no longer there, she looked down at her hands to see the things she'd been holding on a death grip.

 

In one hand was the remote device that she'd stolen from the Kraang. In the other was the portable portal she had grabbed during her fall.

 

Grateful to know she had a way back, Miwa stood up and took in the area around her.

 

She realized with a start that this was the dimension she and the others had been viewing through the portal. The one with her brothers all being turtles, and her, Casey, and April's counterparts looking older and just as strange.

 

Looking down from the roof, she could still see their weird counterparts following who she assumed was her own counterpart through an alley.

 

"So where are you taking us, Lotus?" the turtle in the blue mask asked the Asian woman.

 

' _I guess she's not my counterpart after all,'_ Miwa thought to herself.

 

"Patience, Leonardo," said Lotus Blossom in reply. "And be in your guard. No doubt the Shredder will be nearby."

 

As if on cue, Foot-Bots popped out of nowhere, and tried to attack the turtles. But the turtles, Lotus, and Casey's counterpart took care of them with relative ease with April's counterpart filming the whole thing with a large video camera.

 

Seeing that they had things well in hand, Miwa turned her attention to the portable portal. She pressed the button in the center, and stepped through it, making sure to once again pull the device along with her.

 

Only to not find herself back at the Portal Highway, but instead in a different place all together. Instead it was a bright world, full of futuristic buildings.

 

"Okay, this isn't where I wanted to go," Miwa muttered to herself.

 

Looking around, she caught sight of four turtles in superhero outfits fly by.

 

Smacking herself in the forehead, Miwa vowed never to let Leo or Mikey know of this world, and passed through the portal again, this time fiddling with the remote as she did so in hopes of ending up somewhere more familiar.

 

Only to once again not be in the place she wanted. Instead she found herself at the edge of a crowded dance floor as several people cheered for another four ninja turtles as they danced to the song playing.

 

Miwa could only quirk an eyebrow at the lyrics,  _"Go ninja, go ninja, **Go!**  Go ninja, go ninja,  **Go!**  Go! Go! Go! Go!"_

 

Snickering to herself at how cheesy it all was, she moved to a dark corner, and opened the portal with the remote again, hoping that the third time was the charm.

 

Only to be disappointed again, as she found herself somewhere that looked like New York, but clearly was not her New York.

 

As she gazed around the roof she'd appeared on, she caught sight of another four ninja turtles celebrating a victory on the next roof over, and had to stop and stare.

 

The four turtles were  _huge_ , way bigger than her brothers, or any of the other counterparts she'd seen so far. They were all over six feet tall, and had more muscles than she'd seen on some pro wrestlers.

 

As she watched, she saw a flash of light and they all froze, and then start freaking out that someone had taken their picture. A second later they dragged another older looking April onto the roof with them, and demanded she give them her camera.

 

Feeling it was time to go, Miwa opened the portal again, and hurried through it, only to once again be disappointed.

 

As she watched a hooded figure ran into the alley below the fire escape she had landed on, chased by some goons in punk clothing, only for the figure to be saved by yet another turtle version of Raphael, and a college-aged boy that could only be Casey Jones.

 

As the hooded figure was revealed to be a mutant arctic fox, Miwa slumped to floor of her fire escape and watched the drama unfold with a sigh of impatience.

 

"This is going to be harder than I thought," she grumbled to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, the idea that the Cheese Phone was a father's day gift is based on the DeviantArt picture TMNT – Father's Day by Myrling. Here's part one of the Wormquake/Manhattan Project episode. I couldn't resist adding the little mirror play that Mikey did with Mikey12, it had been in my head since the start of this fic. I also decided to give Miwa her own adventure, rather than try to mix her in with the others. Can you tell which Turtle Verses she goes to? Things are also about to start heating up for Tang Shen, and it doesn't look good. Sorry, no of Rats and Men, but I didn't think it'd be as big a deal without Yoshi being a rat.


	26. Earthquakes, Portals, and Worms, Oh My! Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The teens are all separated, and facing their own problems. But things are bound to get worse before they get better.

On the roof of a factory, Tiger Claw had the three Hamato brothers tied together next to the large smoking chimney the feline had nearly thrown Mikey down earlier. They were positioned right by the edge, so the evil mutant could easily knock them in if they caused too much trouble, or their parents decided not to show.

 

The three brothers strained against their bindings, trying furiously to come up with a way to get out of this mess.

 

"I can't believe you called him," hissed Raph to his older brother. "If anything happens to Mother or Father…"

 

"What else could I do, Iyasa," snapped Leo.

 

Raph bit down the angry retort that crawled its way up his throat. The truth was that there hadn't been anything else Leo could have done, and the turtle knew it.

 

Meanwhile, Tiger Claw was getting impatient. "Where are they?" he demanded to the teenagers.

 

The three of them avoided eye contact with the mutant, which only served to make Tiger Claw angrier. "One push, and you all go into the furnace!" he snarled, making the teens glance at the chimney nervously.

 

"Just wait, Tiger Claw!" shouted Raph. "Father is going to kick that little stump of a tail so deep into your str-!"

 

"SILENCE!" Tiger Claw bellowed. "I am tired of waiting. Your lives as Hamato Yoshi's cubs end now!"

 

With that he reached forwards and started dragging them by the rope, making the boys yelp in alarm.

 

But then a shuriken came whizzing down, and nearly hit Tiger Claw in the eye.

 

"Release our sons!" boomed an angry voice from above.

 

The tiger mutant looked up to see Hamato Yoshi and Tang Shen silhouetted against the moon on the neighboring roof.

 

"NOW!" shouted Yoshi, and Tang Shen drew back her hand to throw another shuriken if the mutant refused them.

 

Tiger Claw snarled, and flung the boys to where Tang Shen could not release them with her knives.

 

Tang Shen hissed in rage as she heard her sons cry out in pain from the rough treatment.

 

But Tiger Claw looked up at them smugly. "You wish to regain your cubs?" he shouted. "Then come and take them!"

 

Yoshi's eyes hardened. "So be it," he said darkly.

 

Tiger Claw immediately went for his guns, and Yoshi had to grab Tang Shen and move her to a guarded spot to avoid the blasts, before launching himself onto the roof with Tiger Claw.

 

As her husband engaged the tiger below. Tang Shen reached for her crossbow and quiver of arrows, and took aim at the mutant. Her old injuries may keep her from close combat, but that didn't stop her from using long ranged weapons.

 

With precise aim, she released the bowstring, and sent an arrow flying at the tiger below. It was only sheer luck of Tiger Claw stumbling on a brick that kept his head from being impaled by the arrow.

 

Below, her sons cheered her on. But the cheers soon turned to cries of alarm. "BEHIND YOU!" they yelled.

 

Tang Shen ducked just in time to avoid a swipe from a boney claw. Moving to the best of her ability to get some distance between her and this new foe, Tang Shen notched another arrow and took aim.

 

"Rahzar, I presume," she said as she glared at the skeletal figure before her.

 

Rahzar growled at her. From what his master had said, he had honestly expected the woman to be more willing to be saved from Hamato Yoshi. "Why do you fight?" he snarled. "We only wish to take you to Master Shredder."

 

The boney dog then held out his clawed hand as if he expected her to take it.

 

Tang Shen shot an arrow at him in response. "And I wish to have nothing to do with him, other than for him to leave my family and I in peace!" she declared.

 

Rahzar growled again and shot towards her.

 

Instead of using another arrow, Tang Shen swung her crossbow like a bat, and clubbed the mutant under the jaw.

 

Rahzar drew back, and rubbed his jaw. Then he let out a laugh. "That barely even hurt," he said tauntingly. Then he launched himself at Tang Shen again, and she was unable to dodge in time.

 

Rahzar grabbed her arm and twisted it until she dropped her crossbow, but the woman refused to go down without a fight. Pulling out a hidden knife, she stabbed the mutant's boney arm, making Rahzar howl in pain.

 

Jerking herself away, Tang Shen began pelting throwing knives at the canine, making Rahzar need all of his speed to dodge them, and even then, he still felt the sting of a few cutting into what little skin he had left.

 

But Rahzar could see that Tang Shen was reluctant to move around too much, and used it to his advantage.

 

He began circling the woman too quickly for her to keep track of, then vanished into the shadows.

 

Tang Shen snatched up her crossbow, notched her next arrow, and scanned the area for her adversary. Too late she sensed the presence behind her, and felt pain explode in her back as Rahzar's fist plowed into her old injuries. With a scream Tang Shen collapsed onto the roof.

 

Below, standing with Tiger Claw at his mercy and balancing precariously on the edge of the building, Yoshi looked up in alarm. "SHEN!" he yelled as he saw Rahzar wrench her to her feet and force her to stand in front of him.

 

Tiger Claw used this to his advantage, and grabbed Yoshi to hold him still. "NOW!" he bellowed as he held the ninja master in place.

 

From another hiding spot. Fishface blew through a dart gun, sending a small needle flying into Yoshi's neck.

 

Instantly, Yoshi felt his strength leave him, and he collapsed onto the ground in a heap.

 

"YOSHI!" screamed Tang Shen at the sight.

 

"NO!" yelled the brothers in horror.

 

"You loose, you pathetic rat," said Tiger Claw smugly as Fishface came over to join him.

 

Yoshi struggled to regain himself, reaching out to his family as the poison began taking effect. "My sons…" he whispered. "Shen…"

 

Then he fell boneless to the rooftop, unable to save any of them.

 

Things could not go any worse for the Hamato Clan in Leo's eyes. His father was lying poisoned on the rooftop at the feet of their enemies. His mother was trapped in the grips of Rahzar and in too much pain to find the strength to fight him off. He, Raph, and Mikey were tied up and unable to get free to help them. And Donnie, Miwa, Casey, and April were all stuck in a who-knows-where dimension, unaware of what was happening.

 

"So," said Fishface as he twirled a pocketknife in his flipper-like hand. "Shall we finish them of now?" He began making his way towards the three tied up teenagers with a murderous look on his face.

 

"No," said Tiger Claw, blocking the fish's path. "Master Shredder desires them alive. He knows he will be unable to reclaim his mate's heart if he is responsible for her cub's deaths."

 

"Even the turtle one?" Fishface asked reluctantly, sending a dirty look at Raphael, which the turtle returned in kind.

 

"Even him," confirmed Tiger Claw.

 

Seeing what was happening, Tang Shen caught Yoshi's eye, and exchanged a silent conversation.

 

Yoshi nodded reluctantly, and secretly picked up one of the shuriken Tang Shen had thrown at Tiger Claw earlier.

 

Seeing he was ready, Tang Shen let out a yell of pain that wasn't entirely faked, and fell limp in Rahzar's grip, making the canine mutant start and look down at her in surprise. Fishface and Tiger Claw also looked over in that direction to see what was happening.

 

Taking advantage of the distraction, Yoshi threw the throwing star at the ropes binding his sons, cutting the three of them free. "My sons… Go… NOW!" he called to them weakly.

 

The three teenagers were on their feet in an instant, and Mikey threw a smoke bomb down.

 

Using the cover, Raph ran to his father, and grabbed him in a fireman's carry, and he and his brothers bolted from the rooftop.

 

When the smoke cleared, they were gone.

 

Tiger Claw roared in fury, and Tang Shen allowed herself to smile, knowing her family would be safe for the moment.

 

But the smile quickly vanished, as Rahzar lifted her like a rag doll, and jumped down to his comrades.

 

"At least we still have her," the canine said, holding her out to Tiger Claw.

 

"Yes," agreed Tiger Claw, "and it would be best that it stay that way."

 

With that the tiger jabbed a pressure point on Tang Shen's neck, and her world went black.

 

_________________________

 

Miwa groaned in frustration as she once again came out in the wrong dimension.

 

This was getting ridiculous. Why was it so hard to get herself back to her own world?

 

Bidding a gritty world black and white world goodbye (not noticing the four figures that had been watching her suspiciously from the rooftops the entire time she'd been there), she finally she came out of a portal onto a roof of a place that looked almost identical to her home dimension.

 

Only to once again see turtle versions of her brothers the next roof over, making her want to scream in frustration.

 

Only these versions of her brothers were tied up next to a collapsed chimney, and yelling worriedly at a mutant rat, who was lying weakly at Tiger Claw's feet.

 

Then, to her alarm, Miwa saw herself step out of the shadows and glare down at the rat. What shocked her even more was the realization that the other Miwa was wearing a Foot Clan uniform.

 

The rat weakly reached out to her and said, "Miwa!" in her father's voice before collapsing to the ground.

 

The other Miwa looked confused, and the turtle Leo spoke up.

 

"Karai!" he begged. "Karai, don't do this. Splinter! He's your  _father!_ Your  _true_ father!"

 

But Karai glared at the blue wearing turtle. "LIAR!" she roared, and stormed towards Leo with her tantō raised.

 

Miwa stood frozen in horror, unable to look away from the scene that looked straight out of her nightmares.

 

Weakly and as if in slow motion, Miwa tried to throw some shuriken to help, but her aim was off due to shock, and the stars skittered across the roof, and they fell flat by Master Splinter.

 

The rat weakly looked over at the stars and gathered them up. He then used them to free his sons from their bindings, allowing them to escape without him.

 

Feeling there was nothing more she could do to help, Miwa bolted from that dimension, and collapsed in a trash-strewn alley of yet another version of New York.

 

Miwa huddled in a ball as she tried to get ahold of herself. Seeing that had been worse than the fear spore visions those mutant mushrooms had given her. That had been  _real_. That had been the twisted version of herself she feared becoming at the Shredder's hands.

 

"It won't happen," Miwa hissed to herself. "I am  _not_ Karai. I am Miwa. I am Armonia. That will  _never_  be me!"

 

Taking deep breaths to calm herself, Miwa looked down at the portable portal and remote still in her hands.

 

"Maybe I need to find a new way to do this," she muttered to herself. Just jumping through the portal to wherever wasn't getting her anywhere.

 

Just then, a familiar sound of Kraang laser fire reached her ears.

 

Jumping to her feet, Miwa raced towards the sound, pulling her tantō from its sheath as she ran.

 

She saw the Kraang facing off against another set of mutant turtles in various colored masks.

 

"The ones called the turtles will surrender to Kraang," said one of the Kraang as it aimed its blaster at the mutants.

 

"Not a chance, scrap heap!" snarled that dimension's version of Raph in a thick Brooklyn accent. "So forget about it."

 

The Donatello of the group held up his hands in a peaceful gesture. "Please, there is no cause for violence," he said in a calming tone. "We are friends of the Utroms, and-"

 

But that only seemed to agitate the Kraang even more, and they started firing upon the mutants, making them duck for cover.

 

With a yell, Miwa launched herself out of her hiding place, and slice through one of the Kraang, before turning her attention to the others.

 

The ninja turtles took advantage of her arrival to make their own surprise attack on the Kraang, and soon the little aliens were scuttling away without their metal suits.

 

Once they were gone, the mutants regarded the new arrival wearily, giving Miwa a chance to really look at them. The four were nearly identical to each other, with only subtle differences in height, and various shades of green for their skin color. The best way for Miwa to tell them apart was from the colors of their masks, which reflected the colors of those of her own brothers'.

 

Slowly, the turtle version of Leonardo put his swords away, and made to approach her, while his brothers remained alert, and ready to pounce should she try anything against them.

 

"Thank you," said Leo sincerely, holding a hand out to her to shake. "We appreciate the help."

 

"We'd also appreciate knowing who the shell you are?" said Raph rudely, making the Donatello of the group elbow him in the gut.

 

Miwa snickered. It seemed some things were universal, even a cranky Raph. Sheathing her tantō and taking Leo's offered hand she said, "Call me Armonia, Leonardo." At his surprised expression, she smirked and added bluntly, "Yes I know who all of you are. I'm from an alternate dimension, and I could really use your help getting home."

 

Michelangelo groaned and threw up his hands in exasperation. "Another dimension jumping crisis. Why is it always us that gets these weirdos?" he said in a light surfer accent.

 

At Miwa's confused look, Donatello explained, "A few months ago we were visited by alternate versions of ourselves, and, well, the multi-verse nearly collapsed as a result."

 

"Lovely," said Miwa sarcastically. "Well, I'd like to get back before anything like that happens again."

 

Raph scowled suspiciously at her. "And just how do we know you're on our side?" he asked. "For all we know this could be some kind of trap."

 

The other turtles looked like they agreed with Raph, but didn't want to be rude and say so.

 

Miwa shrugged, and pulled out her cell phone. She then pulled up a picture she'd taken a few days ago and showed it to the assembled mutants.

 

It was a selfie she'd taken along with Raph and Casey after a successful battle. During a patrol they'd run into some Foot-Bots, and during the fight one of the Foot-Bots had been thrown head first through a billboard, and had its head sticking out where the face of a swimsuit model used to be. The three of them had thought it was hilarious, and took the picture to preserve the moment.

 

Mikey snickered at the photo when he and the others saw it. "Nice, the Foot never looked so good."

 

"I know, right," said Miwa with a grin. "You should see some of the ones I have of the Kraang."

 

Don looked down at the remains of the Kraang androids scattered around them. "You said Kraang, that's what the aliens in these automatons had been calling themselves."

 

Miwa scowled at the sight of them and nodded. "Yeah, they're kinda why I'm here." She then held out the portal device and the remote, and began explaining to the turtles what had been happening to her.

 

_________________________

 

With April, Casey, and Donnie, the three of them were led at gunpoint through another portal that opened in what looked like part of the subway system of their own world.

 

"You will continue marching from the place you are, to the place you are not yet," said the Kraang behind them, forcing them on trough the tunnel.

 

Donnie sighed. "At least we're back in New York," he said despairingly.

 

"Didn't they mention feeding us something?" Casey asked as his stomach growled. "I'm hungry."

 

April rolled her eyes. "No, they said they'd feed us  _too_  something. Something called a-"

 

"Kraathatrogon," Donnie finished for her. "Which is…" the genius paused and thought for a second. "Actually, I have no clue what it is."

 

Casey shrugged, and muttered, "We can wait around to be eaten…"

 

With a swift strike, he struck his hand out and zapped the nearest Kraang with his taser. "… Or We Can Make A Move!" he yelled.

 

April quickly pulled out her tessen, and threw it like a Frisbee to take out another Kraang, and Donnie sent some shuriken flying towards a pipe, filling the tunnel with steam.

 

Taking a quick turn down a dark tunnel, the three managed to escape the Kraang, and find themselves in an old pneumatic subway tunnel.

 

Donnie tried to give April a history lesson about tunnel, but the redhead's ears picked up a different sound from up ahead and paid more attention to that instead. "What's that gross slobbering sound?" she asked.

 

The boys both listened harder, and hear what she was talking about. "It sounds worse than Mikey eating pizza." Donnie agreed with a grimace. The other two shuddered as they recalled the disgusting sight.

 

Whatever the sound was, it was getting louder as the teens went farther down the tunnel. When they finally reached the end, they were stunned to see the tunnel open up into an enormous room with a giant tank of mutagen in the middle. But what really drew their attention was what was surrounding the tank.

 

Worms. Giant, bumpy, white worms the size of a double-decker bus were surrounding the tank. More Kraang milled around the room, working on the equipment, and attending to the mammoth worms.

 

"Those must be the Kraathatrogon," Donnie whispered as the teens hid at the entrance to the tunnel and looked down at the room.

 

"The Krathartri-triga-the-g," Casey tried to say, but stumbled over the large word. Finally, he gave up and said, "Space Worms is easier to pronounce."

 

As they watched, one of the worms got testy with its handlers, and began thrashing around, its massive body making the room shake.

 

Feeling the tremors, Donnie's eyes widened in realization. "It's the worms!" he hissed to the others. " _That's_ what's causing the earthquakes!"

 

"But why?" asked Casey watching the worms in confusion. "Why bring them here?"

 

"Look," said April, pointing towards one of the worms.

 

As they watched, a Kraang attached a hose to one of the bumps on the side of a worm, and a fluid began flowing out.

 

"They're milking them?" asked April in disgust. "For  _mutagen?"_

 

"By Darwin's Beard," said Donnie in awe. "This is where the mutagen comes from. Fascinating and-"

 

"Disgusting," April interjected, her nose wrinkling at the sight.

 

Casey made a face as well. "So Raph turned into a turtle because of  _worm juice?_ "

 

Donnie opened his mouth, then shut it as the implications sunk in, and he shuddered. "Okay, one, I'm definitely making mutagen proof gear now, and two, we must never mention this to Raph, or he'll never feel clean again."

 

April opened her mouth to agree, then froze as she felt something rub against her butt. She sent her boyfriend a very unimpressed glare and hissed, "Stop that!"

 

Donnie rose up both hands in defense. "Stop what?" he asked in a slightly frightened tone (no doubt from the face she was giving him).

 

Seeing both of Donnie's hands, but still feeling something rubbing her, she turned her glare on Casey. "Knock it off! That's low, even for you."

 

Casey also raised both hands in surrender. "I'm not doing anything," he protested.

 

Seeing both boys' hands, but still feeling something behind her, April wheeled around and saw a tiny version of the worms rubbing a baby-faced head against her butt. As she stared, it looked up at her and seemed to smile.

 

April and the others screamed and jerked away from the worm. Casey pulled out a hockey stick and smacked the worm on the head.

 

The worm instantly twisted around to show its other end, which screeched at him with a mouth full of sharp teeth.

 

The teens froze as they heard a Kraang down below say, "Kraang, we have been discovered in the place that was meant to be undiscovered."

 

"Unleash the Kraathatrogon!" ordered another Kraang loudly.

 

The teenagers watched in horror as on of the worms was released from its bindings, reared up its ugly head, and roared at them.

 

"Um, I don't think I have a big enough hockey stick for that thing," Casey said weakly.

 

"RUN!" Donnie bellowed, and they all bolted down the tunnel, the worm lumbering after them as they went, making the whole city above them shake.

 

For a giant ooze-dripping worm, it was surprisingly fast and was gaining on them no matter what they did to try to ditch it.

 

Finally, Donnie noticed a large ditch in the subway train tracks. Pointing it out, he clutched April to him, and the three teens dove in.

 

The Kraathatrogon roared as it passed overhead.

 

Slowly, Donnie pulled his head up to see if it was gone, only to jump back screaming. The Kraathatrogon had stopped just past the hole, and like with the small one, it had a baby face on its tail end, which looked at Donnie with a cheerful expression.

 

Casey and April also screamed at the sight, and the three bolted again, Donnie slapping the baby-face as he went.

 

The Kraathatrogon was not happy about that, and after some difficulty, it turned around and started pursuing them again.

 

"We gotta slow it down!" April yelled as the worm started catching up to them again.

 

"I'm on it!" shouted Casey, turning back. He converted his shoes to roller-skates, and shot towards the worm with a can of spray paint in hand.

 

He then leaped up, and tossed the can into the Kraathatrogon's mouth, making it explode on impact.

 

The Kraathatrogon let out a bellow, and flopped to the floor, making Casey cheer at his apparent victory.

 

But then the worm reared up and roared at him, making the vigilante yelp and start skating back towards the others.

 

Finally, Donnie spotted a ladder leading up to the surface. Jumping as high as he could to reach it, the ninja climbed it up until he was out of the Kraathatrogon's reach, and held his bō staff down to April.

 

His girlfriend grabbed it, and he swung her up to a safe height, before holding the staff out for Casey. "Jones! The Staff!" he yelled.

 

Casey was skating as fast as he could, but the worm was angry and catching up to him quickly. The vigilante jumped and tried to grab the staff in mid air, but the worm leaped too, and caught the boy in midair.

 

April and Donnie could only watch horrified as Casey was swallowed whole by the Kraathatrogon in a single gulp.

 

"NO!" shrieked April.

 

"CASEY!" yelled Donnie in horror.

 

But the boy was gone, and the worm lumbered around a corner and out of sight.

 

April was devastated. "He's gone," she said regretfully, the last few weeks flooding through her head. "I was terrible to him, and now he's  _gone!_ "

 

Donnie could do nothing but give her a one armed hug as he clung to the ladder, and grieved. He knew there was nothing he could say to make things better.

 

_________________________

 

Back at the dojo, Leo, Raph, Mikey carried their father into his room, and laid down him on his bed.

 

Raising his head weakly, Yoshi gave his sons a grateful nod. "Thank you, my sons. I can purge the poison from my body myself. For now, tend to your own injuries. You must get your mother back as soon as possible." He then winced as the poison in his system sent a jolt of pain through his body. "Though, I fear I will be unable to assist you in doing so until later."

 

The brothers gave him a solemn nod, and left the room. When they were gone, Yoshi pulled himself into a lotus position, and began the healing sutras.

 

Compared to Yoshi, the injuries on the teenagers were fairly minor, only a few cuts and bruises.

 

Once they were patched up, Raph rounded on Leo. "This is your fault, Leo," he snarled angrily. "If you hadn't called Father, we wouldn't be in this mess."

 

"I didn't have a choice, Raph," Leo snapped back. "It was him or Mikey. I didn't know they'd know about Mother. I-I thought," Leo hung his head in shame. "I thought Father would take care of him."

 

"Well you  _thought_   ** _wrong!"_**  Raph said scathingly. "And now, Shredder has  _Our **Mother!"**_

 

The fight looked like it would have continued, but Mikey jumped between them, looking determined. "We know where they took her," he said in a serious tone that was out of place on his happy-go-lucky face. "Shredder's Lair. We do this for Father."

 

He then thrust his finger in the air, and said dramatically. "There comes a time, brothers! When history is forged like melted cheese! It sticks together as one, but is still soft and squishy in the middle." Mikey then licked his lips as he thought of all the cheesy foods he'd like to eat right then. Noticing his brothers' unimpressed and confused looks, he yelled, "ARE YOU WITH ME!"

 

Raph rolled his eyes. "Lamest. Speech. Ever. But, I'm with you," he said with a determined smile.

 

Leo nodded. "Let's do this," he said with equal determination. He then glanced over at Mikey with a smirk. "Do you still have those fireworks stored away somewhere?"

 

Mikey blinked at the question, then his face lit up with a brilliant smile as he caught on to the leader's plan.

 

_________________________

 

After a lot of arguing, the four turtles agreed to help Miwa return to her home world. The only problem was that they'd need some tools from Don's lab in order to figure out how to work the portal, and get her home.

 

This was the main sticking point for the turtles. They had lost so many Lairs in the past few years that they were very reluctant to take a stranger home with them lest it happen again. Especially with what happened last time dimension jumpers showed up.

 

It was finally decided that they would blindfold Miwa with her scarf, and carry her there. At first the kunoichi had been dubious about the idea, but relented when they told her it was the only way they'd help. She also suspected they'd had Mikey be the one to do the carrying so that his talking her ear off would distract her even further from finding where it was. But at least he talked about something interesting, and explained their version of the Kraang were called the Utroms, and that in this dimension they were a relatively peaceful race (a mind blowing idea if she'd ever heard one).

 

After what Miwa suspected was far longer than it was necessary to get to where they were going, Leo finally said, "We're here."

 

Mikey set her on her feet, and Miwa reached up to pull her scarf back down around her nose, only to accidentally pull it completely from her face as she gaped at the sight before her.

 

"Wow," she breathed as she stared at the turtles' home. It looked like something out of a sci-fi movie, with futuristic technology built into the clearly old building. Pipes covered the ceiling, and the floor was covered in water aside from some island walkways. Off to one side was a sitting area with a giant TV, arcade games, and a foo's ball table, and to the opposite direction was what appeared to be the dojo. On the upper levels were clearly the living quarters hidden behind large doors. But the most impressive thing of all was in the island in the center, where there appeared to be a giant super computer the likes of which she had only seen the Kraang use, only it was clearly not Kraang tech.

 

Eyeing all the technology with wonder, Miwa muttered, "Donnie'd chew his own arm off just to  _see_  this place." Glancing at the purple wearing turtle, she felt compelled to clarify, " _My_  Donnie, that is."

 

Don looked bashful (very unlike the Donnie she was used too, who would have preened under the praise). "Thanks, I put a lot of work into this place."

 

"Which is why we're so glad we still have it after the last dimensional fiasco," said Mikey, running over to flop onto one of the couches next to the TV.

 

At Miwa's confused look, Leo clarified, "This place got pretty wrecked when during the dimensional crisis we mentioned earlier, and then our whole world nearly got erased by it. After we fixed things, we found out that everything in our world reverted back to how it was before our counterparts showed up, and everyone involved forgot it except for those of us who actually did the dimension jumping."

 

Miwa nodded to show she vaguely understood.

 

Raph let out a snort. "Too bad Hun didn't keep his new look," he said darkly. "It'd serve that dirt bag right to see what we have to put up with."

 

"He mutated," Miwa asked rhetorically.

 

Leo and Raph exchanged glances. "How'd you guess?" Leo asked.

 

Miwa shrugged. "Mutation is becoming a common occurrence in my world, especially for the bad guys. Mikey, Raph, and I have a betting pool going for how long it'll take Stockman to mutate."

 

Leo's face pinched, and he opened his mouth to lecture her on the morals of such a bet, but the effect was ruined when Miwa burst into giggles. "That's the exact same face my Leo made when he found out about it," she said snickering. "This place is so weird."

 

"What is weird, young woman, is what you are doing in our home," said a raspy voice behind her.

 

Miwa wheeled around to find a fairly short mutant rat standing directly behind her. She couldn't help but let out a startled squeak and take a step back from him.

 

"S-Sensei," said Leo in surprise. "We were just-"

 

The rat glared at him. "I am waiting for an answer, my son," he said in a stern voice.

 

The turtles exchanged glances, and Mikey said, "Dimensional mix up, Master Splinter."

 

Master Splinter looked far from happy. "Again," he deadpanned.

 

"It would seem so, Father," said Leo sheepishly.

 

"Hopefully, this one won't destroy the Lair," said Raph sarcastically.

 

Master Splinter pinched his forehead, and looked over at Miwa. "And who might you be, young woman?" he asked.

 

Miwa was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that this rat was apparently her father's counterpart. "You're so  _short!"_  she blurted out without thinking.

 

The turtles all stared at her, and Master Splinter raised a bushy eyebrow at her. "Your name, Miss?" he prompted again.

 

"And I doubt it's really Armonia," added Don skeptically, no doubt knowing that was a word, not a name.

 

Seeing as Miwa had already pulled her scarf off to reveal her face, and was speaking to her family from another dimension anyway, she decided to heck with it. Pulling down her hood, Miwa bowed to Master Splinter and said, "Hajimemashite. My name is Hamato Miwa, though I go by the codename Armonia when on missions. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu."

 

Dead silence followed her introduction, and Miwa looked around with an eyebrow raised. "I already figured I didn't have a counterpart here, seeing as you didn't seem to recognize me at all," she said. "But it can't be that shocking."

 

Master Splinter looked like he was ready to either faint or have a heart attack. "Your parents, they were…?"

 

" _Are_ ," Miwa corrected, getting a sinking feeling from the use of past tense, "Hamato Yoshi and Tang Shen." To prove her point, she pulled out her cell phone again, and brought up their picture from her contact information.

 

Master Splinter seemed to go weak in the knees at that revelation, and Leo had to help him to a chair to sit down. The rat clutched his walking stick tightly as he absorbed the information, but he wasn't upset, he actually seemed overjoyed about it.

 

"I am glad that in at least one world my Master Yoshi and Tang Shen were able to find happiness together," he said in a wistful voice as he stared off into space.

 

Miwa's heart sank at his words. "I get the feeling I don't want to hear what happened to them here," she said reluctantly, filing away the information that this wasn't her father's counterpart to the back of her head.

 

Splinter looked her in the eye and said, "No, perhaps not."

 

An awkward silence fell over the group, before Don cleared his throat and gestured for Miwa to join him at his computer. "Lets look at that portal device, shall we?"

 

_________________________

 

Meanwhile, April and Donnie managed to get topside and away from the worm.

 

April was still upset about the loss of their friend in the tunnels. "This is so terrible," she said, looking close to tears. "Poor Casey."

 

Donnie gave her another hug. A small part of him felt jealous that April was so broken up about another guy, but that part was squashed by the part of him that was grieving the loss of a friend. How was he going to tell this to Raph?

 

"He was a good friend, you know," she said with a sniff, somehow sensing the small piece of jealousy Donnie was feeling. "Once he heard you and I were dating, he didn't try to hit on me like I see him do to other girls. I should have just forgiven him. He must have apologized a hundred times."

 

She then looked up at Donnie with determination. "We have to find a way to stop those Kraang worms once and for a-"

 

She was cut off as the ground started to shake once again, making the couple wobble and fall to the ground in a tangled heap of limbs.

 

If it had been any other time, Donnie would have been blushing crimson at the position he found himself in with April, but now was not the time. Instead, he pulled himself to his feet, and helped April up as well.

 

"You're right about that," Donnie said, referring to the worms. "And with Leatherhead trapped underground with the others, we know only one man who knows more about the Kraang than anyone else."

 

April's eyes widened as she realized who he was talking about.

 

A few minutes later, the couple was knocking on the window of Kurtzman's hideout.

 

A second later, a flashlight shown in their eyes as Kurtzman peered out at them, and hurried to open the window before any of them got spotted.

 

Once the two teenagers were inside, Kurtzman turned to them and said, "This is about the earthquake situation, isn't it?"

 

"You're never gonna guess what's causing them, Mr. Kurtzman," said April.

 

"Call me Jack," said Krutzman as he pulled out some photos and tossed them onto his desk.

 

Donnie and April looked down and gasped upon seeing photos were of the Kraathatrogon.

 

"I named the Kraang's little scheme The Manhattan Project," the man continued.

 

He then filled them in on what he knew about the worms and the Kraang's plans for them.

 

"So these worms are only children?" Donnie asked incredulously, thinking of the size of those they'd seen. "How big are the adults?"

 

"HUGE," said Kurtzman, unrolling a picture on the coffee table, and using a saltshaker to anchor it down. "Some are hundreds of feet long. The Kraang have been importing the worms from Dimension X to suck out their mutagen. It's kinda like milking a giant cow."

 

April looked disgusted. "Okay, okay, we get it," she said, trying to get Kurtzman to stop talking about it.

 

"Well, I'm never looking at milk the same way again," agreed Donnie, also looking grossed out.

 

"So how do we stop them?" asked April.

 

Kurtzman shrugged. "No clue how to stop them," he said. "But I know the Kraang ride these puppies." He pointed back at the picture. "See these antenna on its head. They pull them like the reigns on a horse."

 

"Gross!" April exclaimed.

 

But Donnie's eyes had locked on the saltshaker on the table. Then his eyes widened as an idea struck him. "Why didn't I think of it before," he said loudly, drawing the others' attention. "Salt!"

 

"Salt?" April asked, wondering if her boyfriend had taken one too many knocks to the head.

 

But before she could ask, Donnie's phone started going off.

 

Reaching down to answer it, Donnie's eyes bulged as he caught sight of the caller ID. "It's Casey!" he said, making April's jaw drop. Donnie quickly answered it, and held it to his ear. "Jones?" he asked into the device.

 

"Uh, hey D," said Casey, sounding a little choked, but definitely alive. "So I'm kind of, um, trapped inside this giant worm thing. You wouldn't happen to have some, I don't know, brilliant idea to get me out."

 

April had been leaning over to listen too. She shot Donnie a confused look. "He's inside the worm and he still has a signal?"

 

But Casey continued on, not hearing her. "It's, uh, trying to digest me. I think I could use some help," he was sounding even more choked now, like something was squeezing him tightly.

 

"Don't worry, Jones," said Donnie, jumping to his feet. "I just had a idea stop those worms. We'll be there before you know it."

 

The genius then hung up his phone, and dragged April by the arm back out of Kurtzman's apartment.

 

They had a friend to rescue, and a city to save.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The part about things going back to how they were before Turtles Forever after the movie ends is a headcanon of mine. Mostly to cover how things would go on after all the changes the movie made, and to keep the turtles from having to find yet another Lair. Those poor guys have been moved around more than any other group of turtles in the franchise.


	27. Earthquakes, Portals, and Worms, Oh My! Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Tang Shen captured, Casey stuck in a worm, and Miwa still trying to get home, things can't get any worse, can it?

Within the Shredder's Lair, Tang Shen groaned as she slowly became aware of the world around her.

 

She opened her eyes to find herself sitting upon a throne at the end of the room, and five Foot-Bots standing guard over her. Once the robots saw that she was awake, their eyes lit up and two took off to tell their master of her awakening.

 

Knowing she had very little time before the Shredder arrived, Tang Shen reached for her hidden weapons, only to find that she was no longer wearing the navy blue gi she had chosen to fight in. A lavender kimono with a cherry blossom pattern, and a Foot Clan symbol attached to the obi-jime cord replaced it instead. Reaching up, she found that her hair had been washed and styled as well into an elegant bun with a decorative cherry blossom comb set into it.

 

Knowing she had no time to feel disturbed by her change in apparel, Tang Shen pulled the comb out, and she launched herself towards the nearest robot. She used the teeth of the comb to slice through its neck, making it fall to the ground and spark uselessly.

 

But the other two Foot-Bots grabbed her arms to stop her from trying to do more, and forcing her to drop the comb.

 

Tang Shen struggled against her captors, only to freeze as she heard the sound of the door opening.

 

Looking over at the other end of the room, she saw the Shredder step through the double doors, and start coming towards her in purposeful strides.

 

Taking advantage of her distraction, the Foot-Bots lifted her up and sat her back in the throne, and kept her pinned there as the Shredder approached her.

 

"Impressive," said the Shredder, looking down at the fallen Foot-Bot. "Even weakened and unarmed, you still have more fire in you than any other woman on this planet."

 

Tang Shen scowled at him, but said nothing.

 

The Shredder stared back, his face impassive. "Yes, I know about your injuries," he said tonelessly. "And I know their extent, and the limits they place upon your body. But it only makes your ability to still fight all the more astounding."

 

Tang Shen turned away so she wouldn't have to look at him. "Injuries that  _you_ gave me," she couldn't help but say impudently.

 

The Shredder was silent at that for a long moment. Finally he said, "I never meant to hurt you, Tang Shen."

 

Tang Shen remained stubbornly silent.

 

With hands that were almost gentle, Oroku Saki reached out to her face, and turned it back to look at him.

 

"It was never my intention to harm you," he said again. "Nor did I intend to hurt your daughter."

 

She glared murderously at him for that. "That never stopped you from attacking my daughter," she hissed at him in fury. "That never stopped you from trying to kill her and my four sons."

 

"I did not know you were alive, nor that the boys were yours," the Shredder stated, not sounding apologetic for his actions. "Had I known, I would have saved you  _and_  them from Hamato Yoshi's clutches years ago. But do not fret, my love, you will be safe from him soon."

 

Tang Shen's scowl only deepened. "Why can you never understand I do not  _need_  to be saved?" she said despairingly. " _I_ chose Yoshi because it was  _him_  I loved. At first he was willing to deny his feelings for me for your sake, and it was  _I_  who pursued  _him_  to change his mind."

 

The Shredder looked furious, and raised his hand as if to slap her, but caught himself just in time before the blow fell. "You loved  ** _me!_** " he insisted. "I could see it in your eyes."

 

"As a  _brother!_ " Tang Shen replied remorsefully. "As a friend. As a good man, and as someone I could trust. But not as a lover. I never loved you the way you wanted me too."

 

The Shredder banged his fist on the armrest of the throne, bringing the blades on his gauntlets within inches from her own hand. "STOP LYING!" he roared.

 

Tang Shen didn't shrink away in fear of the blades, but instead straightened her back, and looked the Shredder directly in the eye. "I love Yoshi, not you," she said plainly. "And it is with him that I have spent these last fifteen years. Nothing you can do or say will ever change that."

 

The Shredder seethed in fury in front of her, and for a moment Tang Shen was sure he would kill her right there. But then a wave of calm came over him that was almost more terrifying than his rage.

 

"Of course," he said as if in realization. "Fifteen years of being fed lies would trick anyone into believing they were true."

 

Tang Shen blinked at him in confusion, then it dawned on her what he was thinking. He thought her husband had been brainwashing her against him all these years. That she had developed some form of Stockholm syndrome towards him.

 

The Shredder then drew away and started for the exit. "But if the source of the problem is removed, perhaps you will be able to come to your senses, and guide your children down the correct path along with you."

 

Then, deaf to Tang Shen's protests to the contrary, the Shredder left the room intent on finding and killing Yoshi once and for all.

 

Once he was gone, Tang Shen struggled to get up and try to escape again, but the Foot-Bots kept her in the throne with an iron grip, and her struggles only added to the pain in her back. It didn't look like she would be going anywhere anytime soon.

 

________________________

 

After a quick stop at the store, Donnie and April searched the old subway tunnels near where they'd lost the worm previously. Finally they heard the Kraathatrogon roaring in the distance.

 

April was still dubious about the plan her boyfriend had, but could only watch helplessly as he banged his bō staff against the train tracks to draw the worm's attention.

 

"You really think a stick is going to attract a-" she started to say, but the disgusting noise the Kraathatrogon made when it moved reached her ears, and they both wheeled around to see the worm charging down the tunnel towards them.

 

"The satchel," Donnie called to her, and April opened the bag she was carrying to pull out a container of salt.

 

"Still with the salt?" she asked, still thinking this whole plan was crazy.

 

"Salt's ionic strength can burn through a worm's neurosecretory cells," Donnie explained quickly. "It's like acid."

 

"Yeah, but  _salt?"_  April asked again, still not buying it.

 

But the worm was getting closer, and it was the only plan they had. So April began opening the containers and tossing them to Donnie, who used his bō like a baseball bat, and whacked the containers at the worm.

 

Container after container burst on the oncoming worm's skin without it showing the slightest sign of slowing it down.

 

Finally, April reached into the satchel for another container, only for her fingers to scrape the bottom of the bag. Eyes wide with panic, she said, "Donnie! We're out!"

 

Donnie cast a glance at the empty bag, and the worm that was still charging at them. Then remembering he still had it, he reached into his pocket and pulled out Kurtzman's saltshaker and sent that flying towards the worm as well.

 

The shaker shatter on the tracks just short of the worm, and April whipped out her tessen and began fanning the air so that a cloud of salt wafted at the worm.

 

At first it looked like it was doing nothing, but then the worm skidded to a stop just before it reached them, and let out a pain filled shriek.

 

The couple tensed as the worm recoiled on itself, then it's mouth opened, and it sent a wave of puke hurling at them, along with one slime covered vigilante.

 

The wave of vomit sent the three sliding down the tunnel until they rolled to a stop, all of them letting out cries of disgust as they did so.

 

"Aw gross!" yelled Casey as he tried to shake off the worm puke. "That smell's never gonna come out!"

 

"You okay, Casey?" Donnie asked as he pushed himself to his feet, and looked the other boy over for injuries. Noticing the irritated red of Casey's skin, he poked at it a bit, enticing a wince from the teen. "Looks like the stomach acid did a number on you," he said, moving towards a fire hose he saw built into the wall.

 

He the turned the hose on Casey, washing off the Kraathatrogon slime, and making him yelp at the blast of frigid water. At her request, he also hosed down April, and allowed it to be turned on him, washing them all clean from the vomit.

 

Taking another look at Casey's skin, Donnie concluded, "You'll be fine. Your skin'll burn like a sunburn for a few days, but it'll pass. Glad you're alive, Jones."

 

Casey rubbed the skin on his cheek and winced. "Good to be alive," he said looking slightly traumatized. "But I know I'll never look at worms the same way ever again."

 

"You and me both," Donnie agreed. He then cast a glance at April, and the red head approached Casey slowly.

 

"Casey," she said hesitantly, and he looked over at her tentatively. "I'm sorry."

 

Casey blinked at her, and rubbed his ear. "I think I might still have some gunk in my ears. Did you just apologize?"

 

April nodded, her face remorseful. "I was awful to you," she admitted. "I understood why you did what you did, but I couldn't let go of my grudge even though you apologized more than enough times. When we thought you might be dead… I just realized how much I missed being your friend… I'm sorry."

 

Casey glanced over at Donnie, as if trying to confirm if April's words were legit. At his nod, Casey beamed down at April. "Well, that practically makes being eaten by a space worm worth it," he said. "Apology accepted. Friends?" He held out his hand for her to shake.

 

April smiled back and shook his hand. "Friends." She then looked over at Donnie to gage his reaction, but was surprised to see him staring horrified at the tunnel before them.

 

"I hate to break up the reunion," her boyfriend said worriedly, pointing on ahead of them. "But we have big, Huge, GIANT  _PROBLEMS!_ "

 

The other two teenagers looked, and gasped at the sight.

 

They were back in the worm room, and the Kraang were already pulling another Kraathatrogon through a portal into their world, this one larger than the others they'd seen so far. It was so big that it could barely fit through the large portal the Kraang had set up in the room.

 

"Now that's a big worm," Casey said dazedly.

 

The three of them quickly snuck closer to get a better look. As they hid behind a giant gear sticking out of the floor, Donnie examined the situation with a critical eye.

 

"Okay, here's the plan," the ninja said to his friends. "I reverse the polarity of the portal, and keep that thing from getting in. You guys create a diversion."

 

"What kind of diversion?" asked April.

 

But Casey grinned cockily. "Leave that to Casey Jones," he said confidently.

 

"Just don't get eaten again, Jones," Donnie said, sending him his own smirk. "I'd hate to have to tell Raph you were a snack twice in one day."

 

Casey made a face at Donnie, and jumped out of their hiding place, dragging April with him. "Yo!" he yelled, waving his arms at the Kraang. "Alien Freak Jobs!" he then waved his hands by his ears, and blew a raspberry at them.

 

The Kraang all turned and pointed their weapons at the two, and April and Casey had to run to avoid their fire.

 

"I hope you have a plan other than getting shot at, Hockey Boy!" April yelled as they ducked back behind the gear.

 

With the Kraang successfully distracted, Donnie began sneaking along the wall towards the portal. With a glance at his friend and girlfriend, he sped up his pace. He knew he had to get this done before the two of them got fried.

 

________________________

 

"So tell us about our counterparts."

 

Miwa looked up the turtle version of her baby brother in surprise. They had all been sitting around while waiting for Don to work out her way home, and Master Splinter excused himself to meditate on the information she had given him.

 

Michelangelo shrugged at her surprised look. "There's not much else to do while Don gets his nerd on, so why don't you tell us about your us's."

 

At his suggestion, Leo had looked over at Miwa in interest, Don had cocked his head towards them to show he was listening, and even Raph had perked up from his glaring suspiciously at the girl.

 

Miwa hesitated. She wasn't sure how these four would react to hearing that their rat father didn't exist in her world, or that their counterparts were born her human brothers. Still, she couldn't just say nothing…

 

"What do you want to know?" she asked.

 

Mikey beamed at her. "What's my counterpart like? He as handsome as me? Does he like superheroes too?" he asked rapidly

 

Miwa had to smile at the similarity of the turtle's actions to her own brother's. Being careful to not mention the human differences between the turtles and her family, Miwa regaled them with stories about her little brothers. Her audience listened with interest as they heard about their personalities, their hobbies, their codenames, and their quirks.

 

The turtles were in stitches when they heard that her Leo was a Space Heroes fanboy, as well as Mikey's irrational fear of squirrels, and that Raph had the animal powers of a Disney Princess. They'd also been shocked to hear of Donnie and April dating, and of the redhead's great dislike for one Casey Jones. Apparently, the latter two were married in this dimension.

 

Then she told them about their enemies. About the Shredder and his vendetta, and the hench-mutants under his employ, as well as the Kraang, and their plans to terra-form her world.

 

"If these little Utrom wannabes are trying to take over your world, what were they doing here when we met you?" Mikey asked after she finished her explanation.

 

Miwa shrugged. "Who knows. Maybe they've figured out they can't take over our world without a fight, and are looking for an easier one to conquer. Or maybe it was never  _just_  my world they wanted, and They're looking to take over the whole multi-verse. But whatever the reason, I can tell you it's not good."

 

"Well, if those little freaks think they can just waltz in and take over our world they've got another thing coming," said Raph, twirling his sai absentmindedly.

 

"He's right, whatever they're planning, we'll take care of it," Leo agreed.

 

Mikey let out a dramatic groan. "Great, another bad guy out to get us. Don't they have anything better to do?"

 

"From what I've seen of the Kraang and their world, I'd have to say no. They don't really get out much," replied Miwa. She then glanced over at Leo. "You think you guys can handle them?"

 

Leo nodded and looked determined. "We've taken down alien threats before, and now that we know to be on the lookout for it, we can start investigating on our own."

 

"And we can warn some of the other dimensions we're familiar with about them," added Don from his work place. "With their advanced technology, I'd hate to see what those guys could do to a world like Usagi's."

 

Just as he finished saying that, the portal device in his hands activated, and a pink triangle appeared in the Lair.

 

"Okay, if my calculations are right, this should get you back to your home dimension," Don said, standing to look over the portal.

 

Miwa stepped up to it, and peered through. Instantly her eyes widened at what she was seeing through it. "MOTHER! NO!" she yelled in a panicked voice, and dove through the portal without hesitation, taking the device with her on pure reflex.

 

The turtles blinked in surprise when the portal and their guest vanished from the Lair.

 

Raph let out a scoff. "Not even a thank you," he grumbled. "But at least this one didn't trash the place."

 

"From the way she reacted, I don't think she had time for one, Raph," Leo replied.

 

"I wonder what she saw to freak her out like that," said Mikey.

 

"I know one way to find out," said Don, and he reached into a drawer and pulled out a high-tech looking flashlight.

 

"The portal stick?" asked Mikey when he saw it. "But didn't we agree to lay off the dimension jumping?"

 

"We won't interfere unless we have to," said Don as he imputed the coordinates he come up with for Miwa's dimension into the device. "But we can watch what's happening."

 

He then shown the light from the machine onto the far wall, and his brothers gathered around to watch.

 

________________________

 

Using his shuko spikes, Leo scaled the wall of the Shredder's Lair, and scoped out the security on the roof. Two Foot-Bots stood sentry outside the broken stained glass window, but they were easily disposed of.

 

With the Foot-Bots broken at his feet, Leo slipped inside the church, and caught sight of his mother sitting in the Shredder's throne, kept there by the metallic grip of another two Foot-Bots.

 

Tang Shen caught sight of him, but gave no indication to her captors of his presence. She made eye contact with him, and then flicked them towards the room's door in an attempt to warn him of the danger. The Shredder or his minions could return at any moment.

 

Either not seeing her signal, or misinterpreting it, Leo leapt down from the window's edge and let a pair of shuriken fly, embedding themselves in the heads of the Foot-Bots holding Tang Shen. The robots fell uselessly to the ground, and Tang Shen wrenched herself free of them.

 

She quickly stood, and stiffly rushed towards her son, the two embracing in the middle of the room.

 

But far too quickly Tang Shen pulled back. "We must go,  _Now!"_ she hissed, and the two turned to take their leave.

 

But before either could even take a step, fire erupted within the rock garden terrariums under the windows.

 

Mother and son drew closer together as the flames bathed the room in an eerie orange glow, and seemed to surround them at all sides.

 

Then hearing footsteps behind them, they turned to see the Shredder standing before the throne Tang Shen had previously been occupying.

 

Leo reached for his swords, but before he could draw them, a large paw closed over his hand, and dragged him away from his mother. Tang Shen let out a shout, and tried to reach him, but Rahzar and Fishface jumped between them, snarling viciously.

 

Leo found himself trapped in Tiger Claw's grip, and struggling fruitlessly to free himself.

 

"I told you her cub would come for her," Tiger Claw said to his master.

 

Shredder approached them, and studied the features he could see of Leo under his hood in the dim light. "So this is one of your sons," he said, heedless of both the Hamatos' glares. The Shredder's eyes then narrowed. "He seems to be far to much like his father."

 

"And proud of it!" Leo shouted defiantly.

 

The Shredder fixed him with a scathing glare. "We'll soon fix that, Raion, was it," he said ominously.

 

Leo gulped, but otherwise showed no fear. He was beginning to understand why his sister had been so unnerved. The idea that the Shredder wanted to convert him to his side made Leo feel sick to his stomach. Trying to mask that, he blurted out, "Mother is never going to leave Father for you! So as a lonely, single man in your forties, I suggest internet dating or getting a cat!"

 

Leo received a harsh slap across the face for that remark, but he didn't regret it.

 

"Where are the others?" the Shredder demanded of him.

 

Leo stubbornly kept his mouth shut. Tiger Claw, meanwhile, sniffed the air. "It's just him, Master Shredder," the giant cat said. "He's alone. I sense no one else."

 

The Shredder turned back to Tang Shen, who had been trying to inch her way past Rahzar to get to Leo.

 

"Fear not, my love," he said to Tang Shen in what he must have thought was a calming tone. "I will gather the rest of your children, and then I will free you from Hamato Yoshi once and for all."

 

Tang Shen glared at him murderously. "Why can you never see that I have nothing to be freed from!" she insisted. "I love Yoshi and my children! Before you came, I was  _happy!_ I don't want you here, and killing my husband would only make me despise you more! _"_

 

"SILENCE!" shouted Shredder, and he slapped Tang Shen so hard she was sent sprawling across the floor.

 

" _MOTHER!_ " yelled Leo, fighting Tiger Claw furiously. "You monster! Leave her alone!"

 

Tang Shen spat out blood from the slap, but continued to glare defiantly up at the Shredder. "I cared for you once, Saki. But for the all harm you've done to my family I will  _never_ forgive you," she said in a dark tone.

 

The Shredder snarled in rage and grabbed Tang Shen by the front of her kimono and made to hit her again.

 

But before he could, another quake rocked the ground beneath their feet, and the Shredder dropped Tang Shen in order to keep his balance.

 

From where she lay on the ground, Tang Shen noticed a crack in the aquarium tank, and the Shredder was stumbling a few feet away upon its glass.

 

With a precise blow, she slammed her fist against the crack, making the glass floor shatter, and sending the Shredder into the water along with a rain of sharp glass.

 

Seeing the opportunity, Leo yelled, "NOW!"

 

The assembled hench-mutants tensed at his yell, but were unprepared when firecrackers and other fireworks began raining down around them, making them scatter to avoid being burned.

 

Leo was able to use the distraction to pull free from Tiger Claw's grip, making the tiger yell in surprise.

 

"Aw YEAH! Rescue Time!" cheered Mikey as he and Raph leaped down from the stained glass window, throwing more fireworks and a few Boom Stars as they went down.

 

Weaving through the confused mutants, the three teenagers raced towards Tang Shen.

 

"Come on, Mother!" yelled Raph, and Leo lifted her up into a fireman's carry to get them out of there. As the fireworks sizzled out they created a smoke screen for them all to use to escape.

 

As they left they heard Tiger Claw roar, "NO!" along with the other villains' outraged cries. But nothing halted their escape, and they only slowed down long enough for Leo to pass his mother to Raph, knowing the turtle's greater strength would allow him to carry her easier and faster than he could.

 

"Are you alright, Mother?" Raph asked the woman cradled in his arms as they bolted across the rooftops.

 

Tang Shen gave him a weak smile. "I'm afraid I've overdone it with my activities today," she said tiredly as all the events of that night started to catch up to her. "Though, I know I will be far more sore tomorrow."

 

"We'll get you home and help you feel better in no time," Leo assured her.

 

"By the way, Mom," Mikey said as he looked over the kimono Tang Shen was wearing. "You're looking good tonight."

 

Tang Shen couldn't help but laugh. "Thank you, sweetie, but I'd rather not keep something Shredder offered. You can help me burn it later."

 

Mikey's eyes lit up at the idea. "Sweet!" he cheered.

 

"You do know these pyro tendencies of yours are why we don't let you carry Boom Stars, right?" said Leo.

 

Mikey stuck his tongue out in reply. But then his eyes widened as he noticed something behind them. "Guys, we've got company," he said, pointing towards the herd of mutants and Foot-Bots that was searching for them.

 

"We can't fight them with Mother like this," said Raph nodding at how drained Shen looked.

 

The woman in question looked ashamed of her current weakness, but nodded in agreement.

 

Just then, Leo's phone buzzed with a text. A wide smile grew on his face as he read it.

 

"We won't have to," he said brightly. "Father says he's recovered from the poison and wants to help us. Come on!"

 

Leo took of in the direction of their father, and the others hurried after him.

 

But just then, Tiger Claw appeared in front of them, using a jet pack to propel himself after them at great speeds.

 

It was clear who his target was, and he flew at Raph and Tang Shen, his claws out to strike too fast for Raph to dodge.

 

Just then a cry of "MOTHER! NO!" came from overhead. Everyone looked up to see Miwa flying down from out of nowhere, and land right on Tiger Claw's head.

 

"Bad kitty!" she yelled at Tiger Claw as her added weight made the mutant change directions and face-plant onto the roof. She then jumped off him and ran over to the others.

 

"Where did you come from?" asked Mikey.

 

"Long story!" said Miwa, shoving the portable portal into her pocket. "Why is Mother here?"

 

"Also a long story," said Leo. Then he caught sight of Tiger Claw getting to his feet, and the other hench-mutants catching up. "Which we will all tell later, right now we need to  _RUN!_ "

 

The four teens and their mother again took off across the rooftops, the evil mutants gaining on them every step of the way.

 

But once again, Tiger Claw caught up to them, and this time aimed his attack at Leo.

 

Only to once again be intercepted, this time by Master Yoshi who arrived just in time to block the tiger's attack, twist Tiger Claw's arm behind his back, and throw him to the ground.

 

"Do not lay a hand on my son!" said Yoshi, glaring at the hench-mutants.

 

"Sensei!" cheered Mikey as the teenagers gathered around him.

 

"My love," Tang Shen said endearingly as Raph brought her closer, reaching out to Yoshi. Her husband clasped her hand in his, and looked both utterly relieved at the sight of Shen safe, and horrified at the bruise forming on her cheek where Shredder had slapped her.

 

"I'm sorry they took you, Shen," he said softly, he then turned to his mutant son. "Iyasa, take your mother to safety. The Shellraiser is on the street below."

 

"You got it, Sensei," said Raph with a nod, and he hurried over the edge of the building.

 

"Raion, Armonia, Tenshi, you three stay with me. Now it is time to end this!" Yoshi said, and they all nodded in agreement.

 

Rahzar and Fishface and several Foot-Bots gathered around Tiger Claw as he once again pulled himself to his feet, waiting for the feline mutant to give the signal.

 

Seeing this, the Hamatos shifted into fighting stances. "Are you ready, my children?" Yoshi asked.

 

The question didn't even need an answer, and the four shot forward to attack.

 

________________________

 

Back underground, Casey Jones was having the time of his life fighting off the Kraang with exploding hockey pucks.

 

April was having less fun slicing through them with her tessen, but she had to admit taking out her aggressions on the aliens was a far more productive use for her anger than taking it out on her friends, and it  _had_ been a stressful day.

 

Donnie, meanwhile, had finally reached the portal, and quickly pulled a panel from the side and began working on reversing it. Not for the first time did he feel a twinge of envy for Mikey's seemingly flawless ability to use Kraang technology. Especially since the controls seemed to be plugged into something that looked suspiciously like brain matter.

 

With all the interference the teens were creating, the Kraang were quickly getting fed up with them, and one said, "Kraang, release another Kraathatrogon."

 

The nearest semi-functioning Kraang to the Kraathatrogon controls crawled over on one leg and slammed its metal fist onto the release button.

 

Another of the baby Kraathatrogon let out a screech as it was released from its bindings and started slithering towards April and Casey. It's movements causing another earthquake to the ground above.

 

"LOOK OUT!" yelled Casey as he and April dodged the worm as it tried to snap them up.

 

Looking up at it as it flopped next to her, April's eyes lit up. "I've got an idea!" she yelled to Casey as she ran towards the worm. "Something that Kurtzman said!"

 

Casey pushed himself to his feet and opened his mouth to reply, only to find a Kraang blaster shoved in his face, and humming as prepared to fire.

 

Casey stumbled back with a yelp, and braced himself for the coming pain. Only to have his jaw drop when he saw the Kraathatrogon that had been released to kill them head-butt the Kraang and its blaster away.

 

Looking up, he saw April perched on the worm's head using its antenna as reigns. Patting the seat behind her, April said, "Come on, Hockey Boy!"

 

Taking her hand, Casey allowed himself to be pulled up behind her, and instantly felt repulsed by the Kraathatrogon's slimy surface. But he didn't have time to complain, as April shook the antenna and forced the worm forward, plowing through any Kraang in their path.

 

"Do your thing, Gifuto!" yelled April as the worm slithered past him and the portal.

 

Donnie had to stop his work and stare at them. "I don't believe it," he said with a shell-shocked expression.

 

As he watched, the worm continued to take out Kraang, before heading out of the room and up towards the surface.

 

________________________

 

After scaling down from the roof with his mother in his hands, Raph quickly rushed her into the Shellraiser and sat her down on the closest seat to the door, which just so happened to be Miwa's.

 

Tang Shen let out a hiss of pain as her back hit the chair, and Raph instantly froze. "Are you okay?"

 

Tang Shen gave him a brief smile. "I am alright. It is just old injuries." Her face darkened. "I am afraid I will be nothing but a burden to you all in this fight."

 

Raph knew he wasn't any good at words of comfort, but he knew he couldn't leave without saying anything.

 

"You're not useless, Mother," he insisted. "You're… you're…" he searched the Shellraiser interior for some idea to comfort her. Then he saw the controls for the garbage cannon and had a stroke of brilliance.

 

"You're our long range support," he quickly, shoving the periscope and controls in front of her. "If you see any uglies get into your shot, fire at will. You'd be surprised just how many things compressed garbage can take down."

 

Tang Shen blinked in surprise, then sent him a thankful glance and pulled the controls into place. "I will do my best, my son," she assured him. "Now go an help the others."

 

Raph gave his mother a salute, and hurried back out of the Shellrasier and onto the street just as another earthquake hit, making a Foot-Bot slip off the building and fall directly towards his head.

 

Raph's eyes widened at the metal soldier falling towards him, but before he could dodge, the garbage cannon fired a single shot, and knocked it away.

 

Raph grinned, and as he climbed the fire escape back to the fight he called towards the Shellraiser, "See, I told you!"

 

Within the vehicle, his mother smiled and continued scanning the battle with the periscope.

 

When Raph reached the roof, he saw his siblings fighting tooth and nail to against their opponents, and his father facing off against Tiger Claw.

 

Suddenly the giant cat managed to get Yoshi pinned. Smirking maliciously, Tiger Claw said, "You are mine now, Yoshi-san."

 

But before his blade could come down, Raph threw a rock at the cat, distracting him long enough for Leo to shoot forward and kick Tiger Claw away from their father. The turtle was then distracted when he was roped into a fight with Fishface, and had to dodge the switchblade the snakehead fish swung his way.

 

Yoshi, still somewhat weak from the poisons, placed a hand on Leo's shoulder and gave a grateful nod to both him and Raph. "Not too shabby," he said.

 

Just then a giant worm burst out of the street below and reared up till it was roof level. The fighters on the roof could only stare in shock at the worm, and gaped even more when they realized Casey and April were riding on its head.

 

"WaHOO!" cheered April in time to the worm's roar, and Casey gave a whoop of his own.

 

Taking advantage of the distraction, Tiger Claw activated his jet pack and shot towards Yoshi with his blade drawn.

 

But a well-aimed shot from the garbage cannon sent the tiger flying off course, and crash landing in a dumpster several blocks away.

 

Leo grinned down at the Shellraiser, and sent his mother within a thumbs-up.

 

________________________

 

Back down below, Donnie finally crossed the right pair of wires, and sucked the giant worm back to whence it came.

 

Donnie pumped his fist into the air and cheered. "HA! I did it! I Rule!"

 

He quickly tied himself to the wall next to the portal, and he watched as the Kraang and the Kraathatrogons were sucked back in.

 

Back on street level, April and Casey's worm was also caught in the pull of the portal, and they were all dragged back underground towards it.

 

When he saw them coming, Donnie quickly held out his bō staff, and Casey managed to grab the stick with one hand. April missed her grab for the staff, and instead caught hold of Casey's foot to keep herself from being sucked in.

 

Knowing they couldn't hold on like that for long, Donnie quickly reached back and yanked out the wires he'd crossed, shutting down the portal and dropping them all to the floor.

 

There was a beat of silence as the three of them processed what happened.

 

Donnie quickly ran over to the other two to check on them, and was promptly pulled into a hug by April. "You did it, Donnie!" she said happily. "You saved the city."

 

"Yeah, Braniac," said Casey bumping fists with him. "You rule."

 

Donnie beamed at both of them. "You two were so bad your self," he said. "Nice worm wrangling."

 

April made a face. "Don't remind me." She then noticed Casey lighting some of his exploding hockey pucks and batting them into the portal tunnel. "What are you doing?" she asked.

 

"What's it look like?" Casey asked. "I'm fixing it so those alien freak jobs can't use this thing ever again."

 

On cue the pucks exploded, damaging the portal significantly, though it still stood.

 

Donnie pulled out a few Boom Stars he kept on him and activated them. "Good idea," he said, tossing them towards spots he knew would do the most damage.

 

April also got in on it, and began using her tessen to batter all the control panels she could see.

 

After thoroughly wrecking the equipment, and making off with a hefty helping of the freshly milked mutagen, the three teens made their way back to the surface, and arrived to see the rest of the Hamatos had since sent the rest of the Foot packing just in time for sunrise.

 

Basking in their victory, teenagers and parents sat out on the roof that had been their battleground and watched the sun climb over the horizon and informing each other of all that had happened while separated.

 

"So the earthquakes were caused by giant worms that lived under the sewers?" Raph asked incredulously. "That sounds worse than giant cockroaches."

 

"It's true," said April. Then she glanced over at Miwa. "And I can't believe you guys are  _all_ turtles in every dimension Mi ended up going to. I sure hope that's a not a sign of things to come."

 

Miwa shrugged. "Maybe I just didn't end up in the ones where they're human," she said, having left out what she'd seen of her evil self, she wasn't ready to talk about that yet. She then shot a look at Leo, Raph and Mikey. "But what I really can't believe is that you three blew up Shredder's Lair without me."

 

Mikey grinned. "Yeah, that was awesome! But just I'm stoked you guys are back. C'mere!" He then pulled Miwa, Donnie, Casey, and April into a big hug.

 

"We're glad to be back, trust me," said Donnie as the four of them laughed.

 

Tang Shen let out a chuckle at the sight as well, only to hiss in pain.

 

Next to her, Yoshi reached out and gently pulled her closer. "Are you alright, my love?"

 

She nodded and let out a sigh. "I am fine. I've just over done it. This night has been full of the most excitement I've had in fifteen years."

 

"Maybe a little too exciting," said Leo, looking at his mother in concern. "I'm sorry I-"

 

Tang Shen clapped a hand over his mouth to halt his apology. "None of that, Leonardo," she said sternly. "There was nothing else you could have done to protect your brothers."

 

"The only person to blame in this is the Shredder," Yoshi added. "You are a capable leader, my son. And I have all of you to thank for rescuing your mother. Now, we celebrate."

 

The teenagers shared a grin and they all started to make their way off the roof.

 

"So where do you think that Kraang worm went, anyway?" asked Mikey as they left.

 

________________________

 

In the 1987 Turtles' dimension, the four heroes in question were breathing heavily after taking on a giant worm that had come out of a portal in the middle of downtown, only for it to spit up a mutant tiger that proceeded to give them the fight of their lives.

 

"Great," groused Raphael once the tiger was gone. "First Casey Jones takes us on a wild goose chase, then Lotus Blossom shows up with some mission, and now all  _this!_ "

 

"Look on the bright side, compadre," said Michelangelo. "It can't get any worse."

 

"Please tell me you didn't just say that," Leonardo moaned.

 

On cue another portal opened up and another worm crawled through.

 

"Oh, not another one!" shouted Donatello.

 

"Let's hope this one doesn't have a striped surprise inside," said Raphael sarcastically.

 

"Well, there's no helping it guys," said Leonardo. "Let's get 'im!"

 

"Turtle Power!" shouted the four turtles as they rushed the new worm.

 

Fortunately for them, after coming through the portal the new worm attacked the outside of a pizza restaurant, and after the turtles stopped it, the owner of the restaurant offered them free pizza for life. A decision the owner quickly regretted.

 

________________________

 

Back in the 2003 Turtles' dimension, the four brothers stood gaping in front of the dimensional window from the Portal Stick, watching their counterparts file off the roof after their battle.

 

"Our counterparts in Miwa's dimension… are  _human?"_ asked Leo incredulously.

 

"All but mine, apparently," said Raph gruffly, unsure what to think.

 

"I did not see that coming," remarked Mikey.

 

Don looked thoughtful. "It makes you wonder, if there are some dimensions out there where we're human, then maybe we have even  _more_  counterparts than the Utrom Shredder saw when he scanned us in the Technodrome."

 

The other three exchanged glances when they heard that. "We should keep an eye on this dimension," said Leo firmly. "In case they ever need help."

 

Raph let out a snort of agreement. "Yeah, most of them kids don't have shells, so someone's gotta watch their back."

 

Don sent his hotheaded brother a smirk. "And here we thought you didn't like Miwa."

 

Raph grumbled something indiscernible.

 

Then Mikey let out a snicker as he thought of something. "Old Shred Head was all freaked out about our turtle doubles. Imagine if he knew there was even more of us that just didn't happen to be turtles. The look on his face…"

 

Raph also smirked at the mental image. "Bet'cha his brain would explode."

 

Just then an alarm began going off. Don quickly shut off the Portal Stick and pulled up the source on his computer.

 

"It's coming from our old Lair," said the genius. "I left some sensors there after we moved out."

 

The trashed image of their previous home appeared. Only now it was swarming with now familiar-looking robots with Utrom-like aliens in their chests. As they watched, the aliens moved in and out of another pink triangle portal and carrying equipment in to set up.

 

"Looks Miwa was right about them trying to set up shop in our world," said Leo.

 

"Well, we'll just have to let them know our world ain't for sale," said Raph, spinning his sais in his hands for emphasis.

 

Mikey and Don both nodded in agreement, and the four hurried out of the Lair.

 

Time for them to save the world once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed my take on this. Also, the comment about internet dating and a cat was inspired by a comment by erica.phoenix16 on fanfic.net, who pointed out that Shedder was acting a lot like Vlad Plasmius from Danny Phantom. This cracked me up so much that I had to add it in.


	28. My Kingdom for a Cosplay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thinking back on it, they really shouldn't have played a game they found in the sewers.

Thinking back on it, they really shouldn't have played a game they found in the sewers. The simple fact they'd found it there should have triggered some alarm bells (or just tell them that it wasn't all that good).

 

But when Mondo Gecko found the RPG Mazes and Mutants in one of the sewer tunnels, he and Mikey instantly became hooked, and their enthusiasm soon roped the others in as well.

 

Raph hadn't been all that thrilled to be dragged into playing, but one look at Mikey's puppy dog eyes had him sitting down and rolling the dice with minimal complaints. He dragged Casey into it too because, quote "If I have to suffer though this, I'm not doing it alone," end quote. The joke was on him it seems, as Casey ended up liking the game much more than Raph had expected.

 

After that, Donnie invited April to play as well, and while dubious at first, she eventually found it fun as well.

 

And thus, the teenagers sitting around the game board quickly became a common sight in the Lair, and they all had fun, if only from watching some of the players over the top reactions.

 

"No! You Can't! NO!  _NO! **NO!**_ " wailed Mikey during one such game.

 

The rest of the teens snickered at the sight, and Leatherhead's voice came floating in from his room.

 

"Are we under attack, or is Michelangelo losing your game again?" asked the gator dryly.

 

Mikey immediately pouted. "Hey! What do you mean  _'again'_?"

 

"It's just Mikey loosing, don't worry, LH!" Mondo called back from his seat.

 

Mikey, meanwhile, was too busy bemoaning over the bad turn out the most recent dice roll had brought him. "My +1 Ring of Awesome didn't save me," he wailed as Leo placed his elf character piece face down.

 

He then draped himself on the person next to him's arm. "Avenge me," he said dramatically. "Avenge the beloved elf!"

 

Unfortunately, that person happened to be Raph, and after giving his brother an unamused look, he shoved him off and onto the floor.

 

"Relax, Mikey, your elf is fine," said Leo from behind the rulebook, as he was playing the Game Master this time. He then gave his brother a sinister grin. "For now…"

 

Mikey immediately perked back up and kissed the toy ring he had gotten as part of the game.

 

Raph rolled his eyes at his brother's antics.

 

"But suddenly!" Leo continued in a dramatic voice, "Your party is attacked by evil, vicious  _MONKEY GOBLINS!"_  As he shouted the last word he placed the monkey goblin piece down in front of Raph's hobbit piece.

 

Mikey and Donnie blinked in surprise, but Raph just looked bored. Miwa, April, Casey, and Mondo were in a separate party, and they snickered at the other's misfortune, as well as the dramatics Leo put into playing.

 

"You have to roll a two or higher to avoid being bitten," Leo explained.

 

With expressions of deep concentration, Mikey and Donnie both rolled their dice and were delighted to see it come out twenty, keeping them safe.

 

But Raph carelessly tossed his game piece and, unfortunately for him, it landed on a one.

 

"One?" he asked in surprise.

 

"Ooooh," said Mondo teasingly.

 

"Critical Fail, Dude," Mikey sang cheerfully, shaking Raph's shoulder as he did so.

 

"The Monkey Goblin bites," said Leo with a grin. "Raph loses," he paused to roll his dice. "Eleven hit points."

 

"Eleven!" shouted Raph in an outrage. Furious, he grabbed the dice again. "Give me that! I'm gonna use my magic sword +3 to strike!"

 

"Um, Raph," said Mondo, stopping him. "I'm the dwarf with a magic sword. You're the hobbit with the frying pan and glow-in-the-dark dagger."

 

Raph threw down the dice and let out a groan of frustration. "Why do I always have to be the hobbit?" he asked. "They're lame… and small."

 

"Because you're always too busy moaning about how you don't want to play to grab a good character," said Miwa with a teasing grin, while tapping her finger next to her thief player piece.

 

"Yeah," agreed April, holding up her pirate piece. "If you dropped the tough guy act and actually  _tried_  to enjoy yourself, you might just have as much fun as we do. I mean, look at Casey."

 

Casey looked up from where he'd been fiddling with his ranger piece. "What?" he asked distractedly.

 

Leo's smug grin dropped off her face, and he looked at the hockey nut in concern. "You okay, Casey?" he asked. "You've been off your game all night."

 

Casey let out a sigh. "I'm fine. It's just that I, uh, I found my journal today, and I read some of the stuff I wrote from a few weeks back." He hesitated, then added, "You guys know how I was doing a lot of snooping back when Raph got mutated, and you guys wouldn't let me see him, right?"

 

The others all nodded and muttered their affirmations, April only giving a tiny frown at the mention of it.

 

"Well ya see, I kept everything I found out in my journal," Casey continued. "I had this whole investigation going for me, trying to figure out what could have happened to him that was so bad you guys had to cover it up. So while I was digging around, I found out he wasn't the only kid in our school to disappear."

 

April's eyes widened. "Wait," she said. "You told me about this. You said four kids from our school went missing, right?"

 

Casey nodded. "Yeah. One was Raph, another was Mondo," he nodded at each of the mutants in turn. "The third was Timothy, and, uh, we all know what happened to him."

 

The other teens shot an uneasy glance towards Donnie at the mention of Mutagen Man. The genius didn't acknowledge the looks, and had a downcast expression at the mention of his former friend.

 

"Yeah," Casey continued, looking uncomfortable. "So we all know what happened to three of them. But I never was able to figure out what happened to the fourth kid." He then glanced down at the game board. "After I met up with Raph again, and, ya know, every crazy thing that's happened since then, I haven't been able to continue my investigation. I still don't know why Martin Milton (that's the guy's name) went missing, and now it's bugging the heck out of me."

 

His friends exchanged glances with each other. "You could just need a fresh set of eyes," suggested Donnie. "Maybe we can help."

 

"Why did you think this Martin kid's disappearance had anything to do with ours?" asked Raph, jerking his thumb at himself and Mondo.

 

The gecko nodded in agreement, and the others looked curious as well.

 

Casey reached over to where his golf back was sitting, and pulled out a beat-up journal and handed over to Donnie to look through. "Because he went missing the same night you guys did," he explained as the genius flipped through his work. "The night you spilled those canisters all over New York. No one really noticed he was gone except for his parents, since Martin wasn't all that popular at school. But if he was a mutant, wouldn't he have shown up by now?"

 

"I don't know, dude," said Mikey thoughtfully. "New York's a really big city, and just because most of the weirdness gets drawn to us, doesn't mean all of it is." He then frowned. "Or at least, I hope not."

 

"The fact it happened that night might just be a coincidence," said Miwa, looking cynical. "He could have just run away, or been kidnapped by regular bad guys out for a quick buck. It's terrible, but we wouldn't be able to do much more than the police if that's the case."

 

"I'm pretty sure he wasn't kidnapped," said Casey. "I talked to his parents when I was snooping, and they're not exactly the type who can afford ransom demands."

 

"Unless it wasn't for ransom," Miwa said softly. Fortunately, none of the others heard her, and questioned her on her dark thoughts.

 

Donnie looked up from the journal and glanced at the vigilante. "I have to admit, I'm impressed, Jones," he said. "While there's an abundance of doodles, and it's obviously no crime scene report, you definitely put a ton of work into your investigations. I'm surprised how much you were able to figure out on your own."

 

Casey looked proud of himself, and Raph glanced over at him in surprise. "You missed me that much?" the turtle asked.

 

Casey shrugged. "My best bud was missing, I had to do something."

 

Raph grinned widely and punched his shoulder. "Thanks, man."

 

"Aww," cooed Miwa, Mikey, and Mondo teasingly at the touching moment the team's tough guys were having, making said tough guys glare at them.

 

April and Leo turned their attention to Donnie. "So are you seeing anything that can help find this guy, Donnie?" April asked.

 

Donnie frowned and shook his head. "Unfortunately, I'm a clueless as Casey is. The fact this kid went missing the same night we lost those canisters is suspicious, but that doesn't mean he's a mutant somewhere. Like Mi said, sometimes bad things like this happen."

 

"But it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye out," said Leo. "If there's a way we can help this guy get home, we should do it."

 

The others all nodded in agreement.

 

With that out of the way, Mondo said, "Now that that's covered, let's get back to some RPG action." He then paused and looked at their game board in confusion. "Uh, does anyone remember whose turn it is?"

 

"MINE!" was the near unanimous shout, which quickly dissolved into a bickering match.

 

______________________________

 

Later that evening after leaving Mondo and Leatherhead at the Lair, Leo suggested they check out more about the missing Martin Milton during their evening patrol. There hadn't been any mutagen turning up on their scanner, and things from the Foot and the Kraang had been surprisingly quiet, so they had the free time to look.

 

Casey had been thrilled when Leo brought it up. His main goal in his search had been to find Raph, but leaving one kid unaccounted for in his discoveries just hadn't sat well with him.

 

He took the team to where Martin had been last seen. The roof of his apartment building where he'd been feeding birds.

 

"This is the last place his parents knew where he was," said Casey. "The police looked all over, and didn't find much. 'S like he just disappeared. The cops think he ran away, but his parents insist he would never do that."

 

The teenagers fanned out across the rooftop to search for clues, though they knew after this long it was unlikely anything good was still here. Still, it couldn't hurt to try.

 

Raph noticed a flock of sparrows milling around the roof, and gently coaxed one to hop onto his finger. As he absentmindedly stroked the bird's feathers, he asked, "So what's this Martin kid like anyway? You said he was from our school, but I don't really remember seeing him around."

 

Miwa paused from looking down a large dusty air duct. "You know, the Disney Princess is right," she said, inciting a scowl from Raph at the princess comment. Seeing his face, Miwa deadpanned. "You've got a sparrow on your finger, Raph, and you got it there without even using bread crumbs. You're only proving my point."

 

Raph's scowl just deepened, and he let the sparrow fly off.

 

"Anyway," Miwa continued, looking at Casey. "I don't remember this Martin kid either."

 

"Not many people do," said Casey. "Like I said, he wasn't that popular. He lost his leg in an accident years back, so he wears a prostatic and can't do much active stuff, but he liked playing RPGs like Mazes and Mutants all the time. And I mean hardcore gaming, not just the fun stuff like we do. Problem is, there weren't any people who wanted to play with him."

 

"Aw," said Mikey, "that's so sad."

 

"So he was a loner who liked gaming," said Leo. "That doesn't really give us much to go on."

 

"I hope Mi was wrong about him getting kidnapped," said Donnie softly. "Kidnapping a one legged kid is all kinds of low."

 

April opened her mouth to say something, but then paused and clutched her head. "Uh, guys," she said, looking around. "We're not alone…"

 

Instantly the team went on alert as they searched for the one spying on them.

 

Out of the corner of his eye, Donnie noticed movement. Turning quickly, he caught sight of a short hooded figure gliding down the fire escape. "There!" he yelled, taking off after it.

 

The rest of the team hurried after him, and looked over the buildings edge. The cloaked figure had already reached the alley below, and they saw him open a manhole and disappear into the sewers.

 

"Let's go," said Leo, and he jumped down the fire escape to the ground, the others following after him. Once they reached street level, Raph rushed ahead and dove into the manhole after their spy.

 

Only to stop short the second he reached the bottom to stare at the sight that greeted him.

 

Instead of the dark and dank sewer he'd been expecting, he saw what looked like a large dimly lit dungeon, with torches flickering along the halls.

 

"What the-?" he started to ask, but was cut off when the rest of the team followed him down the hole, and landed in a pile on top of him.

 

"Raph, you were supposed to move, dude," Mikey groaned as he tried to free himself from the pile of teenagers.

 

"Sorry," Raph growled from the bottom of the pile. "But I was a little distracted." He then used his free hand to point out their surroundings.

 

The teenagers stopped their movements to gape at the sight before them.

 

Miwa, who was near the top of the pile glanced back up at the manhole, only to find it had vanished. "Are we sure that was a manhole, not a rabbit hole?" she asked.

 

"Man I hope not," Leo said, as he and the others tried to untangle themselves again. "But this doesn't really look like Wonderland."

 

Once they were all upright again, they noticed another change had taken place. No longer were they in the clothes they'd worn for patrol. Instead, each of them were wearing some kind of Medieval costume.

 

Leo was dressed from head to toe in an impressive suit of armor, complete with a broadsword and a shield bearing the Hamato crest.

 

Donnie had sprouted a long beard, and was dressed in a long flowing wizard robe, and long pointed hat. His bō staff had also taken on a more gnarled look with a jewel set into it at one end.

 

Next to him, April was wearing a poofy yellow blouse with a corset over top of it, and a Jolly Roger bandanna wrapped on her head. She was also now wearing slacks with a cutlass at her belt, and old-fashioned boots on her feet.

 

Mikey was wearing a green tunic and tights with a flowing cape wrapped around it, and a bow and arrows strapped to his back. His hair had gotten longer, and lost some of it's curls, and his ears were now pointed. Though, he was still wearing his +1 Ring of Awesome (he had refused to take it off after the game).

 

Casey also had a cape, though his had a hood on it. It covered a thick pair of slacks, and a shirt of chain mail. His mask and golf bag had disappeared and was replaced with an oversized battle-axe strapped to his back.

 

Miwa's clothes were relatively unchanged. They had simply shifted from a Japanese to European looking style, and the makeup on her eyes had changed to a black stripe, giving her a raccoon appearance. Her tantō had also shifted into a wicked looking saber.

 

And Raph… Raph was still a turtle, but he was now half his original height, and was wearing a cloak, slacks, and vest with a small daggers and a frying pan strapped to his sides. Needless to say, he was pissed.

 

"What the hell is going on here?!" he roared when he realized he had to crane his neck to see rest of the team's faces.

 

Mikey snickered into his hand at the sight of him. "Looks like you're the little brother now, bro," he said with a laugh.

 

"Guys, this is serious," said Leo. "What is going on here? How did we get dressed like this? Are we really in Medieval times?" He looked over at Donnie in hopes of a logical explanation, but the genius could only give him a helpless shrug.

 

Mikey's eyes widened in panic. "Dude! I don't want to be stuck in the nineteen eighties!"

 

Donnie groaned, and smacked his forehead. "The eighties weren't Medieval times, Mikey," he said in exasperation.

 

April looked them over with a critical eye, and then came to a realization. "Mazes and Mutants!" she exclaimed, making them all look over at her.

 

She then pointed at their outfits and explained. "Look at us guys, we're all dressed as our characters from the game we played earlier. I'm a pirate, Leo's a knight, Mikey's an elf, Donnie's a wizard, Mi's a thief, Casey's a ranger, and Raph, well, Raph's a hobbit."

 

Raph's face turned thunderous. "Somebody's going to pay for this," he growled.

 

"But how did this happen?" asked Casey, examining his new axe. "I know things are weird around you guys, but this is a bit of a stretch."

 

"Hey, this is a new one for us too," said Miwa, drawing her saber. "And don't forget, we came here following someone else."

 

Instantly a laugh floated down the dungeon hallway, and the others drew their new weapons and prepared themselves for whatever was next.

 

Then, before their eyes there was a shower of mutagen green sparks, and the cloaked figure reappeared floating in front of them. This time they could actually see features of their quarry.

 

It was a mutant sparrow. One wearing a blue cloak, tunic, and had a wooden peg leg. He was holding a gnarled staff like Donnie's, and looking at them all with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

 

"Thou possessth questions," said the mutant in an echoing old English accent. "I am the one who possessth thy answers."

 

Mikey rubbed his finger in his now pointed ear. "What did he say?" he asked the others softly. "I don't speak Spanish, dude."

 

"My name is Sir Malachi," the bird mutant continued. "I am the one who changeth your garb to one more fitting of this quest, and the one who broughtith you here to complete it. And I am the one who will rewardith you if you complete it."

 

The seven teens looked at him like he was crazy.

 

"Complete the quest?" asked Leo in confusion. "What quest?"

 

The sparrow smirked. "You two teams of teens must solveth the puzzles, and defeatith the dragon to free the princess. The first team to reachith the damsel is the winner."

 

Now Casey looked interested. "There's a princess?" he asked.

 

"Indeed," said Malachi smugly. "Then and only then will I releaseth you." He then burst into maniacal laughter as the teens processed the information they'd been given.

 

Donnie frowned angrily. "You have some girl locked up in here just for some sick game?" he accused.

 

"You let whoever she is go," said Mikey, pointing one of his arrows at the sparrow.

 

"If one team succeedith, I will release the princess, and send all of you safely back home," said Sir Malachi with a smirk. "Fail, and the dragon devours her, and thou will be trapped in the maze forever! FOREVER!" he then laughed again at the looks on their faces.

 

"You keep saying teams," said April. "Wouldn't it be better if we all stuck together."

 

Sir Malachi scowled. "No, No, No!" he said. "Thou mustith be in separate teams, or else it will not be as fun!"

 

"Fun for us, or fun for you?" asked Miwa scornfully.

 

"For me of course," said Malachi with a grin.

 

"Well, maybe we don't want to play your game!" shouted Raph as he rushed forward and tried to attack the other mutant.

 

Sir Malachi looked amused at his attempt, and floated up so that he was above Raph's reach, and hovered there to watch the rather pathetic attempt Raph made to reach him.

 

Raph let out a growl of frustration. "One thing I know for sure," he snarled. "I'm not doing this stupid thing as a hobbit. Change me back NOW!" he emphasized the final word by throwing his daggers had at Malachi.

 

Malachi simply waved his hand and the daggers vanished in a puff of smoke. "You wisheth to have a different roll in this quest?" he asked coyly.

 

" _Yes!"_ Raph shouted in frustration.

 

Malachi smirked viciously. "Very well," he said and waved his staff, and the green smoke enveloped Raph.

 

"Raph, LOOK OUT!" yelled Leo, charging towards his brother.

 

But when the smoke cleared Raph was nowhere in sight.

 

Leo leveled his sword at Malachi, and unlike Raph, he looked much more like a threat in his new costume. "Where. Is. My.  _Brother?!"_ he snarled.

 

The rest of the team also rushed forward, and flanked Leo, looking furious.

 

But Malachi only laughed and floated out of their reach. "Thou wisheth that I release the princess, he wisheth to have a new role in this quest, and  _I_ wisheth to allow there to be equal teams, which could not happen when thy wereth an odd number. I have granted all three, by having the hobbit taketh the princess' place in the lair of the dragon."

 

To prove his point, Sir Malachi pulled out a crystal ball and sent it floating down to them. The ball showed an image of Raph trapped in a bubble surrounded by gold.

 

If they'd thought he'd looked ridiculous before, he was absolutely hysterical now. In place of the hobbit garb, he was now wearing a sparkly pink dress with a little silver tiara perched on his head, and the tails of his red mask woven like a braid down his back.

 

"Dude, Ugliest. Princess. Ever," said Mikey as he observed his brother trying to break his way out of the bubble through the crystal ball.

 

"No kidding," Miwa agreed.

 

Malachi gave them an unimpressed look. "By definition, a princess is a female," he said dryly. "Though he is not, he mayth as well dress the part."

 

He then gestured toward the two different directions they could take down the hallway. "Now chooseth your team, and selectith your path. The princess awaits!"

 

The teens exchanged glances, then glared at Malachi.

 

"I don't think so," said Leo firmly. "Like April said, we're better off together, and I'm not taking any chances when it comes to Raph's safety."

 

"Besides," said Donnie. "It's not like you can make us split up."

 

"Yeah!" Mikey agreed. "If we want to stick together, you can't stop us!"

 

"Oh really," said Malachi with a sinister grin. He then snapped his fingers and the dungeon immediately started shaking.

 

The teenagers looked around in alarm, and Miwa noticed something moving up above.

 

"Look Out!" she yelled, grabbing April and yanking her out of the way. The boys all jumped back at her shout, and barely missed getting crushed as a stone block fell down where they had been standing.

 

The teens scattered as more blocks came slamming down around them, kicking up dust and giving them split seconds to avoid being crushed.

 

When the dust settled and the shaking finally stopped, the teens realized the blocks had come down like a wall, splitting the corridor in half.

 

The problem was, half their team was on the other side. On one side was Leo, Donnie, and Mikey. Trapped on the other side was Miwa, Casey, and April.

 

When Donnie realized this, he immediately ran over to the wall and pushed against it. "APRIL!" he yelled through the stone. "MI! CASEY! YOU GUYS OKAY?"

 

On the other side, April ran over and shouted back. "WE'RE OKAY!" she yelled back, her voice muffled by the stone. "YOU?"

 

Donnie glanced over at his brothers, and was relieved to see they were fine. "WE'RE ALRIGHT!" he yelled.

 

Leo made his way to stand beside Donnie. "YOU GUYS KEEP GOING YOUR WAY!" he yelled. "IT LOOKS LIKE WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO PLAY MALACHI'S GAME!"

 

"IF HE WAS TELLING THE TRUTH WE'LL BOTH END UP AT THE SAME PLACE!" Miwa yelled. "WE CAN MEET UP BY THE DRAGON, AND TAKE IT ON TOGETHER!"

 

"GOOD!" Leo yelled back. "SEE YOU GUYS THERE!"

 

"SEE YOU!" called Casey, and the three turned and headed on down the corridor. On the other side of the wall, the three brothers did the same.

 

They walked in silence until Mikey started snickering to himself.

 

"Raph's been turned into a turtle, and now he's dressed like a princess," he said with an amused grin. "Now he really is like a character from a Disney movie, that or some really weird anime."

 

Leo and Donnie had to snicker in agreement as they continued on. Raph was likely to never live this one down.

 

______________________________

 

"I am never going to live this down," Raph groaned as he banged his head against the glass bubble he'd awoken to find himself floating in.

 

At least he was back to his original height, but stuffed into a stupid dress made him actually wish he'd stayed a hobbit.

 

Well, one thing was for sure, he was no one's damsel in distress, and there was no way he was sitting around here waiting for the others to come rescue him (that would be even worse than actually turning into a girl).

 

With that in mind, Raph knocked experimentally against the bubble with his fist, noticing how no matter how much he moved in the bubble it didn't roll anywhere. "I can so break this," he muttered to himself with a nod.

 

He then reached to the shoulder of his dress, and ripped the sleeve till it no longer covered the ridge of his shell. He then planted his feet on one side of the bubble and launched himself forward, rammed his shoulder and shell against the glass.

 

He was immensely satisfied to hear it crack slightly under the force of the blow.

 

More confident then ever, Raph continued to beat against the cracked surface, throwing all his weight and strength against it.

 

Finally, the bubble shattered, and he was able to climb out. He then kicked the bubble so that it rolled down the pile of treasure, and bounced along the walls of the chamber and out of sight.

 

"Let's see who needs to rescue the princess now!" Raph yelled in triumph. Then after a few fruitless struggles to get out of the dress, he slid himself down the pile of gold and made his way towards the exit while trying not to trip over the long skirt.

 

"What are you doing?" cried a dismayed voice behind him.

 

Wheeling around, Raph saw Sir Malachi floating there looking disappointed. "The princess is supposed to await her rescue," the sparrow bemoaned, for once dropping his accent. As if realizing this, Malachi cleared his throat and continued, "Thou were not supposed to escapeth thyself."

 

Raph scowled at him. "Do I look like some peach who'll wait around to be rescued? You can make me short, and you dress me like a girl, but you  _cannot_  make me into some helpless waif who needs someone else to fight my battles. I can rescue myself."

 

With that said, Raph chucked a heavy goblet at the other mutant's head, and continued his trek back out of the room. He didn't bother trying to demand he change him back, since the last attempt had resulted in his becoming something worse.

 

"But-but," wailed Malachi as he dodged the goblet and flew after him. "But thou will ruineth the game!"

 

"I don't care," Raph snapped back, stumbling as the dress snagged on a piece of treasure and ripping it free, leaving a long tear in the fabric.

 

"But-!" Malachi protested again, and Raph rounded on him, glaring fiercely. "You call this stupid thing a game, right?" he snapped. "Well, how am I supposed to have any fun trapped inside a hamster ball?"

 

Malachi froze as if that had not occurred to him. "Thou possessth a good point," he said finally, looking thoughtful. "Perhaps, so long as thou does not knoweth the way, and both teams may have equal chance finding thee, then the game will continue unhindered."

 

"Whatever you say, birdbrain," Raph grumbled as he continued towards the exit, but was once again halted by something catching on the long skirts, leading him to rip it free. "Stupid dress," he muttered in annoyance.

 

Malachi watched this, and deadpanned. "And perhaps another costume would be more fitting for thou to join this quest."

 

With that he waved his staff, and Raph yelped as the pink dress vanished, and was replaced by a red and gold tunic with a short cape and tights. The daggers he had as a hobbit were also back on the belt around his waist. The tiara on his head was replaced with a silver circlet with the Hamato crest as the center jewel. It was infinitely better than the princess dress, but it was still undeniably feminine.

 

Looking down at the new outfit, Raph deadpanned, "This won't vanish at midnight, will it?"

 

Malachi looked peeved. "Do I looketh like thy fairy godmother?" he asked indignantly.

 

The look Raph shot him as he ran out of the treasure room was answer enough.

 

______________________________

 

Things were not going well with April, Miwa, and Casey's group.

 

Since separating from the others they had nearly been skewered by falling spikes, chased by a rolling boulder, and nearly eaten by a yeti.

 

"Why the heck is there a yeti in New York anyway?" Casey demanded as they finally managed to loose their big hairy pursuer. "I thought they lived in Pasadena!"

 

Miwa and April exchanged glances at Casey's mistake of location, but didn't comment. Instead Miwa said, "You can ask Malachi when we find him. Or at least you can try while I'm wringing his neck."

 

April wrinkled her nose as a drop of water fell from the ceiling onto her head. "Please tell me we're not going to get the flooding room trap next," she moaned.

 

Casey looked worried. "I hope not. I don't know how well I'll be able to swim in all this," he said, tugging on his chainmail.

 

Miwa sighed. "Only one way to find out."

 

The three pressed on until the tunnel they were walking through opened up into an underwater cave.

 

The three gaped at the sight. "That's it," said Casey when he recovered use of his jaw. "We are definitely not in New York anymore, Toto."

 

"Funny," Miwa deadpanned as she scanned the cave. "Where are we supposed to go from here?" she asked.

 

The others looked as well, and saw that Miwa's question was valid. The sandbar they were currently standing on ended a few feet away, and there was no way for them to go forward.

 

"Maybe we took a wrong turn," April said, and she turned to go back the way they'd came.

 

Only for a stone block to slam down and block the exit, leaving them trapped in the cave.

 

"That's not good," said April as she jerked back.

 

Then the teens became aware of a bubbling sound coming from the water. Turning, they saw the once calm water had started frothing as if something was moving beneath the surface.

 

Suddenly a skeletal hand burst out of the water, followed by the rest of the skeleton. The skeleton jerked and began stumbling through the water towards them, its bones making an ominous clacking sound as it moved. As it got closer, more skeletons began bursting from the water and making their way towards them.

 

"And that's even worse!" Casey yelled as he and the girls grabbed their weapons.

 

"So what? Are we supposed to fight them?" asked Miwa.

 

As she said that even more skeletons rose from the water. Far more than the three of them could fight, much less with unfamiliar weapons.

 

As they drew even closer, April's eyes widened as she realized something. "Wait, Malachi said something about puzzles. Fighting skeletons isn't much of a puzzle, but maybe…"

 

April scanned the cave again, and caught sight of a blue glow on a cliff off to the side. "There!" she yelled, pointing at it.

 

The three of them bolted towards the glow, splashing through the shallow water as they went. Hanging down the cliff was an ancient looking rope ladder. Tugging on it experimentally, Miwa said, "I don't think this can hold more than one of us."

 

"Then we go one at a time," said Casey as if it was obvious.

 

"I'll go first, I'm lightest," April said, and she started up the ladder.

 

"Hurry up," Miwa said glancing back, "Those bags of bones are catching up!"

 

April climbed as fast as she could, trying to ignore the creaking sounds the ropes made under her fingers. The second she reached the top, she let out a sigh of relief and turned to call the next person up.

 

Only for her jaw to drop as the ladder vanished in a flash of green sparks, much like the ones when Sir Malachi appeared and disappeared.

 

"Oh _, Come On!"_  yelled Casey angrily when he saw that.

 

But Miwa kept her head. "April, find out where that glow is coming from, and if there's another way up!" she called. "Hockey Boy and I'll keep the welcoming committee busy!"

 

With that, she and Casey turned to get ready for the oncoming skeletons.

 

April searched the area frantically for something her friends could use to climb up, but saw nothing. She then focused her attention on the blue light, and hurried towards it.

 

On a pedestal sat a glowing blue rock that April recognized from the game. "The Water Rock?" she asked in surprise.

 

She took a step closer, only for a bust of red-hot steam to shoot out of a vent in front of her. More burning steam started shooting out at random spots around the rock.

 

"Oh, right, for a second there I thought this would be easy," said April tartly, knowing that if that steam hit her it'd cook her like a boiled egg.

 

Back down below, Miwa and Casey weren't doing much better. The skeletons had reached them, and the two were hard pressed to fight them off.

 

"These things just wont quit!" shouted Casey as he used his axe to cleave a skeleton's head off, only for the rest of the body to keep coming towards him.

 

"Aim for the arms and the legs!" said Miwa, using her saber to do just that to the nearest skeleton. "They can't do as much without their limbs!"

 

Casey shifted his targets, but even with the skeletons falling to pieces before them, more were pouring in and were pressing the two against the wall.

 

Trying to put more space between him and the skeletons, Casey shifted backwards, only to bump into Miwa, and get knocked to the floor.

 

Groaning on the ground, Casey looked up and screamed as one of the skeletons dove for his throat.

 

Only for his scream to turn to a cry of admiration as Miwa dove in front of him and took out the skeleton as well as several others with a single stroke of her blade, the water that she kicked up splashing around her like stars in the cave's dim light. It was an amazing sight.

 

The skeletons fell to pieces, and Miwa stood ready for more to come.

 

"That was the coolest thing I've ever seen," Casey muttered to himself in awe.

 

The moment was ruined when Miwa turned back and glared at him. "Stay out of my way," she snapped.

 

Casey grunted in acknowledgement, and pulled himself back to his feet to fight some more. "Hurry up, Red!" Casey shouted up to April. "We can't take much more of this!"

 

"I'm working on it!" April called back as she used all the ninja training she'd had to dodge through the steam vents. Finally after several near misses, she reached the pedestal, and grabbed the water rock.

 

Like that, the skeletons shuddered and collapsed in heaps on the ground.

 

"Did we win?" asked Casey.

 

Before Miwa could respond, April leaped from the cliff above and landed with a splash in the water below.

 

Casey and Miwa blinked in surprise, and tensed when the water began frothing again.

 

But instead of spitting up more skeletons, it instead parted like the Red Sea, revealing April standing in the middle. "Water Rock gives you control of said element," she said proudly holding up the stone. "Come on, the way out is down here."

 

The other two exchanged glances, and hurried after the redhead.

 

______________________________

 

Leo, Donnie, and Mikey's group were not having much more luck than the others. Since separating, they had been shot at by arrows, been attacked by Monkey Goblins that looked like the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz, almost dropped through trap doors into lava, and nearly burned by a wall of fire.

 

"Are we there yet," Mikey complained for the hundredth as they inched their way along a narrow ledge overlooking another lava pit.

 

"Well, Mikey, do you see a dragon's treasure hoard?" Donnie asked.

 

Mikey looked around and said, "No."

 

"Then NO, we are NOT!" Donnie yelled. "Stop ASKING!"

 

Mikey watched Donnie yell and laughed. "Your beard gets all bristley when you're mad," he said in delight.

 

"Guys, focus," said Leo, bringing their attention back to the matter at hand. "How is Malachi doing this? Did we really get transported into the game, or is this something else?"

 

"It's something else alright," said Donnie tugging on his beard. "And it looks and feels real enough."

 

"Yeah, maybe," Leo said. "But… something is bothering me. It's like déjà vu."

 

"Well, we were playing this game before we got here, maybe that's it," said Mikey.

 

"No, not that," said Leo with a groan. "It'll come to me."

 

Mikey held out his ring to Leo. "Do ya think my +1 Ring of Awesome will help with that?" he offered.

 

Before Leo could answer, Mikey started to loose his balance, and he grabbed hold of a torch on the wall to steady himself. Only to nearly loose his grip on it when the torch jerked down and revealed a hidden passageway.

 

Seeing it, Mikey beamed down at his ring. "+1 Ring of Awesome for the win!" he cheered, as he hurried down the passageway, his brothers tailing behind him.

 

The secret passageway opened up to a room like none of them had ever seen before. A spectacular treasure filled the halls, piled higher than their dojo.

 

"Whoa!" Mikey said as they looked around. "Think of how many pizzas I could buy with this!"

 

"I could buy an entire laboratory with this," said Donnie, also in awe. "And I'd still have enough left over to pay for college."

 

Leo, however, was searching the piles of gold for a different reason. "Do either of you see Raph?" he asked. "He should be here

 

"Nope," said Mikey looking around. "No sign of any dragon either."

 

"And I don't see April and the others," agreed Donnie.

 

"I don't like this," said Leo, venturing further into the room. "It's too easy."

 

Just then Leo heard the crinkle of paper under his feet, and looked down to see he'd stepped on a scroll.

 

Picking it up and unrolling it, Leo read aloud,  _"Congratulations on making it this far. Sorry, but your princess is in another castle."_ Leo blinked as he read that. "Wait, what?"

 

"NOT COOL, MALACHI!" yelled Mikey to the ceiling in hopes the sparrow would hear him.

 

Just then a trap door opened above their heads, and water flooded in along with April, Miwa, and Casey.

 

The three landed in a heap on a nearby pile of gold.

 

"Hey guys," Casey groaned from the bottom of the pile. "What'd we miss?"

 

______________________________

 

Raph used his dagger to stab a giant spider that had decided to make a meal of him. The creature exploded in a shower of green sparks, just like the other monsters he had encountered thus far.

 

Sensing that he was not alone, he growled under his breath and shouted, "I know you're there, Sir Nerdachi!"

 

With another shower of green sparks, Sir Malachi appeared, looking sheepish.

 

Raph glared at him. "What, you get bored with me being the princess already?" he asked. "What's next, you gonna give me the head of a turkey?"

 

Malachi puffed himself up and tried to look intimidating. "I just mighteth, if thou does not correctith thine attitude," he threatened.

 

Raph rolled his eyes and continued storming down the hall. "Whatever," he growled.

 

Malachi blinked at his retreating back, before flying after him. "Hey, wait for me!" he called, once again forgetting his accent.

 

"Stop following me," he snapped, speeding up in an attempt to dissuade him.

 

"I cannot," said Malachi, flying faster to keep pace with him. "I must monitoreth the princess to determine which team discovers her first, and is therefore the winner." He then smirked. "Besides, it would not be right to-"

 

Raph rounded on him and pressed his dagger to his beak, "If you're about to make some crack about letting a girl wander alone, I will  _shove_  this blade so far down your throat it'll tickle your kidneys, capiche?" he snarled, looking murderous.

 

Sir Malachi gulped, "Got it," he squeaked, backing away from the irate turtle quickly.

 

Raph sent him a withering look, and continued on down the maze, Malachi following a safe distance behind him.

 

Seeing that he wasn't going to shake the sparrow any time soon, Raph asked, "If you're going to tag along, could you at least tell me if I'm going the right way?"

 

Sir Malachi chuckled. "Thy path is like a mirror, the appearance correct, but invert in-"

 

The bird broke off as the dagger was shoved in his face again. "Enough with the Ye Ol' mumbo jumbo. Talk  _normal_ , I know you can," Raph snapped.

 

Malachi snapped his beak shut and pouted, refusing to say anything more.

 

Raph groaned in frustration, and tried to puzzle out what he'd started to say. "Like a mirror, inverted…" he mumbled to himself, then slapped himself on the forehead. "I'm going in the wrong direction, aren't I?"

 

Sir Malachi's snickering in amusement was the only answer he gave.

 

Taking that as a yes, Raph shoved the feathered mutant aside, and began making his way back in the direction that he'd come.

 

Malachi squawked in protest, and flew after him. "You're no fun!" he complained.

 

"Your idea of fun involves kidnapping random kids, stuffing them in stupid outfits and gender roles, and making them wander around in a giant death trap," Raph replied scathingly. "If that's how you entertain yourself, I want no part of it."

 

He then came to a dead halt as he was suddenly reminded of the whole reason he and the others had been in the area that night. With the sudden transformations and danger he had completely forgotten the purpose of their patrol. But with the assessment he'd just given of Malachi's hobbies, things suddenly made a sick sort of sense.

 

"Was it you?" he said in a dangerously low voice.

 

Sir Malachi had been pouting ever since his assessment, but he looked up in confusion at the turtle's question. "What?" he asked.

 

Raph rounded on him and stormed over, backing the bird into a corner. "The person who made Martin Milton disappear,  _Was **That YOU?"**_  he demanded furiously.

 

Malachi's eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

 

Taking that as a yes, Raph lunged at him, his daggers drawn. Malachi disappeared to dodge the blow, and reappeared down the hall. Raph charged towards him again, snarling in rage.

 

" **What?! You just snatch him up and play this _stupid_  game with him too?!"** he roared as he tried to attack the sparrow again and again.  **"He had _one_  leg, you sick  _freak!_  He'd never survive down here!"**

 

"Hey," squawked Malachi in protest, but had to duck again as Raph swiped at a head. He then continued to duck and dodge as Raph's attacks came too fast for him to get a word in edgewise.

 

Just then the sound of footsteps came from down the hall, and the rest of the teenagers running into view momentarily distracted them both.

 

"Raph!" yelled Leo when he caught sight of his brother attacking the other mutant.

 

But Malachi took advantage of his distraction to seal Raph inside another bubble.

 

The turtle howled in rage as he beat against the glass ball. "Don't think this'll stop me!" he shouted, glaring murderously at Sir Malachi. "I'll get out of here, and when I do there won't be enough left of you to make a feather duster."

 

"Raph, what the heck?" Donnie asked. This was not your typical Raph rage fest, and his siblings were well enough versed in them to tell the difference..

 

"He's the one who made Martin Milton disappear!" Raph accused, making the others stare at the sparrow in horror. "He brought that kid down here like he did with us!"

 

Malachi had been staring at him with his beak hanging open, but at Raph's accusations he snapped it shut, and looked fearfully at the five now very angry teens with weapons. "No, no, I can explain!" he tried to say.

 

"Explain it to my axe, freak," snarled Casey as he ran forwards, swinging his battle-axe at the mutant.

 

Malachi squawked in fear, and waved his staff, sending a shower of green sparks at the vigilante. The sparks grew and took form, causing Casey to screech to a halt as a great red, hulking dragon appeared before him.

 

Casey yelped and scrambled back as the dragon snapped at him. The dragon tried to move forward to snap at him again, but became stuck in place. The hallway they were in was far to small for a creature its size to move freely in.

 

Seeing this, Malachi waved his staff again, and the hallway expanded into a room the size of the treasure room, with Raph's bubble raising above all their heads to hover near the ceiling.

 

"Oh Sewer Apples!" cried Mikey as he saw what they now needed to face.

 

The teenagers quickly scattered as the dragon set a jet of flames towards them.

 

They all ran at the dragon from different angles, attacking it with the weapons they'd been given, only for the creature to not seem to feel them in the slightest.

 

"These weapons are useless!" shouted Miwa as she slashed at the dragon's leg with her saber, only to cartwheel away as it tried to stomp on her.

 

April glared up at Malachi, who was watching the fight from high above with a dazed expression on his face. "Guess I'm not too surprised," she said. "If he's low enough to kidnap kids to do this, he probably wouldn't want them to win and tell anyone about it."

 

Malachi didn't appear to hear her barbs, and continued to stare off into space.

 

Leo, meanwhile, ran over till he was underneath Raph's bubble. "You okay up there, bro?" he called up.

 

Raph was once again beating his shoulder and shell against the sides of the bubble. "I'm fine," he called back. "I'll be better once I'm out of this snow globe!"

 

Leo winced as he slammed himself against the side. "Are you sure you can get out like that?" he asked.

 

Raph shot him an annoyed look. "I did it before," he called back. "I  _know_  I can do it again!"

 

With that he slammed herself against the wall again, and smirked as the bubble started to crack. The next few hits widened the crack considerably, as if Raph's own confidence was breaking through it.

 

Leo's eyes widened as he realized something. Why the nagging feeling in his head had felt so familiar. He was so lost in his idea that he barely noticed it when Raph broke through the bubble and dropped down next to him.

 

"Mushrooms," Leo said as he landed beside him.

 

Raph gave him a funny look. "Did part of that bubble fall on your head?" he asked.

 

"No," said Leo, shaking his head. He then turned and yelled to the others, "Guys, This Is Like The Mutant Mushrooms We Fought Before!"

 

They all stopped fighting the dragon to stare at him, and even the dragon paused in its attacks to look at the source of the yelling.

 

"What you talkin' 'bout, Willis?" Mikey said in his best Gary Coleman impression.

 

The dragon seemed to recover its wits and didn't seem to like what Leo was saying. It let out a roar and stormed towards him, making Leo and Raph both duck out of the way.

 

"I figured it out!" Leo called to the others as he ran, the dragon chasing after him. "This whole thing is an illusion. It's not real, it's just in our heads like when we were hit by those mushroom spores! We all just  _think_ it's real!"

 

Casey ducked as the dragon swung its tail a little too close to his head. "It sure feels real to me!" he yelled.

 

"And so did the hallucinations the spores gave us," Leo called back. "But those weren't real, and neither is all this!"

 

Roaring in rage, the dragon let out a stream of flames directly at Leo. But the leader planted his feet and didn't bother to dodge as the fire engulfed him.

 

"LEO!" yelled everyone as they lost sight of him in the flames.

 

The dragon roared in triumph, which turned into a snarl of rage as the flames died down, and Leo stood in the center of the burned spot without the slightest smidge of soot on him, and back in his regular ninja clothes.

 

"Focus!" Leo yelled to the rest of them. "The only way we can beat this is if we all believe it's not real!"

 

The dragon reared up and made to strike him again, but Leo stood his ground fearlessly.

 

Donnie frowned as he went over the logic of their situation, and nodded. "I get it!" he yelled aloud. "I Don't BELIEVE!" He threw down his wizard staff for emphasis.

 

With a flash, the staff was replaced by his regular bō staff, and Donnie's wizard costume vanished, leaving him beardless in his regular ninja clothes.

 

Seeing this, Raph squeezed his eyes shut and yelled, "Well I sure as hell don't believe I'm a girl! And if that's not real, than neither is the rest of this!"

 

There was another flash, and his costume vanished again, leaving Raph looking like his regular turtle self. Glancing down at himself he let out a cheer of relief.

 

Mikey clenched his eyes shut, and pressed his fingers to his temple. "Leo says it's not real!  _Leo says it's not REAL!"_ His costume vanished too, and he punched his fist in the air. "Yes!"

 

Miwa looked up at the dragon still poised to attack her immediate younger brother, but with each person who stopped believing the dragon had roared in pain, and started moving slower. But its claws were still coming down towards Leo for a deadly blow.

 

"I don't believe either!" she yelled, and to protect her brother she believed it with all her heart.

 

At her words, the dragon flinched in pain and for a brief instant turned transparent before flashing back into focus.

 

Seeing this, April threw the Water Rock she'd gotten in the cave at the dragon's head, and yelled, "It's not real! I know it's not real!"

 

Now the dragon let out an agonizing roar, and looked murderously at Leo for causing its agony.

 

"Leo, look out!" yelled Casey as the Dragon's talons got closer to the other boy. At his warning the dragon seemed to get stronger, and it growled in triumph.

 

"It's up to you, Casey!" called Leo, still not moving. "Don't believe!"

 

Casey squeezed his eyes shut. "I'm trying!" he yelled, focusing on that single thought. "I don't believe!"

 

Just as the dragon's claw came down on Leo, it vanished in a flash of light.

 

Following the dragon's example, the entire chamber vanished, leaving the teens and mutants standing in the middle of the dark sewers.

 

Letting out a cheer of triumph, the teens then turned their attention back to Malachi, who was sitting in a corner aimlessly.

 

"We're not playing anymore, Malachi," said Leo sternly.

 

Malachi gave him a defeated shrug, but didn't look up. "That's okay," he said in a normal voice. "I don't really feel like playing anymore anyway."

 

"Now tell us what you did to that Martin kid," April demanded.

 

Malachi let out a sigh, and pulled himself to his mismatched feet, his peg leg making a wooden sound as it thunked against the sewer floor.

 

Seeing this, Casey's eyes widened as he put the pieces together. "Wait a minute," he said, drawing the other's attention. " _You're_ Martin Milton, aren't you," he said.

 

" _WHAT?!"_  shouted the others in surprise.

 

"He's the kid we were looking for earlier?" asked Mikey, pointing at Malachi in surprise.

 

"Yes," said Malachi softly. "I am."

 

The others exchanged glances. "I'm guessing you had a run-in with a falling container of ooze?" asked Miwa.

 

Malachi nodded. "When I was out feeding the birds a some nights ago." He looked at them all with an unreadable expression. "I didn't think anyone would even notice I was gone, but… you were all looking for me?"

 

Casey nodded, and flashed the mutant a grin. "Yup, when kids at our school disappeared, Casey Jones was on the case. I'd found all of them but you, and it didn't sit right with me to leave it that way. Your parents are  _really_  worried about you."

 

Martin's face fell at the mention of his parents. "I didn't mean for them to worry," he said softly. "But how can I go back to them like this?" he added, gesturing to his mutated form.

 

The others exchanged glances, unsure of what to say. On one hand, Yoshi and Tang Shen had accepted Raph instantly, even with his mutation. But Mondo's parents hadn't reacted as favorably the change, and had thrown him out on the streets despite being their son.

 

"You should at least let them know you're okay," said April soothingly. "We can let you use our phones to call them if you want."

 

Malachi smiled slightly at the offer. "That… would be nice, thank you."

 

"What were you trying to do with that death trap, anyway?" demanded Miwa, still not happy about what she'd had to go through that night.

 

Malachi hung his head, and looked sheepish. "I-I just wanted to play," he explained. "I never had anyone to play with even when I was human, and when I got covered in that ooze, I didn't think anyone would ever want to play with me again. I tried to make the best of it." He grinned as he took up his accent again. "I doned fair cloak, and wizardly hat to become Sir Malachi, the Sparrow Wizard. I came down here to the sewers to play a solo LARPing game of Mazes and Mutants when I accidentally found you and those other two mutants. I made sure you found the game, I was so happy you liked it, and even though some of you were mutants, you all played together as friends."

 

Coming to the end of his explanation, Malachi looked up at them pitifully. "I just wanted to play too. I swear, none of you were ever in any real danger."

 

Mikey looked down at Malachi with an expression of utmost sympathy. "Dude, solo LARP? That is so sad."

 

"You really should have just asked us," said Donnie. "We would have played with you, and it all would have been more fun that way."

 

Malachi hung his head again and nodded. "I see that now," he admitted. "I'm sorry."

 

"So what happens now?" asked Mikey. "We can't just leave him here alone."

 

Raph nodded, glaring at Malachi, but not as fiercely as before. "Yeah, I still owe him for all the grief he put me though."

 

The others snickered as they remembered what that 'grief' had been. "Someone put a pea in your mattress, Princess?" asked Miwa teasingly. "You did make a semi-cute girl."

 

Raph glared at her, and knew he'd better get used to it. None of his siblings were going to let that go any time soon.

 

Thinking over Mikey's question, April snapped her fingers as she thought of something. "I have an idea," she declared.

 

______________________________

 

Mondo Gecko and Leatherhead looked up as they heard the sound of the turnstiles at the entrance to the Lair being used. Both mutants were surprised to see their friends return so late at night.

 

"Hey, dudes!" called Mondo cheerfully. "How'd the search for the missing kid go?"

 

The other teens exchanged glances. "Well enough," Donnie replied. "We found him."

 

They then parted to reveal Malachi standing shyly among them.

 

Leatherhead looked over the sparrow mutant and deadpanned, "Another stray?"

 

April grinned. "You did say it was good to have friends," she pointed out. "And here's someone who could use a few."

 

Leatherhead had no arguments to that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, I'd written this chapter before Turtles in Time came on TV, and I had no idea about the zombie skeletons. Great minds think alike. So this one came out a lot different than the episode. I liked Malachi alright, and I would have liked to see more of him in the show. I also wish they'd been a little more creative with the whole magical dungeon part of the episode, so I did my best to do that here. As some of you know from reading Turtle Loops, I find it hilarious to stick Raph in dresses, and/or turn him into a girl. The people at Nick apparently think the same if some of the show's comics and the Halloween game, Trick-or-Treat Tussle on the website are anything to go by. The princess dress Raph is in initially is from the Halloween game on the Nick website, Trick-or-Treat Tussle, minus the wings. Of course, I also couldn't resist turning him into a hobbit. This chapter is riddled with references to other things, so keep an eye out for them all.


	29. Fly on the Wall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Despite his best efforts, Stockman had failed too many times, and now he has to pay the price.

As he worked in his lab, Stockman had to wonder when his life had gone so wrong.

 

He wasn't a bad guy…

 

Okay, sure, he'd committed himself to a lifetime of villainy, but all those jerks that were always ruining his life and throwing him into dumpsters pushed him into it.

 

And it wasn't like he was  _super_  villain material (Not like his current employer, anyway). He didn't want to take over the world or anything. Just become rich and famous, and give the aforementioned jerks a well-deserved butt kicking.

 

So all in all, he, Baxter Stockman, (to quote Wreck-It Ralph) was a bad guy, but he was not a bad  _guy_  (end quote) who in anyway deserved the treatment he was getting.

 

But just because he didn't deserve it, didn't mean it wasn't happening, and boy was it happening. He, Baxter Stockman (hadn't he said that already?) was in the forced employment of a super villain (one who was far more deserving of this treatment in his opinion) and had to complete all of the Shredder's demands, otherwise the metal madman would activate the collar around his neck, and cause Baxter to be covered in mutagen.

 

And if there was one thing he didn't want, it was to become a mutant freak like Tiger Claw, Rahzar, and Fishface (he preferred the ninja brats' names for the hench-mutants, they were much more fitting and suitably insulting).

 

So day after day Stockman swallowed his pride, and did the Shredder's bidding within his lab, which had gained a pest control problem in the form of flies thanks to his employer's not giving him any time to clean on top of his demands. All the while he was planning his ingenious escape (which was still in the drawing board phase, unfortunately, but he was sure to have a breakthrough any day now).

 

And besides, his employment was going rather well, if he did say so himself. He had been able to maintain the Foot-Bots to peek condition, and repair the ones broken by those brats Shredder was obsessed with. He'd also been the one to provide the Shredder with the revelation that his lady love was, in fact, still alive, not that the Shredder had ever thanked him for that, the ingrate.

 

The only snag in Stockman's duties to the Shredder was the mutants. Try as he might, he could not seem to get the mutagen to work the way he wanted it too, and instead of creating fierce mutant warriors, he was instead creating creatures that were, for lack of a better word,  _silly_.

 

But Stockman was certain that with his success in the other fields, the Shredder would overlook his mistakes on that front, and the mad scientist was sure to make a breakthrough with the mutagen any second now.

 

Or at least he had been certain of it, until the Shredder visited him in his lab one day looking furious.

 

"Baxter Stockman," the Shredder said darkly, making the scientist pale and wheel around as he approached. "I ordered you to build me a mutant army. And you give me _THIS!"_

 

He threw several photos of Stockman's failures at him, making the scientist wince.

 

Stockman knew he was in trouble now. Ever since that Tang Shen woman had rejected him (not that Stockman blamed her, who would want to marry a lunatic like him), the Shredder had been even more irrational and quick tempered than ever before. Which was saying something, since he had already been a record holder for the world's most bloodthirsty maniac before hand.

 

Knowing he had to defend himself if he wanted to keep his hide, Stockman quickly picked up the nearest one, which featured a man with a duck's head. Unfortunately, it was one of his worst ones.

 

Still, he had to try and sell it, or he dreaded to think what the Shredder might do.

 

"No, no, don't you see," he said, trying to convince the Shredder that it was a worthwhile mutant. "It swims, flies, and knows Tae Kwon Do, it's a triple threat!"

 

The Shredder looked far from impressed, and lashed out with his gauntlets, cutting the picture to ribbons and leaving a gash on Stockman's hand, making the scientist cry out in pain.

 

"Can it, Stinkman," said Rahzar, not interested to hear Stokman's wails. "This is the last time you mess up!"

 

Stockman looked up from his bloody hand, and glared at the mutant. "Mess up?" he asked indignantly. "At least I do something productive around here, all I've ever seen you do is fail beat a few stinking  _kids_."

 

Rahzar looked livid at his audacity, and began snapping his oversized teeth at Stockman's face, making the scientist flinch away.

 

"No, Bradford," said the Shredder, making the mutant canine pull away. "I have a more suitable fate in mind." He glared at the scientist and said menacingly, "You have failed me too many times."

 

"NO!" Stockman shouted desperately. He then backpedaled and tried to reason with him. "I mean, please, Master Shredder. I've got plans. Huge plans! Mutant pigs and rhinos."

 

The Shredder looked far from impressed, and with a swift motion, he threw a rolling table at him. Stockman yelped as the corner of the table grazed his head, leaving a bleeding cut.

 

"Pigs?" Shredder asked scathingly as Stockman pressed his hand to his forehead to try and stop the bleeding.

 

"And… Rhinos," said Stockman weakly.

 

Stockman then flinched worse than he had at Rahzar's snaps when the Shredder brought out the trigger for the mutagen collar on his neck.

 

"What are you doing, No!" he begged at the sight of it. "You  _can't!"_

 

But the Shredder's face was impassive as he placed his thumb on the trigger button.

 

"I wouldn't be of any use to you as a mutant," Stockman wailed. "Please, don't!"

 

But the Shredder pressed the red button, and Stockman started to panic as he heard the collar start beeping loudly.

 

"I am not a man of idle threats," said Shredder darkly.

 

Rahzar snickered next to him. "Bet you'll end up a bigger freak than me, Stinkman."

 

"There's nothing wrong with idle threats!" wailed Stockman as he tugged helplessly at the collar, trying to get it off before it detonated.

 

But the other two only watched as he became more and more frantic with each beep of the collar.

 

Suddenly, Stockman felt one of the flies that had been buzzing around his lab land on his nose and he let out a wail of despair as he realized what that meant.

 

Just then the collar let out a buzz and stopped beeping.

 

Stockman opened his eyes wide. The capsules didn't pop, did that mean what he thought it meant?

 

He looked up at Shredder and Rahzar to see the canine mutant's retreating back, and the Shredder looking at him almost in amusement.

 

Figuring that meant he was off the hook for now, Stockman collapsed to his knees and kissed the Shredder's feet.

 

"Yes, Yes!" he said in utter relief. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you-"

 

He would have continued on like that, but the Shredder kicked him away from him.

 

Stockman looked up to see why, only for his blood to turn to ice as he heard the sound of glass shattering right by his ear, and a splash of liquid in that same spot.

 

Stockman screamed as the mutagen began burning like acid on his head, shoulder, and arm. It hit some of his injuries, and burned even more painfully than he'd ever imagined possible as the substance entered his bloodstream. The rest of the capsules started popping as well, covering Stockman in the ooze, and making him fall to his knees screaming in agony.

 

From a safe distance, the Shredder stood watching these proceedings with an odd glint in his eye.

 

The last rational thought that Stockman had before the pain took over was,  _'He's enjoying my pain!'_

 

________________________

 

"We're really doing this here?" April asked nervously, glancing at the door every few seconds.

 

She and her boyfriend were in the school science lab working on Donnie's latest formula for retro-mutagen.

 

Donnie laughed. "You're jumpier than Casey when we snuck into the auto-shop. Don't worry about it," he said. "We won't get caught, I'm a ninja remember. Besides, I may or may not have hacked the school emails, and sent all the chemistry teachers to a lunch meeting at Antonio's Pizza."

 

"Will there actually be a lunch meeting when they get there?" April asked with a raised eyebrow.

 

"Well, they can start one if they like," Donnie replied. "But they'd have to pay for their own pizza."

 

April couldn't help but giggle at that. "So why are we doing this here, anyway?" she asked. "Isn't your own lab better equipped?"

 

"Equipment wise it is," Donnie admitted. "But chemical wise…" He rolled his eyes in exasperation. "The chemicals I need for these experiments are expensive, and not really the kind of thing most distributers just hand out to fifteen-year-old kids. I usually can get supplies one way or another, but it's easier to just borrow some from the school."

 

April raised an eyebrow as Donnie used some of the chemicals in the formula. "Saying you're  _borrowing_  them, implying you'll one day give them back?"

 

Donnie sent April a smug look. "Well, one day when I get famous patenting and selling my inventions, I'll be able to credit this school for helping with my education and give it a generous donation. The acclaim they'll get will more than make up for a few used chemicals."

 

April burst out laughing at that.

 

Donnie preened at being able to make her laugh, before turning his attention back to the chemicals he was working with. With great care he lifted a vial of green liquid and poured it into the beaker of mutagen. "Almost got it," he muttered to himself. "Almost… got it."

 

April let out a sigh as the mutagen in the beaker turned purple. She could commend Donnie for his determination in creating a mutagen cure, especially with all the people who were depending on it. But she had to admit, the constant failures were starting to get her down. It was starting to look to her like there might not actually be a cure for mutagen.

 

But she held her tongue and continued to watch Donnie work. She had to admit, his look of concentration when he worked was adorable. But just watching him wasn't why she was there. After the fiasco with Kurtzman revealing the reason the Kraang were after her, and the strange mutation in her DNA, Donnie had had the idea of trying to use her genetic code in his antidote formulas.

 

His tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth in concentration, Donnie lit the Bunsen burner under his latest mixture, and then added a small sample of April's DNA to the mix.

 

The mixture turned from purple to orange, and Donnie nodded in satisfaction.

 

Taking a small sample of the mutagen, he dropped it onto a slide and peered at it through a microscope.

 

"Okay mutant cells," he prayed under his breath. "Please turn normal.  _Please_ turn normal."

 

He watched in anticipation as the cells under his microscope twitched around, but didn't return to their normal state.

 

Donnie had just let out a groan of disappointment, when right before his eyes the cells suddenly shifted back to their original, non-mutated state.

 

Donnie looked up from the microscope, his eyes wide. "Eureka," he said in disbelief. Then an ecstatic grin spread across his face. "I  _did_  it! I  _really_  did it!"

 

April's eyes widened in shock. "You did it?" she asked in equal disbelief. "You really did it?"

 

"I sure  _did!"_  Donnie cheered, and with an ecstatic whoop he began dancing with April around the science lab in delight. The redhead let out a laughed as he swung her around, his euphoria was utterly infectious.

 

But their merriment was interrupted when the lab door opened and Irma and Mikey popped their heads through.

 

After he'd smacked her in the face with his skateboard, the youngest Hamato Ninja, and the goth girl had become fast friends, and often hung out together at school. April had been thrilled when she found out, as she and Irma were already good friends.

 

"You guys sure have weirdest places to go on dates," said Irma with a humorous smirk. "First square dancing in the science labs, what's next, a romantic picnic on the history museum's roof?"

 

Donnie looked like he was actually giving that idea some thought.

 

But April chuckled and said, "Nah, Irma. Donnie just finished a project he was working on for awhile, and we're both really happy about it."

 

Mikey's eyes widened when he heard that. "And by project, do you mean  _that_ project?"

 

Donnie beamed at him and nodded.

 

Mikey pumped his fist into the air. "Aw yeah!" he cheered. "I always wanted a jetpack!"

 

The other three teenagers stared at him in bewilderment, and then smacked their foreheads in unison.

 

"For the last time, I'm not making you a jetpack, Mikey," said Donnie in exasperation. "I don't even trust you with a driver's license."

 

Mikey pouted. "So then what project just finished?" he asked reluctantly.

 

"The important one to, uh,  _help_ Raph," Donnie said, shooting a nervous glance at Irma.

 

Mikey nodded, then his eyes widened in realization. " _Oh_ , you mean that one! Sweet!" he cheered.

 

April nodded with a wide grin. "I'll go call the others to let them know what happened," she said stepping past Mikey and Irma out of the lab. "Be back in a minute."

 

As she hurried away, she overheard Irma ask curiously, "So is anyone going to tell me what this big project is?"

 

April had to snicker at the stuttering answers the two brothers struggled to give as she passed out of earshot.

 

As she hurried through the crowded halls of her school, she pulled out her cellphone and began searching to find a quiet spot to make her call. Deciding that the outdoors was the best bet, she headed toward the exit, humming cheerfully under her breath as she went.

 

This day couldn't get any better.

 

________________________

 

This day couldn't get any worse.

 

That was the first thought Stockman had as he slowly became aware of his surroundings again. Vaguely he noticed the Shredder was no longer there, and for that at least he was grateful.

 

Pulling himself to his feet (at least he still had those, unlike Fishface), Stockman began lurching through his lab. Every molecule of his body ached, and he could barely maneuver himself through the room. The only bright side was that the mutation seemed to have healed the injuries he had gotten from the Shredder, though the areas where they had been still stung worse than the rest of him.

 

But one type of pain stood out over the rest. Hunger. The mutation had left him  _ravenous_ , and anything would do.

 

Knocking over his trashcan, Stockman caught a whiff of something he could eat. Despite the fact that before today he would have never stoop to digging through garbage to feed himself, he now found himself frantically shoving the empty boxes of Chinese food aside to where a half eaten candy bar sat. He'd thrown it away originally because he had dropped it on the floor, and he knew the five-second rule was a load of hooey.

 

But now he didn't care that the candy had been in the trash for days, he  _wanted_  it.

 

With a retch he puked up a wad of acid, which melted he candy bar down wrapper and all. He then leaned down to slurp up the food hungrily.

 

With his hunger abated, Stockman stopped as the full realization of what he'd become sunk in.

 

"What am I?" he asked in despair, noticing a slight buzzing quirk to his voice. "I  _nothing_ anymore! A  _freak!_ I'll never be taken ssseriously as a ssscientist!"

 

He then caught sight of his chalkboard, where he had been trying to crack the code of the mutagen.

 

An idea bloomed in his mind as he looked at it. "Or, wait," he hissed, and grabbed his chalk and wrote frantically on the board as the ideas came to him.

 

He muttered to himself as he worked on his new theory. If he could combine his mutated form with the pure DNA of a human, then the new transformation would make him more human in appearance, but still keeping the added might of his new mutation. This would work. This  _had_ to work!

 

Just then he heard the sound of someone enter his lab behind him.

 

"Stinkman?" called out Rahzar's voice as the canine walked through the room with two Foot-Bots. "Where are you?"

 

Stockman ducked clumsily into a hiding place as the ninjas came further into the lab.

 

"I want to see what you turned into," Rahzar said as he searched, amusement clear in his voice.

 

Stockman trembled with rage as he remembered all the torment the canine mutant had put him through. He'd show him. He'd show them  _all!_

 

He yanked on a cord to kill the lights, making Rahzar tense as he was plunged into darkness. "Scared to show yourself, Stinkman?" he snarled, his glowing eyes searching for his prey. "It's not like you can get much uglier."

That does it!

 

With a flash, Stockman flew out and took out one of the Foot-Bots. He took out the other just as quickly and efficiently, leaving Rahzar alone. To add insult to injury, he threw one of the Foot-Bots' heads at the dog's feet.

 

Stockman could sense Rahzar was actually starting to get nervous, and he reveled in that fact. Big bad Chris Bradford was actually getting scared of the man he'd spent so many months pushing around and insulting. Revenge was far sweeter than that candy bar, and Stockman just couldn't get enough of it.

 

"Show yourself, mutant!" Rahzar yelled, doing his best to keep his nervousness out of his voice.

 

But Stockman had no intention of giving in to his demands. With a retch, he spat acid onto Rahzar, making the canine yelp in pain.

 

But as much as Stockman wanted to prolong the torment, he had an experiment to accomplish. So before Rahzar could spot him, he took off through a window and flew through the city on his new wings.

 

He had a human specimen to find, and he had just the target in mind.

 

Lets see how those ninja brats reacted when he took their pretty, little redheaded friend and dipped her in mutagen.

 

________________________

 

April finally found a good spot outside her school where she could make her call, and also not be overheard. It was quiet and out of the way, and no one was in sight. The only sound she could hear was that of a few bugs buzzing around.

 

She hit speed dial for Raph's number and waited for him to pick up.

 

It took a few rings, but finally Raph answered and said, "Moshi moshi?" in a sleepy voice.

 

April had to smile. It sounded like she had caught him basking, well this should wake him up.

 

"Donnie did it!" she said excitedly.

 

There was a pause, and Raph said in a confused but more awake voice, "What?"

 

"He did it!" she said again gleefully, not noticing that the bugs were suddenly getting louder behind her. "He finally figured out how to make retro-mutagen!  _He did it!_ "

 

Now Raph sounded wide-awake. "He did?! That's AWESOME! Where are you?"

 

April opened her mouth to reply, but what cut off as a new voice rang out right behind to her.

 

" ** _Retro-mutagen?!"_**  came a loud buzzing voice.

 

April wheeled around and let out a piercing scream at the hideous sight that met her eyes.

 

Hovering in front of her was something out of a horror movie. Bulbous green eyes stared back at her, attached to the biggest fly she had ever seen.

 

April tried to back away, but the fly was too quick for her. It lashed out with a claw like appendage and threw her into a nearby tree, knocking her unconscious.

 

Looking down at his prey, Stockman became aware of a small voice coming out of April's phone, which she had dropped when she screamed.

 

Picking it up, he said into the device, "Come to my lab in three hourssss and bring the retro-mutagen, or the girl mutatessss with  _me!_ "

 

"Derik Stockboy?" came the alarmed shout from the other end.

 

"Baxtar Ssstockman!" he snarled as a correction. He then threw the phone to the ground to break it, and spat acid on it for good measure.

 

He then gathered up the girl and flew out of sight.

 

Back at the Renaissance Dojo, Raph was staring at his phone in horror as he realized what had happened. He didn't know why Stockman had seemingly flipped his lid, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let April get mutated, even if that meant staying a turtle for awhile longer.

 

With numb fingers, Raph hit the button that would call Donatello, and braced himself to deliver the bad news.

 

________________________

 

Donnie had not taken the news of his girlfriend's capture well.

 

In fact he had outright panicked, and called an emergency meeting down in the Lair to rally everyone to storm Stockman's lab and save her.

 

Fortunately, Leo assumed command before he could do anything too drastic. "Don't worry, Donnie," he said, placing a hand on the hysteric genius' shoulder. "We'll get her back, but we have to keep our heads."

 

Raph nodded. "If it comes down to it, just give him what he wants. I'll stay a turtle for longer if that's what it takes," he said firmly. "You made that stuff once, you can do it again."

 

Metalhead beeped in agreement and gave Donnie a thumbs-up encouragingly.

 

Donnie took a deep breath and calmed down marginally. "But it takes so much mutagen just to make a small amount of retro-mutagen," he said. "It'll take months before I can synthesize more."

 

"Um, a few more months, or April's life," said Mondo Gecko, who pretended to ponder the dilemma. "No contest, dude, staying like this is worth it so long as your girl is golden. Even thinking otherwise is totally bogus."

 

Sir Malachi nodded in agreement. "Besides, I have no wish or desire to be human again."

 

That made everyone stop and stare at the feathered mutant. "You don't?" asked Casey in surprise.

 

Malachi nodded. "Since I was told of Donatello's endeavor to createth such an antidote, I have been giving such a goal some thought." He then dropped his accent and looked glum. "I miss my parents, sure, but as Martin Milton I was nobody. I was just a friendless kid with one leg who was just limping through life. But now-"

 

Malachi flew a lap around the Lair and used his powers to make it look like the glade of an enchanted forest. "As Sir Malachi the Sparrow Wizard," he said, taking up his accent again, "I can doeth such things as Martin could only dreameth of. I can fly, createth such wonders, and gaineth such fellowships as I have with you loyal souls." He smiled at them as the illusion faded, and said in his regular voice, "I'll tell my parents once I work up the nerve, and I can only hope they'll accept me like this."

 

The others nodded in understanding, and turned back to the matter at hand.

 

"We'll figure out about who gets the retro-mutagen later," said Leo, getting down to business. "Right now we need to save April, and we have two hours left to do it."

 

"Why does Boxcar want retro-mutagen anyway?" asked Mikey. "He's not a mutant."

 

"But remember when Leo had shellacne," said Donnie, looking thoughtful. "Rahzar and Fishface had stuck a collar on him full of mutagen."

 

"Yeah, as incentive to keep Storkman from betraying them and making another 'Maze of Doom'," Miwa added, making quotation marks with her hands.

 

Donnie nodded. "What if Shredder got mad at him and activated it. If that's the case, then Dexter got mutated and is now desperate for a cure."

 

"Desperate enough to take Red, at least," said Casey darkly.

 

Silently, Miwa held out her hand to Raph and Mikey, who both scowled and forked over ten-dollar bills for the bet they'd had on Stockman's mutation (and pointedly ignoring the glare Leo shot them for gambling on it).

 

"Then the question is, what has he become, and how do we fight him?" said Leatherhead, bringing up the question they all were thinking.

 

Leo turned to Raph. "You were talking to him, Raph. Did you hear anything that could be a clue?"

 

Raph frowned as he remembered the ransom demand. "Stockman's voice didn't sound too different," he said. "A little wobbly, like he was talking through a faulty megaphone, but that was it. The only thing that really stood out was the buzzing."

 

"Buzzing?" asked Miwa.

 

Raph nodded. "Yeah, it kind of reminded me of the mutant Spy Roach's wings when it was flying." Raph's face then twisted in revulsion. "You don't think he's become a cockroach, do you?"

 

"Could be," said Donnie, looking worried. "Or the buzzing might not have any connection to Slinkman at all. Until we see him, we won't know anything for sure."

 

Leo looked pained at that. Coming up with a plan with such little information was dangerous. But April didn't have the time they'd need to gather more.

 

With that in mind, he addressed everyone and said, "Alright guys, here's what we're going to do."

 

________________________

 

April  _hated_  being the damsel in distress.

 

She'd hated it when the Kraang first tried to kidnap her, and had gotten away with her dad. She'd hated it when she was being stalked by Pigeon Pete, and had to run to her friends in fear. She'd hated it when her brainwashed father was beating Leatherhead with an electric rod right before her eyes and used her as a shield to keep the gator from saving her. She's especially hated it when the Kraang had her strapped down in TCRI with a needle coming at her head, and just when she'd been trying so hard to prove herself.

 

And she was really,  _really_  hating it now.

 

She'd woken up in mid flight of Stockman taking her back to his lab. At first she'd tried to struggle free. But when she kicked the fly mutant in the face hard enough to drop her, she had quickly found that getting free didn't mean much if she was splattered on the pavement from falling at such a height.

 

Fortunately (or unfortunately, she was not sure which), Stockman had caught her again, and continued flying her back to his lab.

 

When they finally reached it, Stockman dropped April in front of his giant vat of mutagen.

 

"Ssstay," he commanded her, before turning to fetch something from his desk.

 

"Baxter," said April, attempting to reason with him while searching for a way out. "You don't have to do this. Gifuto can help you. He can make more retro-mutagen. It'll only take a few month- _I mean-_ hours."

 

But Stockman didn't look like he wanted to be reasoned with. He seemed to find what he was looking for, and straightened up. Turning back to April, he said, "If he failsss, I have a back up plan…"

 

April did not like the looks of the long coil of rope in his hands. Narrowing her eyes, she subtly pulled out her tessen and said, "So do I."

 

With a yell, April slashed her tessen at Stockman, cutting what little of a cheek he still head, and knocking him back.

 

April then turned and tried to run, but Stockman used his wings to fly over her head and block her escape.

 

She tried attacking him again, but he was ready for it this time.

 

"No escape!" he cried as he hit her with surprising strength.

 

The blow left April dazed for a few seconds, and that was all Stockman needed to bind her wrists and steal away her tessen. With her struggling to get free, he continued to bind her with the rope until she was tied up in an uncomfortable, and, more importantly, helpless position.

 

Satisfied with his work. Stockman grabbed the end of the rope not tied to her, and flew up towards the rafters, dragging her with him.

 

April struggled all the way, only to freeze when she saw what Stockman had hung her over.

 

Directly below her, the mutagen glowed and bubbled, as if just waiting for her to drop in.

 

"You go here," said Stockman, though it seemed like he was mostly talking to himself, "and I presssss the button. You  _fall,_ and I-I jump in. We c-come apart and come together. You, me assss one. More  _human_ than I am now."

 

April recoiled in disgust as she heard this plan. On the list of things she never wanted to do in her lifetime, getting merged with a crazy fly man was pretty near the top.

 

"Baxter," she said, attempting to reason with him again. "Listen to me. I worked with Gifuto to make the retro-mutagen. Dropping us into a vat of ooze isn't going to save you. You gotta trust me on that!"

 

But Stockman seemed to ignore her, and instead picked up a candy bar and vomited on it so he could suck up the melted treat in a disgusting fashion.

 

April's stomach rolled at the sight, and moved 'getting merged with a crazy fly man' to the very top of her mental list of things she never wanted to do.

 

"No!" Stockman shouted when he finished eating. "This is the only way! Only way! Stockman Fly c-c-cannot trust anyone!"

 

April's hope diminished as the fly dissolved into insane ramblings about how his plan would work, even though she knew it wouldn't. It was clear that like many a mutant his sanity had been effected by his mutation, making him irrational and desperate. A dangerous combination.

 

Helpless to do anything, she looked down at the mutagen again as it bubbled underneath her.

 

Did she mention how she hated being the damsel in distress?

 

________________________

 

Outside Stockman's lab, the assembled team was awaiting Leo's signal to set his plan into motion.

 

At a nod from the lead ninja, Malachi positioned himself near the broken window and peered in, and used his powers to show the others what he saw, April tied above the vat of mutagen, and the grotesque form of Stockman hovering in front of her, ranting like a lunatic.

 

Seeing this, Leo signaled for Malachi to continue on with his portion of the plan.

 

Malachi's eyes glowed as he sent an illusion into Stockman's head, making him think Leo and the other teens had broken in on the other side of the building.

 

The fly cried out in rage at what he saw, and flew down where his perceived enemies were. Unfortunately, before he went he spat his acid at the rope holding April up, and it began eating away at it.

 

Acting quickly Leo, his siblings, and Metalhead darted into the room. Leatherhead, Casey, and Mondo stayed outside in case they needed surprise backup. While the ninjas kept an eye on Stockman, the robotic turtle quickly flew up to where April was hanging and freed her, before lowering her into Donnie's arms.

 

"Nice work, guys," she said with a grin as Donnie pulled off the ropes. "And we didn't even have to give up the retro-mutagen."

 

She spoke too soon as one of the walls of the lab suddenly exploded inwards, and in stormed Rahzar with a large group of Foot-Bots. One of the rocks from the explosion few up to where Sir Malachi was perched, and clocked hard him right in the face. The sparrow swayed at the blow and fell back out the window in a dead faint.

 

Outside they heard Mondo Gecko yell, "I got him! I got him!" Followed by a loud thump and a groan of, "Got him…"

 

But with Malachi unconscious, the illusion on Stockman faded, and the fly started looking around in confusion. " _What?!"_

 

But Rahzar paid no attention to these antics, his glowing gaze fixed solely on the Hamato siblings. "I heard you say  _retro-mutagen!"_ he said with great interest. "I can become human again?"

 

With Malachi down, and the teens suddenly outnumbered, Leo was glad he had his backup plan. "NOW!" Leo yelled towards where Leatherhead and Casey were waiting as he, his siblings, and April pulled out their weapons, and Metalhead armed his rockets.

 

Another wall of the lab was broken trough, and in stormed Leatherhead and Casey ready to fight.

 

"Sssstop putting holes in my lab!" screeched Stockman as he flew at the offending two, spitting acid as he went.

 

That was all it took to get the fight started. The ninja teens rushed at the Foot-Bots, Casey started going against Stockman, and Leatherhead pounced on Rahzar causing the two predators to begin a vicious fight of tooth and claw.

 

As they fought, Raph eventually found himself fighting next to Mikey as the youngest babbled happily at him.

 

"I've gotta come up with a name for Stoolman, but I'm drawing a blank," Mikey complained. "What do you name a gross, hideous fly?"

 

Raph grunted noncommittally as he jammed his sai in one of the Foot-Bots' chest. "Don't know, don't care," he growled. "I'm just glad he's not a cockroach."

 

"'S not like a fly is all that better," Mikey pointed out, using the sickle of kusarigama to behead a Foot-Bot who had gotten to close. Then his eyes lit up, and he was so excited he didn't even see another Foot-Bot sneak up behind him before Miwa threw a shuriken through its head from her own fight. "I got it," he said excitedly to Raph.

 

Right on cue, Casey smacked Stockman with enough force to land him right beside Raph and Mikey's battle.

 

Mikey beamed down at the fly and pointed to him dramatically. "Your mutant name shall be  _Buzzkill!"_

 

Raph slapped his forehead in disgust.

 

Stockman didn't seem to appreciate the name either, and began filling his mouth with more of his acid spit.

 

"Look Out!" Raph yelled, tackling Mikey out of the way of the acid projectiles.

 

They landed behind some crates away from the fight. Which was fortunate, as Raph's tackle had knocked Mikey's hood off his head.

 

Mikey grinned at his big brother. "Some people just don't appreciate a good mutant name."

 

Raph rolled his eyes and ruffled Mikey's curly hair fondly in reply, making the youngest squawk and yank his hood back into place. The two quickly jumped back out of their hiding spot, and ran to join the fight.

 

The fight was going well for the Hamato team, their skill outweighing the numbers against them. That is until Leatherhead's wrestling match with Rahzar got too close to the mutagen vat.

 

With a vicious kick, Rahzar threw the snarling gator off of him and against the side of the vat with great force.

 

The blow only dazed Leatherhead, and he was back up and roaring a second later. But his charge to take on Rahzar again was halted when he heard a loud and horrible creaking sound.

 

The alligator looked over his shoulder and was horrified to discover the mutagen vat was actually starting to tip over towards the his friends' fight.

 

"Watch Out!" he bellowed, only to be tackled by Rahzar before he could try to use his strength to set the vat upright once more.

 

The teens looked up at his yell, and at the sight of the tipping vat they began scrambling madly for cover, the Foot-Bots chasing after them as they went, only to be cut down by the frantic teens.

 

But one of the downed Foot-Bots that still had some life in it, and it reached up and snagged April's ankle as she tried to flee the oncoming mutagen. The girl let out a startled yelp of surprise and fell flat on her face, before turning to try and kick the Foot-Bot off of her.

 

"APRIL!" Donnie shrieked as he saw his girlfriend's predicament.

 

"I'll get her," shouted Mikey, doing an about-face to run back to her. He was the fastest of his siblings and had the best chance of getting there first.

 

Donnie moved to follow him, but Casey and Leo held him back and pulled him to onward safety.

 

Mikey reached April in a flash and slammed his nunchuck down on the Foot-Bot, making it release April's ankle. He then threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and started running towards the others.

 

From her undignified position, April had a clear view of the vat as it tipped farther and farther over, its contents dribbling onto the ground below.

 

Buzzkill was circling the tipping vat excitedly, feeling that he would be able to complete his experiment after all. He even began pushing the opposite side so that it would fall over faster.

 

Mikey was in the homestretch of getting out of the mutagen's way. His siblings and Casey were all perched on top of a large tower of boxes that would keep them out of flood level.

 

Seeing that the vat was about to pour, Leo yelled, "JUMP!"

 

Just as the entire contents of the vat came rushing out in a massive wave, Mikey made a giant leap for safety, his free hand outstretched.

 

Miwa was closest, and reached out as far as she could to catch him, balancing precariously on the crate with how far she was leaning out. "Come on!" she yelled.

 

Mikey and Miwa's fingers were a hair's breadth apart from each other for a brief instant before the mutagen wave overtook him and April and sucked them both into its glowing green depths.

 

" ** _NO!"_** shouted Mikey's siblings in utter horror.

 

Buzzkill let out a cheer of delight. "Three Become ONE!" he yelled as he dove towards the mutagen lake that was now in his lab.

 

With an enraged yell of, "EAT IT BUG!" Casey threw his hockey stick at Buzzkill, knocking him off course, and out one of the lab's windows. Metalhead took off flying after him to keep him away until the mutagen had drained.

 

But the Hamatos didn't even spare the fly a glance, and instead scanned the green ooze on the floor, searching desperately for their baby brother and their friend. Even though Donnie had managed to mutagen proof their ninja clothing, not even that could protect against the complete dousing that the two had had.

 

The mutagen bubbled, and frothed as something rose up out of it.

 

With a cough, April burst out of the mutagen, looking as whole and human as when she went in. Sadly, the same could not be said for the unconscious and ooze covered Mikey she currently had slung over her shoulders.

 

She waded through the mutagen to the crates, and shoved her charge up first before climbing out herself and collapsing, her adrenalin spent.

 

Once they were both out of the mutagen, Donnie threw up a shuriken that triggered the sprinkler system to wash away the rest of the slime both on the floor and off the two teens it had doused.

 

As the water cleared the ooze away, the siblings gathered around to look over their baby brother, and pray he was still Mikey despite the change.

 

Like Raph, he'd mutated into a giant turtle. His scales were a lighter green than Raph's and his face was rounder, though his freckles were still present on his face. He was also a bit smaller than Raph, but otherwise he looked about the same as his hotheaded brother.

 

With a groan, Mikey opened his eyes and looked up at his siblings. "Now that's what I call a wipeout," he moaned weakly.

 

Letting out a laugh of relief, his siblings all piled on top of him in a group hug.

 

Seeing that Mikey was as okay as he could be, if a little woozy, Casey turned is attention over to April. "So why didn't you change like he did?" he asked in confusion.

 

Donnie looked up from Mikey, and quickly gave his girlfriend a once over, his eyes widening in shock. "But how did-" he broke off and gasped as it came to him. "You're immune to mutagen!" he declared in shock, pulling his vial of retro-mutagen out of his duffle bag. "That's why your DNA worked to create retro-mutagen.  _Amazing!_ "

 

"Are you kidding me?" snapped Raph, who was supporting a wobbly Mikey on his new feet. "We get  _mutated_  saving her butt, and it turns out we didn't need to bother?"

 

April opened her mouth to reply, but a crash on the other side of the room cut her off. The mutagen had not fallen where Rahzar and Leatherhead were brawling, and they were still going at it with extreme prejudice.

 

They hurried towards the fight to help their alligator friend out, but then Buzzkill shot back through the window and snatched the retro-mutagen from Donnie's hand.

 

Unfortunately for him, Metalhead was right behind him, and slammed into the fly and made him drop the vial by the mutant's brawl.

 

Seeing the vial, Rahzar shoved Leatherhead away, and dove for it. Only for Casey to use his second hockey stick to knock a Foot-Bot head at the canine mutant, making him fall over, and allowing Leo to snatch the retro-mutagen back up.

 

"We've got April and the retro-mutagen!" shouted Leo to the rest. "Let's get out of here!"

 

Raph hefted Mikey onto his shell for a piggyback ride, and they all rushed out the lab doors.

 

Buzzkill howled in rage and took off after them through the broken window. "No escape! No escape!"

 

Rahzar looked down at the remains of his Foot-Bots, before snarling and taking off after them as well.

 

Outside, the mutants and teenagers all squeezed into the Shellraiser and took off, the group from inside the lab pointedly ignoring Mondo's questions about why Mikey was suddenly a turtle (Malachi was still unconscious, or he would be asking too).

 

Seeing that Buzzkill was gaining on them, Miwa fired her garbage cannon at the fly. As he dodged her shot, she spewed curses under her breath and fired again.

 

"You're not gonna start hating April again, are you Sis?" Mikey asked, who was still dazed and weak from his mutation. "It wasn't her fault."

 

Miwa spared her brother a glance, before turning her attention back to her periscope to aim. "Not this time," she said viciously. "This time I know exactly who's to blame, and I have him right in my sights."

 

To punctuate that statement, she fired her cannon with precise accuracy, catching Buzzkill in the stomach.

 

The fly slowed down as it plowed into him, but instead of going down, he instead spat his acid on it and started eating it. "Delicious," he muttered to himself.

 

Inside the Shellraiser, Miwa roared in rage and shot the cannon again, this time getting Buzzkill in head, and making him crash onto the street.

 

Miwa grinned viciously, and cheered, but Mikey wasn't fooled. "It's not your fault for not catching me either," he said before passing out from the day's events.

 

Miwa stopped in mid cheer to look over at him in shock. Looking at the others she asked, "You don't think the mutagen made him psychic, do you?"

 

The rest could only give her helpless shrugs. With Mikey, you could never really tell.

 

Just as it looked like they were in the clear, Rahzar appeared before them with an army of flying Foot-Bots, and even more on foot.

 

"Flying, evil, robo-ninjas," said Mondo Gecko as he saw them appear on one of the Shellraiser's computer screens. "Now I've seen everything. What's next,  _invisible_  ninjas?"

 

The Foot-Bots flew ahead of their vehicle and poured an oil slick onto the street, making the Shellraiser spin out of control and crash.

 

Seeing that there was no way out but to fight, Leo led the charge back out of the Shellraiser to take on the Foot-Bots and Rahzar again.

 

As they went, Mondo was left in charge of keeping an eye on Mikey and Malachi, both of whom weren't in any shape to fight. The gecko saluted when he got this order, and sat himself at the manhole cover launcher, and dared any Foot Freaks to come close.

 

Unfortunately, it was the Shellraiser all the Foot wanted to get at, as Donnie had left his duffle with the retro-mutagen inside.

 

To prevent this, the teenagers and Leatherhead positioned themselves around the vehicle and didn't let any of the Foot-Bots get through. To further protect it, Metalhead positioned himself on the roof of the Shellraiser, and used his lasers to shoot down the flying enemies.

 

Then, of course, Buzzkill showed up again, and was proving to be as annoying as the insect he had mutated into. He was able to use his new speed and maneuverability to flit through the fighting factions as well as past Mondo's manhole covers to shove the door open and begin searching the vehicle.

 

Malachi awoke and yelped in surprise when the fly burst in, and tried to scare him away with an illusion, but Buzzkill hit the sparrow with his claw like hand, and resumed his search, paying no attention to the unconscious Mikey.

 

"Where issss it?!" he hissed as he dug through the vehicle. "Where?!"

 

Mondo pulled himself back in from the manhole launcher, and grabbed Donnie's duffle from where it was hidden. Pulling out the retro-mutagen he held it up for Buzzkill to see. "Looking for this, freak job?" he asked in a voice far braver than he was feeling.

 

Buzzkill buzzed angrily at the sight. "Give it to me!" he snarled.

 

But Mondo darted past him out the door and yelled, "Armonia! Hot potato!"

 

Miwa looked over at him as he threw her the retro-mutagen, and just barely managed to catch it, before tossing it to Leo to keep it from a Foot-Bot's hands. Buzzkill darted out of the van after it, and Mondo slammed the door shut behind them to keep anymore bad guys from going in and getting to his friends.

 

Just as he managed to do that, a Foot-Bot came out of nowhere and punched him into a brick wall, knocking him unconscious.

 

The game of hot potato continued throughout the fight, the vial of mutagen passing between the Hamato siblings and their allies. It was sometimes intercepted by their enemies, but not for very long, as the team would quickly work to get it back.

 

Finally the vial landed in Buzzkill's hands, and Metalhead had to take to the skies to chase after him in circles. The rest of the fight was close behind him on foot, all of them wanting that orange ooze.

 

The fly was fast, but Metalhead's rockets were built for speed, and he was soon gaining on the mutant scientist. Even with all the receptors on his eyes, Buzzkill was too busy looking behind him at Metalhead to pay attention to where he was going. This, ironically, led to him crashing head first into a billboard advertising ' _Jonsey Kitty Pest Control'_.

 

Groaning in pain, Buzzkill dropped the vial and slid off the billboard onto the roof. The vial rolled to the edge of the roof, and began tipping precariously over the edge.

 

Instantly everyone dove for it, causing them all to crash into each other in a giant dog pile, and knocking the vial over the side of the building.

 

On the street below, Mondo Gecko pulled himself to his feet and clutched his head in pain. He wandered over to stand under a streetlamp to see if he was bleeding.

 

Unbeknownst to him, the retro-mutagen was hurdling towards him from above. The vial smashed on the streetlamp, showering Mondo with glass and its glowing orange contents.

 

Mondo let out a yelp of shock, and scrambled to get away from the wet. But then he felt a familiar burning sensation on his skin, and he started screaming in pain.

 

Buzzkill and Rahzar both let out yells of rage at this, but they quickly realized that they were all out of Foot-Bots, and they were far outnumbered by the other team.

 

Snarling at this realization, Rahzar grabbed Buzzkill and dragged him off to the mercy of the Shredder.

 

Once the two bad guys were gone, the team turned their attention to the street below, and the rapidly changing Mondo Gecko, who was still writhing before them.

 

Then with one final groan, Jason collapsed to the ground human as the day he was born, and exhausted beyond belief.

 

Hearing the sound of sirens in the distance, they quickly gathered him up and took off in the Shellraiser to safety.

 

________________________

 

An hour and several tests later, Donnie sent the former Mondo Gecko out of his lab with a clean bill of health, and a new pair of pants (he no longer had a tail to fill in the hole of his own), leaving the genius to turn his attention to his new turtle brother. Malachi had been given an ice back for the bump on his head and sent away earlier.

 

Jason then went up the stairs to where the rest sans Raph were all waiting to hear the news about Mikey's mutation. Raphael, however, was back down in the lab with Donnie and Mikey so that the genius could compare the two mutations, and hopefully be able to tell if something was wrong with the youngest.

 

Despite assurances that he was not to blame, the former mutant couldn't help but feel guilty about the whole ordeal. Jason had regained his human form, but in the course of the same night his best friend had lost his own.

 

Finally after much waiting, Donnie appeared on the stairs, Raph following behind him, and helping Mikey figure out how to walk on his new feet.

 

When Mikey saw how glum everyone looked, he shot them all his signature vibrant smile. "Why's everyone looking so down?" he asked in genuine confusion.

 

Leo approached his brother with a concerned glance. Before, Mikey had still been fairly out of it, and this was he first time he was awake enough to answer questions.

 

"You okay, Mikey?" Leo asked.

 

Mikey beamed at him. "Of course I'm okay, dawg!" he said brightly. He then pushed himself off Raph and struck a pose. "Look how cool I am! LTD!"

 

Leatherhead gave a relieved smile when he saw his friend appeared to be alright, and despite Raph's frantic indications not to ask, he said, "LTD?"

 

"Like a turtle do," Mikey practically sang. Then he started loosing his balance, and Rah had to hurry forward to catch him again.

 

The red wearing turtle rolled his eyes, and moved Mikey towards the couch to sit next to his mother (who promptly pulled him into a hug and began fussing over him). "He's been coming up with stuff like that all night," he griped. "His other favorite is-"

 

"I love being a  _turtle!_ " Mikey burst out cheerfully once his mother let him go.

 

Most of the room stared at him in surprise, and Donnie and Raph shared annoyed glances.

 

With a sigh, Donnie explained, "I ran every test on him that I could, and compared them to the ones I did on Raph. As far as I can tell, he's as healthy as a mutant turtle can be, and is still as sane as he's ever been."

 

"If you can call whatever Mikey is 'sane'," Raph added. "It took us twenty minutes to convince him not to give himself a mutant name."

 

At the assurance that Mikey was still Mikey, the entire room let out an audible sigh of relief.

 

"Well, that's some good news at least," said Leo who was the most relieved of all.

 

Miwa watched with vague amusement as Mikey figured out how to pull his head inside his shell, and began popping his head in and out of it like a green whack-a-mole. "How long did you say it'll take to make more retro-mutagen?" she asked, getting the feeling that somehow turtle Mikey might be even more annoying then regular Mikey could be.

 

Donnie's smile dimmed. "A few months, unfortunately," he said. "We need ten canisters of ooze for just one batch of retro-mutagen, which we'll have to collect through various means. And then it takes time for the mutagen to synthesize."

 

"The point is that it can be done," said Tang Shen, giving her genius son an encouraging smile. "We can handle the time it takes to accomplish this goal."

 

"In the meantime," said Yoshi, glancing down at Mikey (who gulped as he sensed oncoming doom). "I will work with Michelangelo as I did Raphael to bring his skills back to their original level, despite this change."

 

Mikey groaned as he remembered all the work Raph had had to go through when he mutated, and was not looking forward to that.

 

Raph, meanwhile, was still pissed about one little detail. "I still can't believe me and Mikey got mutated for nothing," he grumbled, shooting a look at April.

 

Donnie shot his brother a poisonous glance, and Jason hissed, "Not cool, dude."

 

Yoshi's eyes turned stern, but April held up a hand to stop whatever lecture he was about to give, signaling she wanted to speak.

 

The redhead then walked up to Raph and looked him straight in the eye. "I'm sorry you two got mutated because of me," she said. "But you  _didn't_ mutate for nothing."

 

Raph gave her a disbelieving glance.

 

"Do you remember who was on the roof with us that night?" April asked sharply. "My  _Dad_  was there, and he didn't know I was immune to ooze anymore than you did at the time. And  _where_  was my dad when the mutagen was falling towards us?"

 

Raph's face softened as he remembered. "Trying to protect you," he admitted.

 

"Exactly," said April with a nod. "He was right in the line of fire with me. If it hadn't been for you, my Dad would have mutated instead that night, and who knows what he would have turned into."

 

Raph blinked in surprise as he realized that.

 

April then smiled and hugged him. "Thank you for saving my Dad," she said.

 

Raph was stiff as a board under her hug, and could barely mutter out a tiny, "Sure, no problem."

 

Leatherhead spoke up next. "Michelangelo's sacrifice was not in vain as well," he said, making the others turn to him in surprise. "I had a clear view of the vat as it fell during my fight with Rahzar. If Michelangelo had not freed April from where she had fallen, she would have been crushed underneath it as it hit the ground."

 

April paled as she realized just how close she'd been from being squashed, and quickly went over to hug Mikey in thanks as well. "Thanks, Mikey," she muttered weakly.

 

Mikey patted her head and said again, "Like a turtle do."

 

After talking for a few more hours, discussing plans and solutions to their current problems. Then finally the Lair mutants decided to call it a night.

 

As Malachi and Leatherhead turned to head out the sewer passageway, they were surprised to see Jason following them.

 

At their surprised looks, the ex-mutant shrugged and said, "Would it be cool if I, you know, still crash with you guys?" His face then fell and he explained, "Being human again is bodacious and all, but I've been thinking. I… I'm not so sure I wanna go back to my parents' place. Not after, well…" He broke off, but the mutants were able to fill in the rest. They all knew that his parents' reaction to his mutation had been less than ideal.

 

The alligator and sparrow exchanged glances, and smiled. "I doth see nary a reason, nor a cause to send thee on thy way," said Malachi with a nod.

 

Leatherhead nodded in agreement. "I have no problems with your continued stay as well, my friend," he said. "So long as you keep the promise you made earlier to Master Yoshi, and return to school."

 

Jason winced and deadpanned, "Like I said, dudes, why go back to my parents' place, I've already got a Dad right here," jerking his thumb at Leatherhead as he said 'Dad'.

 

Malachi chuckled good-naturedly, and Leatherhead looked surprised and pleased at that comment.

 

As they headed off into the sewers, Jason had to remark, "Look on the bright side, now that I'm human again we can, like, get our own groceries. No more of that healthy junk Leo, Donnie, and April keep pushing on us."

 

The sound of cheering rang out through the sewers at that.

 

________________________

 

Meanwhile, Rahzar delivered Buzzkill to his master's feet via dragging him across the floor.

 

"Look at you, Stinkbug," the canine mutant taunted as he stepped away. "I'd squash you right here. But Shredder has other plans for you."

 

Buzzkill slowly raised his head as the Shredder glowered down at him. "I have one last mutant I want you to create," he said darkly. "Or I will pluck your wings like the lowly insect you are."

 

Rahzar held up a candy bar to Buzzkill, but then kept it to himself tauntingly. "Another of Tang Shen's sons was mutated tonight, Master," he growled darkly. "Into another turtle. Lured to  _this_  insect's lab in a futile attempt to cure himself."

 

Buzzkill buzzed angrily and tried to tell the Shredder that it had been Rahzar's fault the mutagen had spilled, but was cut off when the Shredder kicked him across the room in a rage.

 

The fly slumped unconscious to the floor, and two Foot-Bots dragged him from the room.

 

Seething, the Shredder asked, "Is there anything else to report?"

 

"Yes, Master," said Rahzar with a bow, grateful that Buzzkill had been removed before revealing his own part in the failure. "It seems that retro-mutagen exists, and Tang Shen's children attempted to use it to barter with Stinkman for one of their friends. I do not know how they obtained such a thing."

 

The Shredder looked thoughtful at this.

 

Tiger Claw had been listening from to the whole exchange from the shadows, and at this he stepped over and said, "Master, if I may?"

 

The Shredder glanced over at the feline and nodded.

 

"Tang Shen's cubs are often at odds with the Kraang, and many times have run off with their supplies if the Kraang's reports are to be believed," Tiger Claw said. "The alien bugs are the ones who created the mutagen, it seems likely that they would also create something to undo what they have done."

 

The Shredder's eyes narrowed, seeing the merit to his lieutenant's assessment. "And they have kept such knowledge of its existence away from me," he said in a voice that promised pain on the alien invaders once they'd outlived their usefulness.

 

He then sent a sharp look at Rahzar and Tiger Claw. "From now on I want you both to seek out more of this retro-mutagen. Find a supply and bring it to me, but do not let the Kraang know. The pitiful worms are still of some use to me, for now."

 

Rahzar perked up at the task. "If I may be so bold as to ask," said Rahzar subtly. "Why do you wish to have retro-mutagen?"

 

Apparently he wasn't subtle enough, as the Shredder fixed him with a steely glare. "If I cure Tang Shen's sons, they will be indebted to me, and more easily molded against their father," he said darkly. "If you succeed in this mission, I will grant you access to the chemical as a reward. But if I catch you human again before the her sons…" He unsheathed the blades of his gauntlets in warning.

 

Rahzar gulped and nodded quickly. "Of course, Master," he said.

 

With that the Shredder swept out of the room to make plans. He had a family to claim.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I was posting this to FAnfic.net, a lot of people were thinking I'd mutate Donnie this chapter. Haha, nope :). Though, to be honest, out of all of them I think Mikey'd take the change the best. Yeah, a lot of changes in this chapter for good or ill. I was a little disappointed when they didn't really give Stockman a decent mutant name in the show. But then I figured it might be because Mikey wasn't there when he mutated, and with everything happening he didn't get the chance. But I did like the idea of Buzzkill being his name, so here you go. I also de-mutated Mondo, and mutated Mikey, so he's a turtle now too. There is a reason for this, you'll just have to keep reading to find out what it is.


	30. Knowing Where to Belong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Slash's back, and it seems he's made a new friend.

After Mikey's mutation, things weren't as bad as when Raph mutated. After having one brother become a turtle, the Hamato family was determined not to make the same mistakes twice, and worked on adjusting to his new appearance accordingly. Even so, Donnie quickly noticed that his older sister was distracted for some reason. It wasn't the angry avoidance from when Raph had mutated, but rather a thoughtful, if pensive cloud that seemed to hang over Miwa's head.

 

After waiting a few days to see if she would talk about it, Donnie eventually decided confront her for answers.

 

When he summoned her to his lab and did so, Miwa got a strange expression on her face and replied, "Remember when the Kraang worms were under New York, and I fell through a random portal?"

 

Donnie nodded. "Yeah," he replied, the whole thing wasn't really an experience you can forget.

 

Miwa sighed, and sat down in one of his la chairs. "I ended up jumping through a lot of portals trying to find my way back home," she explained. "But remember what I told you I saw in every alternate reality I went to?"

 

Donnie's eyes widened as realization sank in.

 

"You four as turtles," said Miwa bluntly, not waiting for his reply. "Every single dimension there were four mutant turtles named Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo. Even in the dimension that looked almost exactly like this one it was you guys, just as turtles."

 

"You think Mikey and Raph are only the beginning," Donnie said in a serious tone. "What happened to them might happen to us too."

 

"You and Leo, at least," said Miwa with a nod. "I only saw one counterpart of myself." Her face then pinched in a grimace. "She was evil."

 

Donnie let out a small laugh, and patted her shoulder. "Well, you know we would never let  _that_  happen."

 

Miwa nodded slowly.

 

Donnie then got serious. "And even if we do get mutated, I know how to reverse it. It may take time, but I can do it."

 

Miwa shot him an unimpressed look. "And what if mutating turns your brains to goop? We've been lucky with Raph and Mikey, but it can't last forever."

 

Donnie grimaced at the implications of that and said, "I'll write it down and hide it," he said with resolution. "And I'll do it in a way that even Mikey would be able to read it."

 

Miwa let out a snort. "That'll be an accomplishment."

 

Seeing that she was still skeptical about it all, Donnie gave her a comforting smile. "Don't worry about it, Mi," he said. "Just 'cause it happened in some other dimensions doesn't mean it'll happen here. Not all things are universal, it's why they're called  _alternate_ dimensions."

 

Miwa shrugged, but didn't look as apprehensive anymore, so Donnie considered it a win.

 

__________________________

 

A few nights after Mikey got the hang of moving in his new body (as well as a new orange mask to celebrate this), Raph and Casey were out on patrol when they came across some Kraang stealing plutonium from a local lab.

 

Needless to say, the two gave chase to the aliens on a rooftop sprint. Though as they ran, Casey and Raph continued what was becoming a common argument between them.

 

"Look, I'm just saying," said Raph as he threw some shuriken at the Kraang they were gaining on. "If you just took some classes-"

 

"Thanks, but no, man," Casey said, cutting him off and trying not to roll his eyes. Ever since Casey had become aware of Raph's double life, the turtle had been trying to convince him to start taking martial arts classes at his family's dojo.

 

Casey could understand why Raph wanted him to take the classes. His best friend was just trying to protect him, but knew he could never convince Casey to sit out of a fight. So, he was going the next best rout and trying to help Casey improve his skills enough to take on anything.

 

And Casey was fine with that, but there was just one problem. "Your dad's classes are at the same time as my hockey practice," he said while slapping an exploding puck at one of the retreating Kraang's back. "No offence, but I'm not giving up hockey when I know I can get a scholarship if I keep working at it."

 

Raph let out a frustrated sigh. "Then why not come to weekend classes," he offered. "Father even said he'd let you take them for free like he does with April."

 

"Dude, do you even realize just how early those classes are?" asked Casey. "Weekends are for sleep, not getting up at the crack of dawn."

 

Raph looked far from impressed by his reasoning, but knew there was no arguing with him. "Just think about it, okay Bonehead."

 

"You got it, Hothead," Casey said back, and returned his focus on catching the Kraang.

 

The aliens were doing their best to lose the two boys by leaping across a particularly wide gap between buildings onto a fire escape and began firing a blaster at them as they tried escaping down it.

 

But Raph was too fast for them. Before the Kraang holding the stolen plutonium could get down the fire escape, the turtle was on top of it punching its android's lights out.

 

"Move it, Nightwatcher," Raph yelled back to his partner, who had been trailing behind too slow for the turtle's liking.

 

"You think I'm on a midnight stroll?" Casey called back as he took a running leap towards the fire escape, but didn't jump quite far enough.

 

The vigilante managed to grab hold of the railing to keep him from falling to the ground. But the shaking from his grab on top of the weight from Raph and the Kraang made the fire escape come loose from the building, and they all went tumbling to the ground, fire escape and all.

 

Casey let out a groan when he hit the ground hard, and just barely avoided getting pinned under the escape's metal platform. Before he had a chance to recover, Raph was already on his feet and racing after the escaping Kraang.

 

"They're gettin' with the plutonium!" he called as he ran, making Casey force himself to ignore the bruises that were sure to be forming and chase after the aliens as well.

 

"I think I lost another tooth," Casey groaned as he hurried after his best friend.

 

Heedless of any people that might be out that late, Raph rushed along the sidewalk and nearly passed the next alley by before a sizzling noise made him double back.

 

Running in the alley with his sais out for a fight, Raph stopped dead at the sight that met his eyes. "What the…?" he said aloud.

 

Casey rushed in right behind him, and also had to stop and stare as he caught his breath.

 

All the Kraang they had been chasing were there, along with what Casey assumed was back up to take care of the two of them. But it didn't look like it did them much good, as all the Kraang androids now lay empty at their feet, their bodies ripped to pieces, and one had even been shoved head first through a wall.

 

"Who could have done this?" Raph had to ask. Sure, he and his siblings took on the Kraang almost daily, but even they didn't leave the robots looking this brutalized. His first thought was that it could be Leatherhead, but the alligator would have let them know if it was him.

 

Casey shoved his mask off of his face and looked grim. "And it keeps getting worse," he said, nodding to the now empty briefcase that the Kraang had been carrying. "They took the plutonium. What do you think they need it for?"

 

"No idea," said Raph with a frown. "But whoever it was packs some serious fire power. Let's just hope they're on our side."

 

Unbeknownst to them both, they were being observed from above.

 

On the rooftop adjacent to the ally the two teens were in, Slash smirked and turned away. It looked like things were about to get a whole lot more interesting.

 

__________________________

 

When they returned to the dojo, Casey and Raph filled Raph's siblings in on what had happened.

 

Once they were done, Donnie rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Interesting," he said to himself. "Maybe Tiger Claw is going after the Kraang again."

 

But Raph shook his head. "I don't think it was him," said Raph. "It didn't look like his style, plus there were no ice patches from his gun."

 

Mikey got a confident expression on his face. "Hah, I know exactly who's behind this-"

 

But Raph cut him off. "You better not say squirrels with lasers, again," he said, jabbing Mikey's plastron with his finger.

 

From the way Mikey's confidence wilted they could all tell that was exactly what he'd planned to say.

 

"We really need to work on that irrational squirrel phobia of yours," said Miwa dryly.

 

"One word, Sis," said Mikey defensively. " _Squirrelanoids._ "

 

Donnie turned to look at his leader. "So what do we do, Leo?" he asked. "Hunt down whoever's hunting the Kraang?"

 

Leo slipped into leader mode, and began giving orders. "I think we better blanket the area. Keep an eye out" he said. "Miwa and Casey, stick to the alley ways. Donnie and Mikey, you take the rooftops and don't let anyone see you. Raph and I will take Metalhead and cover the sewers, as well as let the guys at the Lair know what's happening. Meet back at the here at midnight."

 

"What about April, should we let her know?" asked Miwa.

 

Donnie shook his head. "No, April has a big test to study for in our Advanced Chem class. I've got the material memorized already, but she still wants to cram. The test is worth a lot to our final grade."

 

Leo nodded at that. "I'll send her a text to keep an eye out for anything, but she can keep studying. Let's go, team."

 

__________________________

 

A few minutes later, Casey and Miwa were both walking down the New York sidewalk near where he and Raph had lost the plutonium.

 

Thanks to winter being right around the corner, Miwa was able to cover most of her ninja clothes in a long pea coat, and had her green scarf wrapped casually around her neck. This allowed her to look like a regular goth, and the hood still worked to obscure her face, but she could ditch the coat and be ready to fight in seconds if need be.

 

A few people stared at Casey's sport equipment (particularly the Hockey Blocker Glove with spikes), but Casey would send them a confident grin and tell them he was on his way home from Super Slam Hockey practice, which was apparently a more extreme version of the original game. Fortunately, the people bought it, but still gave him wide birth.

 

As they searched another alley, Miwa couldn't help but remark snidely "So, you think you can actually pull your weight this time?"

 

Casey blinked at her in surprise as he realized what she was saying. "What are you talking about?" he asked indignantly. "I pull my weight."

 

Miwa let out a snort.

 

"I do," Casey insisted. "Since Raph mutated I've fought Purple Dragons, Foot-Bots, Kraang bots, April clones, giant rats, giant space worms, zombie skeletons, and that crazy scientist bug guy. I pull my weight just fine, Babe."

 

Miwa scowled at him for that comment. "Do  _not_ call me 'Babe', Jones," she said. "And I'll give you the Purple Dragons, the skeletons, and the Foot-Bots. But you've never gone up against the Kraang without someone watching your back. When you went one on one with that April clone she kicked your butt. Those giant rats  _captured_  you, if you'll recall. Buzzkill is a loser whether he's mutated or not, so it's not much of an accomplishment. And need I remind you, you were  _eaten_  by that worm. It's kind of obvious you're out of your league here."

 

Casey's face turned red and he growled. "Have you ever fought living intestines?" he asked angrily. "It was brutal inside that worm."

 

Miwa didn't back down, and glared back. "And yet the fact still stands that  _you_ were the only one who even got eaten. It's not something you'll want to put on your hero résumé. The fact of the matter is that you are in way over your head, and being in denial about it isn't going to save you."

 

She then calmed herself, and asked in a more even voice. "What are you even still doing out here, Jones?"

 

Casey blinked at her in surprise. "What kind of question is that?" he asked.

 

Miwa fixed him with a hard stare. "The little mystery that got you involved in all this has been solved," she said firmly. "You found the four kids who were mutated and you know why, case closed. Why are you still dressing like a clown and putting yourself in danger like this?"

 

Casey frowned at the question. "I'm here because I'm not about to let my best bud take on an alien invasion without me. This is my city, and my planet too. If those Foot and Kraang creeps think they can just come in and own this town they'll have to go through me to do it." His frown then deepened. "Besides, Mon-I mean-Jason is way worse than me in fights. Why aren't you ragging on him about sitting out."

 

Miwa crossed her arms and stated, "Jason knows his limits, and as a gecko he mainly served as lookout or stayed near the back of fights where it was safe. And living with Leatherhead gave him the best chance to calm the big guy down when he goes all rage monster.  _He_  knows his place in this fight, but I'm not so sure you do."

 

Casey glared at her for her assessment of his usefulness. "Trust me,  _Babe_ ," he said, intentionally using the pet name to bug her. "I might not have 'ninja training', but I've achieved a level of awesome attainable only by Casey Jones." He flipped his mask down and struck a pose. "It's mystical."

 

Miwa gave him an unimpressed look. "You're not really helping your case here, Jones," she said flatly.

 

Casey rolled his eyes. Why did he think this girl was hot again?

 

__________________________

 

While the two were arguing, Donnie and Mikey scoured the rooftops for any clue to whoever had beaten Raph and Casey to the punch earlier (literally).

 

Finally, Mikey skidded to a stop on the side of a roof and looked down. "Whoa, dude," Mikey gasped at what he saw. Glancing at his older brother, he waved him to come over. "Check it out, Don."

 

Donnie moved to stand next to him, and saw what he was pointing at. On a lower adjacent roof, they could see more Kraang parts littered across the surface. Each as brutalized as the ones Raph had described in the alley earlier.

 

Dropping down for a closer look, the two brothers surveyed the rooftop, trying to find some clue on who or what could have done this.

 

Donnie pulled out a pair of hi-tech goggles he'd made and began scanning the Kraang parts.

 

"See this carbon scorching," he said, holding up a Kraang arm for Mikey to see. "They were taken out by plasma weapons of some sort. Tech that's just as advanced as the Kraang's. We gotta warn the others."

 

He then pushed his goggles up to look at his brother, but instead found a Kraang head shoved in his face.

 

"The Kraang is getting their Kraangs handed to them by those who are not Kraang," said Mikey in his best Kraang impression, shaking the head like a puppet as he did so.

 

Just then the head in his hands lit up and made a whirring sound, making Mikey yelp in surprise and throw it in the air while simultaneously pulling his head into his shell.

 

As Donnie watched his little brother flounder while he tried to pull his head back out, he used the metal hand he'd been examining to face palm.

 

Mikey finally pulled his head out and looked sheepish.

 

Rolling his eyes, Donnie said, "Don't worry about it, Mikey, you're just getting used to your new instincts."

 

But Mikey pouted. "Raph didn't have this much trouble."

 

Donnie shrugged and went back to his investigation. "Yeah, but Raph is a lot more stubborn than you. He wouldn't do things like that on principle."

 

Mikey thought about that, and nodded. "Touché."

 

__________________________

 

Meanwhile, down in the sewers Leo, Raph and Metalhead were conducting their own investigation. They had warned those at the Lair to keep an eye out, and had then started their own search of the sewer tunnels. Leatherhead had also confirmed that it had not been him attacking the Kraang, but he was curious to know who it was.

 

They too came across evidence of the mysterious Kraang bashers. One of the tunnels was littered with so many torn apart Kraang parts that the three practically had to wade through them.

 

"Wow," said Leo, pulling out his flashlight to get a better look.

 

Raph nodded in agreement. "I don't know who did this," he said. "But I like their style."

 

Metalhead let out a loud beep, and showed the boys that the Kraang parts were making a trail through one of the large pipes. Following the trail, they came upon another tunnel littered with broken androids.

 

Looking the carnage over, Leo had to give a shudder. "Whoever did this not only destroyed them. They  _obliterated_  them."

 

Then Metalhead's scanners picked up a piece of something that was not a Kraang part. Walking over and picking it up, the short robot did a more in depth scan and let out a loud whirr as it recognized what it was from.

 

Holding the piece out to the boys it let out a series of beeps to try and let them know what he'd found.

 

"What have you got there, Metalhead?" Leo asked, shining his light on it.

 

Once he got a better look at it, Raph paled. "Aw man," he muttered under his breath.

 

Leo shot a confused glance at his brother. "What? What is it?"

 

Wordlessly, Raph took the piece from Metalhead. "This look familiar to you?" he asked as he held it along the edge of his shell.

 

Leo's eyes widened as it hit him. "Slash!" he said.

 

Raph nodded and clenched his fist around the broken piece of turtle shell. It looked like his former pet was back. And from the looks of these Kraang, he meant business.

 

__________________________

 

Back up on the streets, Casey and Miwa continued their search for clues in a stony silence, unaware that they were being watched from above.

 

Eventually the two teens over heard the sound of Kraang at work, and immediately shifted their stances to be stealthier, Miwa ditching her coat, and pulling up her scarf as she did so.

 

As they peered around the corner, they spotted several non-smashed Kraang androids robbing a nearby building.

 

Casey grinned at the sight of them. This looked like the perfect opportunity to prove himself to Miwa. "Piece of cake," he whispered to her as he approached the alley, his golf bag clacking behind him as he went.

 

But Miwa held out a hand to stop him. "You know the best way to start this fight is with a sneak attack, right?" she said, looking far from impressed. "It won't work if they can hear you rattling all the way in Jersey."

 

Casey opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off as something large jumped from the rooftop to the sidewalk in front of them.

 

Both teens stared upwards at the new arrival in surprise.

 

"Slash," Miwa growled when she saw who it was. She had still not forgiven the large mutant for knocking her out and stuffing her in a secret room the day he mutated.

 

Casey looked the turtle over apprehensively. He'd heard what Slash had done, but this was the first time he'd seen him up close. During their rescue of Raph from the Kraang prison, he hadn't had a chance to really look at the new form of the little box turtle he'd help Raph feed and play with throughout their friendship. Seeing the hulking and spiky figure before him, he was having a hard time connecting the turtle before him to the small pet.

 

"Whoa," Casey muttered at the sight of him. "That is some growth spurt."

 

Slash looked amused about Casey's words and said, "Good to see you again, Jones," he said. "I see you finally got in on the action after the April fiasco."

 

Casey nodded in reply, unsure what else to say to that (and slightly put out that even Slash knew about his boneheaded move with April).

 

But Miwa wasn't interested in niceties. "What are you doing here, Slash?" she demanded, shifting into a fighting position. "Another attempt to take out my family?"

 

Slash glared at her. "We're taking care of the Kraang," he said bluntly. "I got a new partner now."

 

On cue, the alleyway the Kraang had been in exploded. The two teens hurried around Slash to look, and saw a giant newt shout "Destruction to the Kraang!" while using his gauntlets to take down several androids with his hail of laser fire.

 

"So awesome," said Casey appreciatively, but Miwa wasn't impressed.

 

"It sure didn't take you long to get over Raph," she said scathingly. "And for a nutcase like the Newtralizer,  _really?_ I know I heard Raph telling you about him, and, you know, how he tried to kill us all."

 

Slash glared down at the human girl and said, "He didn't know you weren't part of the Kraang. He does what  _you_ can't," he said poking a finger into her chest as he said so. "Wiping out the Kraang."

 

The mutant turtle then hefted his mace over his shoulder and charged into the fight. "Keep Out Of The Way, Princess!" he yelled over his shoulder as he went.

 

Miwa snarled under her breath at him, but before she could run after Slash and teach him a lesson, Casey grabbed her arm and pointed at the Newtralizer.

 

The giant newt was taking a break from blasting the Kraang to break into their truck, and get his claws on what the aliens had been stealing.

 

Miwa scowled at the sight, but before she could say anything, Casey rushed forward with a cry of "Goongala!" and smacked the Newtralizer's tail with his hockey stick. The giant new didn't even seem to feel it, and only used his tail to knock the vigilante's feet out from under him, and knocked him into the street.

 

Miwa let out a groan of frustration at the sight. "Muscle-headed idiots," she grumbled to herself as she ran forward, and shoved Casey out of the way of an oncoming car.

 

By the time they got back, the Newtralizer was already finished with whatever he'd been doing in the truck, and said, "Slash, we have what we came for!"

 

Slash looked up from ripping the head off the last android, and caught a small metal cube that the Newtralizer tossed to him, and attached it to his wrist.

 

Furious at how this night had been going, Miwa shoved Casey aside and ran at the giant turtle with her tantō raised. Slash dodged her attack, and clashed her tantō against his mace. "This has nothing to do with you, Karai," he growled. "Just go home."

 

"It's  _not_  Karai anymore," growled Miwa, managing to hook her foot around Slash's leg, and knock him off balance. As he rolled on his shell to dodge Miwa's next strike, she added tauntingly. "My new codename is Armonia, which you would know if you hadn't betrayed my brother's trust and gone psycho on all of us."

 

Slash scowled at the mention of Raph.

 

"I mean really," said Miwa bitingly, running at him again and keeping the turtle on his toes. "I know Iyasa complains about us, what siblings don't, but if you missed the fact that his whole  _world_  centers around protecting all of us, well, maybe you didn't really know him at all."

 

Slash let out a roar of rage, and swung his fist at her head, making Miwa bring both arms up in an attempt to block it. But Slash simply grabbed her wrist and threw her into a wall.

 

The turtle stood over her, seething in rage. But before he could do anything more, the Newtralizer signaled for them to leave, and activated the cube like device on his wrist. Slash followed the newt's example, and they both glowed yellow and vanished from sight.

 

Casey had been coming to Miwa's defense, suddenly found himself without a target, leaving him to crash on top of the girl, and making her yell at him in rage.

 

She shoved him off her and began stalking out of the alley back towards the dojo.

 

Casey picked himself up to follow her, but paused and glanced back at the alley that was now strewn with busted Kraang parts.

 

"We're in big trouble, aren't we," he muttered to himself, before running to catch up to Miwa.

 

__________________________

 

When all three groups reconvened at the dojo, things were tense as Donnie tried to deduce where Slash and his new partner were going to strike next.

 

When Raph heard his former pet had found a new partner to run with, he had been hurt. When he found out that partner was that crazy Newtralizer from back when they rescued Mr. O'Neil, he'd been pissed. But when he and the others noticed the tension that seemed to radiate between Casey and Miwa, the four of them could only exchanged glances of confusion as to what was wrong now.

 

It was decided they would shadow the Kraang while waiting for the two of them to show up. Leo considered calling in Leatherhead for the extra muscle, but Raph talked him out of it. The red wearing turtle wanted to try talking to his former pet, to try and reason with him that the Newtralizer was bad news.

 

Leo had been reluctant about the idea until Metalhead backed Raph up in his argument. The little robot hadn't forgotten the help Slash had given him in the Kraang prison, and reason dictated to him that if anyone could get through to him, Raph could.

 

And so the teenagers and the robot went to the most likely Kraang hideout that Donnie could find. On the outside it looked like a regular rundown warehouse.

 

"You think this is the place?" Leo asked the others.

 

On cue the warehouse windows lit up and the sound of laser fire reached their ears. A Kraang was thrown out a window to the street below, before diving back in to more laser fire.

 

"Either that, or there's one bangin' party goin' on in there," said Mikey brightly, clearly hoping for the latter.

 

Casey grinned. Either way it was sure to be fun. "Come on, guys, let's do this," he said pulling his mask over his face.

 

The ninjas exchanged glances behind the vigilante's back, wondering if it was really a good idea to have brought him along, but Casey was already rushing towards the building before any of them could stop him.

 

Inside, Slash and Newtralizer were taking out the Kraang in the same fashion as they had been doing throughout their team up, with out breaking a sweat.

 

By the time the teens reached the building, most of the Kraang had already been taken out, and the two hulking figures were hunched over a communication orb.

 

Catching sight of the Newtralizer, Leo hissed, "Hit him hard and fast. Raph and Metalhead, while we keep the Newtralizer busy, you try to give your talk to Slash."

 

Raph nodded, and next to him Metalhead gave an affirming chirp.

 

With that the team shot forward. While most of the group distracted the Newtralizer, Raph managed to position himself between Slash and his partner before the giant turtle could go to the newt's aid.

 

Slash raised an eye ridge at the rare sight of his former owner standing before him with his hands up in the universal sign language of 'I'm not here to fight.' Next to him, Metalhead surveyed Raph's stance before mimicking it himself.

 

Slash rolled his eyes and deadpanned, "What are you doing here Raphael? And since when is there a new turtle?" he asked, glancing over at Mikey, having not seen his mutant form before.

 

"Tenshi mutated a few days ago," Raph said bluntly as he dropped his hands and frowned at the larger turtle. "A better question is, what are you doing with the Newtralizer, Spike, er, Slash? I told you about him when we got back with Mr. O'Neil. You know he tried to-"

 

Slash scowled. "Like I told your stupid sister, he mistook you for part of the Kraang."

 

Behind Raph, the fight was not going well for his team. The Newtralizer used his tail to smack Miwa away, and throw Leo to the ground and kick him into a wall. The two to picked themselves back up and tried again, only to get similar results.

 

Oblivious to all this, Raph scoffed. "With how the Kraang were shooting at  _us_  just as much as they were shooting at him, I doubt it. Heck, Donnie's the one who set him free, he should have been thanking us, not trying to rip our heads off. The guy's bad news, Slash. He's dangerous."

 

Metalhead nodded to what Raph said and held out one hand in a thumbs-down.

 

"Only to the Kraang," Slash said, absentmindedly watching as Newtralizer picked Mikey up and threw him off the upper level of the warehouse, the youngest turtle's shell saving him from any real damage in the fall. The Newtralizer smirked down at him, only for Donnie to jump onto his back and ride him like a bucking bronco. "He hates those things even more than your alligator friend. He'll do anything to destroy them, no matter what the cost."

 

Raph scowled. " _Anything?_  I'm all for stopping the Kraang. But 'no matter what the cost' sounds pretty extreme.  _Especially_  coming from that maniac."

 

Metalhead beeped in agreement, and made a sound like an explosion while waving his hands in a wide circle to show the size of it.

 

Behind Raph, the Newtralizer had flung Donnie off, and raised his weapons to vaporize the genius. Casey shot forward to defend him, only to be grabbed by his hockey stick and thrown across the room. Then used his teleporting device, the Newtralizer vanished in order to dodge another attack from Miwa, reappearing only to place one of his explosive devices on the wall and activate it before vanishing again.

 

Seeing this, Slash knew the time for talking was done. The giant terrapin may not fully agree with the Newtralizer's methods on disposing of this Kraang base, but he wasn't about to let Raph get caught in it. "Speaking of explosions," he said bluntly, "There's about to be a big one here in a few seconds. Get out while you can."

 

Raph's eyes widened, and he turned around to see the device blinking as it counted down. Judging from the size of it, and what he knew of the Newtralizer's gear, he was betting the explosion it made was going to be overkill for a warehouse this size and the people would likely get hurt or worse because of it.

 

Pausing only long enough to give Slash a look of utter disappointment for his part in all this, Raph turned and rushed to warn his siblings, Metalhead at his heels making dial tone sounds as he called 911 for the coming explosion.

 

Slash lowered his head as he heard Raph yell at his siblings to run, and they all shot towards the exit. Somehow, the look on Raph's face about the bomb felt far worse than if the smaller turtle had yelled at him. Knowing he could do no more here, he activated his own teleportation device and vanished.

 

The rest of the teenagers and Metalhead bolted towards the already broken windows in a desperate attempt to clear the building before it blew.

 

The ninjas and the small robot were able to climb through the windows with no problem.

 

Casey, however, got stuck as his hockey stick was caught in the window frame, and would not let him pass.

 

Behind him, the beeping of the bomb became more insistent with each passing second. He just managed to pull himself free and fall to the ground outside the building before it blew.

 

Raph looked back and saw his best friend sprawled by the now burning building, unaware of the debris that was heading straight for him.

 

Raph doubled back and tackled Casey out of the way before a large chunk of the building's ceiling crushed him flat.

 

The two rolled to safety, and Leo cautiously approached and asked, "You guys alright?"

 

"Yeah," Casey groaned, pushing himself to his feet. "We're cool."

 

" _Cool?!_ " shouted Raph in disbelief. The day already had him at the end of his rope, and nearly having his best friend become a pancake was the last straw. "You would have been  _flattened_  if it wasn't for me!"

 

Casey scowled at what Raph was implying. "I've done the same for you, Raph," he said scathingly.

 

"Oh yeah, when was that?" Raph asked, furious at how Casey wasn't seeing to get how close he'd just come to dying.

 

Casey scrunched up his face as he tried to remember. His eyes then lit up and he opened his mouth, only for Raph to cut him off.

 

"And do not say when Two-Ton Tom tried to sumo slam me when we stopped him from stealing lunch money from those freshmen," said Raph angrily. "I would have survived it.  _That_ -" he added, pointing at the smoldering chunk of roof where Casey had been sitting, "-you wouldn't have survived."

 

Casey snapped his mouth shut, and instead said, "I have  _so_  done stuff like that for you!" Though for the life of him he couldn't think of an instance.

 

"No you haven't," said Miwa, stepping up to side with Raph, and taking over the argument. "It's like I was saying to you earlier. The small fries you can handle alright, but so far you haven't gone against a heavy hitter without needing back up. Back up  _we_ can't always provide while watching our own backs."

 

Casey scowled at her. "Are you kidding me?" he asked, mad that he was getting ganged up on for trying to help.

 

"We're not kidding you," said Miwa, looking Casey straight in the eye, and prodding his chest with each point she made. "You're undisciplined, untrained, unfocused, and watching out for you keeps putting the rest of us in danger. These situations are extremely dangerous, and you treat them like a joke."

 

Casey turned red with rage. "I do  _not!"_ He squawked. "This is the fate of the world we're talking about, Babe. I'm taking it seriously serious. Why do you think I keep trying to help?"

 

Despite Casey's rage, Miwa looked impassive. "It's not you trying to help that's the problem," she said coolly. "It's you trying to help in all the wrong places. Getting yourself killed with your recklessness will only hinder us."

 

Casey looked outraged, and shoved past Miwa as he stormed down the street. "Fine," he snarled over his shoulder. "If I'm such a hindrance, I'm gone."

 

That broke through Raph's angry mood. "Casey, wait!" he called after his best friend.

 

But Casey kept going like he hadn't heard until he was around the corner and out of sight.

 

Raph groaned and banged his head against an alley wall. He'd been mad about the rotten day he'd been having, seeing one best friend go rogue with a destructive nutcase, and nearly losing his other best friend because of it. He just hoped he hadn't lost the latter anyway.

 

Leo, meanwhile, was looking at Miwa with a disapproving expression. "That was harsh, even for you, Sis."

 

But the kunoichi didn't look phased. "Like I said, what we're doing out here isn't some game," she replied bluntly. "I'll admit he has some fighting talent, but he's nowhere near our level, and even  _we_  have a hard time fighting these guys. He'll get killed if he keeps trying to fight along side us with everything, and I'm not about to sugarcoat that fact."

 

Mikey rose an eye-ridge at his sister. "Soooo you're saying you were a jerk to him… because you  _care_  about him?"

 

Miwa shot her baby brother a dirty look, and turned away. "I tolerate him.  _Raph_  cares about him, as does April. I'm looking out for him for their sakes."

 

Her little brothers and Metalhead exchanged confused glances behind her back. They had never known Miwa to go out of her way like this for anyone else, not even April.

 

"If you say so, Nee-chan," said Donnie skeptically.

 

Then the five ninjas heard the sound of sirens approaching the burning building and vanished to the rooftops before they arrived.

 

When they were a few blocks away, Donnie called for them all to stop.

 

Leo looked at him skeptically. They were still to close to the burning warehouse for his liking. "This better be good, Donnie," he said. "What are we doing up here?"

 

Donnie grinned proudly at him, and began hooking his cell phone up to Metalhead. "We are gonna listen in on everything Slash and the Newtralizer say," he said brightly. "While I was wrestling with the Newtralizer, I slipped a spy-roach on him. We'll be able to hear everything they say through Metalhead's speakers. Awesome, right?"

 

Metalhead's mouth popped open to reveal his speaker, and he held out a fist for Donnie to bump, which the genius happily complied.

 

The rest of his siblings looked impressed. "Not bad, little brother," said Leo with a grin. "So what have we got?"

 

With a flourish, Donnie pressed a button on his phone. Instantly the screen lit up with video footage of what the roach's camera was seeing, and voices began filtering through Metalhead's speaker.

 

__________________________

 

In an abandoned section of the subway, the spy-roach Donnie planted got the signal of its activation, and it moved to get a good view of what was happening.

 

"The Kraang orb revealed a new weapon," said the Newtralizer's to Slash as the spy-roach hid among the equipment on the newt's shoulder, unaware of its presence. "They're testing it on the docks at midnight. We can use it to wipe out the Kraang once and for all." The newt pulled up a hologram of the weapon from the equipment on his wrist. "We can destroy this whole stinkin' city," he said almost gleefully.

 

Slash frowned when he heard that. "And every innocent human with it," he said accusingly. "Are you  ** _Crazy?!_** I'm here to take out Kraang, not people!"

 

The Newtralizer glared at him impassively. "Why should I care?" he asked. "I'm not people. If it comes down to it, I won't take any chances, brother."

 

Slash opened his mouth to argue further, but then gritted his teeth and kept quiet. He knew there was no point in arguing with the newt. In the time he'd known him the Newtralizer had made it clear he hated planet Earth, and all of its people. Nothing Slash could say would change that, even though he had tried multiple times. Protesting too much would only lead to Newtralizer ditching him. At least if the turtle stayed in his good side he'd have a chance to keep the Salamandarian under control, and hopefully avoid the innocent deaths that he was so eager to commit.

 

"When do we go?" was all Slash said through gritted teeth.

 

The Newtralizer gave him a smug look at his compliance. "Now," he said, making his way to the door.

 

__________________________

 

Back on the rooftop, the teens listened to their conversation through Donnie's tech, and heard their whole plan to steal the Kraang weapon.

 

Raph, who had been sulking since Casey, had perked up some when Slash spoke in defense of the human race. Only to hear the Newtralizer reply, " _Why should I care? I'm not people._ "

 

Raph scowled at that. "What kind of jerk says something like that?" he asked aloud as Donnie cut off the camera.

 

"Looks like we have a shipment to hijack," said Miwa.

 

"If this thing is as tough as the Newtralizer seems to think it is, we may need some backup." Said Donnie, unhooking his phone from Metalhead.

 

Leo looked serious and nodded. "Okay," he said. "This just got real. Metalhead, you go below ground and get Leatherhead, it sounds like we'll need our heaviest hitter for this. We'll try to stop the or delay the shipment at the docks 'til you get there."

 

Metalhead nodded and gave a thumbs-up.

 

With that the five ninjas took off for the docks, leaving the robot on the roof.

 

At first, Metalhead turned to do as he was told and made his way to a manhole. But just as he was about to lift the cover, another solution occurred to him, and he decided to go with that route instead.

 

Using his internal computers to track down the cell phone of his target, Metalhead activated his rockets and shot to his new destination.

 

__________________________

 

At the local playground, Casey kicked a soda can, still steamed about what had happened earlier.

 

With an angry huff, he sat himself down on the nearby swing set, and mulled things over in his head.

Raph's reaction he could understand. His best friend had an overprotective streak a mile wide, and when those he cared about were in danger he tended to blow his top. And if nearly getting crushed with concrete wasn't dangerous, Casey didn't know what was. He decided to let his friend sweat about it for a while before he forgave him, but he would make up with him eventually.

 

Miwa's reactions to everything, however, were what had him scratching his head. What was her  _deal?_  Why had she been getting on his case so much tonight?

 

Casey went over everything he knew about Miwa to try and fill in the blanks. She was Raph's sister, she was hot, she was feisty, when it wasn't ninja-related she loved causing trouble, she liked blowing things up (which was wicked cool), she was scared of the Shredder forcing her to be his daughter, and she could kick some serious butt, especially when she was angry.

 

But none of that told him anything about why she was on his case about him helping. Sure, he'd made some mistakes in the previous fights, but she and the others weren't perfect either. He was just trying to help, what was so wrong about that?

 

Still drawing a blank, Casey sighed and absentmindedly pushed himself on the swing. Maybe when he forgave Raph he'd ask him about his sister's issues.

 

Then he heard the sound of rockets coming towards him. Looking up he saw Metalhead flying in his direction and land in front of him.

 

"Hey, Metalhead," he said. "What's up?"

 

Metalhead made a pointing motion towards the streets, and gestured for Casey to follow.

 

Casey frowned at the robot's actions. "You want me to come with you?" he asked.

 

Metalhead nodded, and gestured again.

 

"Well, you can forget it," he said dismissively. "Besides, I thought I was just in the way."

 

Metalhead stilled and shook his head, before gesturing for Casey to follow him again.

 

Casey raised an eyebrow at the robot. "No? Well, that's not what Miwa said."

 

Metalhead stomped his foot as if he was frustrated, and threw his hands in the air for good measure. Stubborn humans.

 

He then walked back over until he was in front of Casey, and replayed the audio from after he'd left.

 

Leo's voice came over the speaker first.  _"That was harsh, even for you, Sis."_

 

" _What we're doing out here isn't some game_.  _I'll admit he has some fighting talent, but he's nowhere near our level, and even we have a hard time fighting these guys. He'll get killed if he keeps trying to fight along side us with everything, and I'm not about to sugarcoat that fact,_ " was Miwa's reply _._

 

" _Soooo you're saying you were a jerk to him… because you care about him?"_  came Mikey's incredulous voice.

 

Metalhead snapped his mouth shut, and looked at Casey expectantly.

 

The vigilante felt a grin slowly creep across his face at what he'd just heard. "So she was all worried about me, huh?" he said with a smirk.

 

If Metalhead could, he would be rolling his eyes. Instead he pointed in the direction of the docks again, and motioned for Casey to follow.

 

This time Casey stood up and confidently said, "Lead the way, Tin-Man."

 

__________________________

 

The docks were swarming with Kraang getting ready for their newest weapon to come through.

 

The Hamatos hid atop several shipping crates and watched as three Kraang took ahold of a portable portal and stretched it out so that it was far bigger than normal. They then set the portal on the ground, and a Kraang machine the size of a mini van rose up out of it.

 

"Is that the new weapon they were talkin' about?" asked Mikey as he scrutinized it. "Doesn't look like much."

 

Just as he said that the machine stretched up so that it was standing on two legs, and looked fare bigger than it had previously been perceived.

 

"Never mind," said Mikey as he watched the top of the Kraang Walker spout three laser blasters on it sides, and take aim on a crate the Kraang had set up for practice.

 

" _Kraang targeting target!"_ said the Kraang Walker, and it blasted the crate, as well as the android that had been standing next to it to pieces, much to the rest of the aliens' delight.

 

"That is what is known as 'Awesome'," said one of the watching Kraang, and the others all voiced their agreements.

 

Meanwhile, Slash and the Newtralizer arrived and prepared to make their move.

 

Newtralizer smirked at the sight of the Kraang Walker. It was every bit as destructive as the Kraang's plans had promised, and he couldn't wait until he was using it against its creators. "Rocka rocka rocka rocka," he said to himself before turning to Slash. "So here's the plan. You distract the Kraang, I'll hijack the Walker."

 

Slash raised a skeptical eye-ridge at his partner. "And I'm supposed to trust you inside that thing?" he asked, already wondering if coming here was a mistake.

 

The Newtralizer sneered at him. "I know how to pilot it," he said in a superior tone. "And you don't have a choice." With that, he began climbing up the storage crates to get a better shot at jumping on the Walker.

 

Slash watched him go and growled under his breath. Coming here was definitely a mistake. He just hoped he could reign in the Newtralizer before he did too much damage. As he leapt up the crates after the newt, Slash couldn't help but regret not listening to what Raph had been trying to tell him earlier.

 

Back with the Hamatos, Leo was just looking over at his siblings and saying, "Here's the plan-" When the Newtralizer appeared out of nowhere on top of the Kraang Walker.

 

The Kraang inside it quickly noticed him, and pulled out the Walker's weapons, blasting the Newtralizer from his perch, and causing all hell to break loose.

 

The Kraang started surrounding the Newtralizer as the newt pushed himself back to his feet from where he fell. Slash jumped out of hiding and began pounding the Kraang and watching his partners back, even if he couldn't be sure the sentiment was mutual.

 

Taking that as their cue, the Hamatos leapt from their hiding place as well, and began taking down the Kraang in droves.

 

The Kraang in the Walker was clearly having way too much fun driving the war machine, and was the mutants and teens constantly had to dodge to avoid being blasted or stomped on by it. The Kraang Walker's overzealous attacks weren't just hazardous to its enemies, some of the Kraang on the ground also had to scramble to avoid being destroyed by it, as the blasts came recklessly close to them.

 

"Kraang, watch out for Kraang!" called one Kraang on the ground as the Kraang Walker's foot stomped far to close for comfort. "Stupid Kraang," the Kraang muttered to his fellow androids once the Walker had passed.

 

As per Leo's rushed plan, both Donnie and Miwa ran at the Walker from two different directions, each armed with Boom Stars and ready to blow the weapon to kingdom come.

 

"Here goes nothing!" yelled Donnie as he and Miwa simultaneously threw their exploding stars at the Walker.

 

But the Walker saw their attacks coming, and used the lasers on either side to blast the Boom Stars out of the air before they could even come close to it.

 

"Aw, come on!" yelled Miwa in frustration.

 

Using their distraction to his advantage, the Newtralizer leapt from a large stack of crates so that he landed on top of the Walker again. He quickly grabbed the lasers mounted on the top of the roof and ripped them from the structure.

 

The Kraang inside squealed in terror as the Newtralizer smashed the glass on the hood of the Walker, and pulled the small alien from the machine. With a careless toss, he threw the Kraang into the fight below and sat himself on top of the Walker, using his feet to begin piloting it for his own plans.

 

He immediately unleashed the power of his new weapon onto its creators, blasting the nearby Kraang and making them flee in terror.

 

The Newtralizer laughed as his enemies scrambled beneath him. He took great pleasure in stomping and destroying any Kraang in his path, taking no heed of who else could also be beneath the Walker's feet.

 

Because of this, he didn't even notice it when the Walker's large metal foot started coming down on top of his own partner.

 

Slash looked up when he noticed a dark shadow pass over him, and froze at the sight of the Walker's foot coming straight for him.

 

Suddenly he heard a yell of " _SPIKE!"_  and he was tackled away from the danger of being a turtle pancake.

 

Slash and his rescuer tumbled a few feet before rolling to a stop next to each other. The giant turtle looked over to see Raph sitting up next to him, clutching his head from hitting it in their tumble.

 

"You-" Slash said, almost too surprised to comprehend what had happened. "You saved me Raphael…"

 

Raph opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, Slash had to return the favor and shove the smaller turtle out of the way as the Newtralizer's blast hit the spot he'd been sitting a second ago.

 

Slash glared up at his so-called partner. He knew that attack had been intentional. There hadn't been a single Kraang anywhere near where he and Raph had been. In fact, the aliens had all fled the area to get away from the Walker, leaving only him and the Hamatos on the docks. The Newtralizer had tried to murder Raphael on purpose, and with no regard to the fact that Slash had been right next to him.

 

As if to confirm this, the Newtralizer let out a power mad laugh. "I'll destroy you  _all!_ " he yelled down at them before sending a blast towards Mikey and Leo, who managed to dodge by the skin of their teeth.

 

With a quick glance to make sure Raph was okay, Slash activated his teleporter, and set it so that he was behind the Newtralizer on the Walker.

 

"Rocka rocka rocka rocka!" the Newtralizer cheered as Slash materialized behind him.

 

"What are you doing?" Slash demanded. "They helped us fight the Kraang! And you know Raphael is-"

 

"This is  _my_ battle!" snarled the Newtralizer, interrupting him. "I don't need them! They just get in the way, and try to stop me!"

 

"Maybe because you keep attacking them first for no real reason!" Slash retorted. "We're both fighting against the Kraang, we don't have to be enemies!"

 

"I Don't Need Them!" the Newtralizer yelled again. "I DON'T NEED  _ANYONE!_ "

 

To prove his point, he sent another blast towards Raph, making the red wearing turtle dive behind a crate to avoid it.

 

When Slash saw this he was furious. The Newtralizer knew who Raph was to Slash, the history they shared together. For him to attack his oldest friend despite all that was the last straw. It looked like it was time to put an end to their partnership.

 

With an enraged roar, Slash brought his mace down on the Walker next to the Newtralizer's tail. The metal ripped and bent under the force of his weapon, and pinned the Newtralizer's tail to the machine.

 

The Newtralizer shifted and tried to pry himself free, but found that he was stuck tight. "Slash!" he snarled in rage. "How could you?"

 

"You don't need anyone, remember?" Slash snapped back, throwing the newt's own word back in his face.

 

The Newtralizer's face was an expression of pure hate as he leveled one of his wrist lasers on the turtle, knowing he wouldn't be able to dodge the blast.

 

But before he could fire, a shuriken imbedded itself into the weapon, making the laser short out, and damaging his teleporter, which was on the same wrist. Hissing in fury, the Newtralizer looked to see where the star had come from, and saw Raph clinging to the side of a crate with a smug grin on his face.

 

The red wearing ninja kicked off the crate and landed next to Slash on the Walker to take the Newtralizer down.

 

But the Newtralizer used the controls to jostle the Walker, and make the two turtles slide off and plummet to the ground below.

 

"Raph!" yelled Mikey, running towards where his brother was falling. He managed to get below Raph and cushion his fall, even if it meant getting squashed underneath his brother's weight. "Caught ya, bro," he said in a dizzy voice.

 

Their other siblings gathered around in concern, only to find that they were now all right in the Walker's sights, and the Newtralizer looked ready to vaporize them all off the face of the Earth.

 

The three turtles shoved themselves back to their feet, and bolted away from the Walker, and the Newtralizer gave chase, leaving a scorching trail with the laser blaster as he went.

 

Finally, the six became cornered in a dead end of crates, with no place for them to climb to safety, and nowhere for them to run too.

 

The Newtralizer bore down on them with a sadistic gleam in his eye, laughing maniacally as he drew closer and closer.

 

But just before the newt could fry them all, there was a shout of "GOONGALA!" from atop on of the crates that trapped them.

 

Before anyone could process what they'd just heard, and exploding hockey puck and several missiles shot at the Kraang Walker, making the machine wobble, and the newt on top cringe as the explosives hit too close for comfort.

 

"Casey!" shouted Raph as he looked up at his friend. "You're back?"

 

"Metalhead!" shouted Donnie as he saw his robot next to the vigilante.

 

"Metalhead and I figured we'd make an awesome heroic entrance!" he called back down to them, the robot nodding in agreement. He then sent a smirk at Miwa, "Still think I'm in the wrong place, Babe?"

 

Miwa frowned, but made no comment.

 

With backup having arrived, the six on the ground charged the machine, attacking the metal feet in an attempt to bring it down.

 

Mikey used his kusarigama chain to wrap around the Walker's legs and attempt to trip it. But the Walker merely broke the chain, and started trying to crush them again, pushing them back into the dead end.

 

Metalhead rocketed forward in an attempt to save his creator, but ended up getting kicked into a crate, making Donnie run over to him in a panic.

 

"Metalhead, speak to me! Are you okay?" the genius asked when he reached him.

 

Metalhead brought up a hand to make a so-so gesture. Then beeped in alarm as the Walker bore down on them again, a power mad Newtralizer preparing to fry them all where they stood.

 

On top of the crates, Casey barely dodged one of the laser blasts, and had to duck and roll to get out of the way. As he did so, he noticed a hexagonal hole in the hull of the Walker.

 

Casey smirked at the sight of it. If sci-fi movies had taught him anything, it was how to recognize a weak spot on a Death Star-er-Kraang Walker.

 

Pulling out another exploding puck, Casey took careful aim, and smacked the puck towards the hole, and prayed it did what he thought it did.

 

The puck flew flawlessly though the hole and rolled around inside the Walker before coming to rest next to the crystal power core.

 

The bomb attached to the puck detonated, rupturing the power core, and making the Walker burst into flames.

 

Atop the Walker, the Newtralizer's smug arrogance vanished and he began to panic as his new toy literally fell to pieces around him. He frantically hit his damaged teleporter in hopes of getting free, and at the last second he successfully zapped away before the entire machine exploded in a fiery blast, leaving nothing salvageable left of it.

 

As most of the teenagers cheered at their victory, Raph noticed Slash slipping away and followed after him.

 

"Thanks, Spike," he said, making the larger turtle halt in his tracks. "I mean, Slash." Raph hesitated a second, before offering, "You know, there's always room on the team for one more."

 

Slash looked tempted, but in the end he shook his head. "I need to go my own way, Raphael," he admitted. "Think I'm better off solo."

 

Raph's shoulders slumped in disappointment. "Are you sure?" he asked. "You could stay with LH and the others at the Lair. Or just somewhere nearby so we can work together again if we need to."

 

Slash looked thoughtful, and nodded. "I'll think about it," he said fairly, making Raph perk up. He then held out a hand for Raph to shake. "Goodbye, brother. I'll see you all again, someday." With that he activated his teleporter and vanished.

 

After that, the teens cleared off the dock and headed home for the night. Little did they know that if they had stayed a few seconds longer, they would have seen the Newtralizer reappear in a flash of golden light.

 

__________________________

 

The Saturday after the mess with the Newtralizer and Slash, April and Yoshi were extremely surprised when Casey showed up for April's private ninjutsu lessons despite the early hour.

 

Looking sheepish as he kicked off his shoes and walked onto the tatami mats, Casey approached the ninja master and asked, "Morning, Mr. Hamato," he said. "Raph told me there was an opening in these lessons for me. Is that still available?"

 

Yoshi smiled at the boy, and nodded. "There is always room for more, and you are welcome to join us, Casey Jones," he said. "Though, may I ask what made you change your mind about my lessons? I had heard they were not of interest to you."

 

Casey scratched the back of his head, and glanced back towards the hallway outside the dojo's door. From there, the three of them could see Miwa and Raph trudge up from the basement as they headed to the upper floor for breakfast. The two stopped dead when they spotted him in the dojo, and stared in disbelief.

 

"Let's just say, some people pointed out to me that as good as I already am, there's still room for improvement," Casey finally said.

 

Raph's face split into a wide grin when he heard that, and even Miwa gave a grudgingly impressed nod.

 

Yoshi nodded at his response, and stepped to the front of the room, April instinctively slipping into her beginning position, and Casey hastily mimicked her. "Very well, then let us begin."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to do a more Mikey-centric chapter for this one, but I couldn't fit it in. Rest assured, next chapter is more Mikey, so look forward to that. I hope you like this chapter, anyway. More character development for Casey and Slash.


	31. Cold Blooded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Foot are growing impatient in finding the Hamatos, and resort to drastic measures. Unfortunately, Mikey discovers first hand just how drastic.

Mikey was having a bad week.

 

After a major adjustment period for to being a mutant, he thought things might start looking up.

 

There were some perks that came with becoming a turtle. With already having gone through the emotional roller-coaster of mutation with Raph, his family and friends were better equipped to handle the change, and were not  _as_  freaked out by it as they had been with his brother, and recovered from said freaking out much better.

 

Mikey also now had the perfect excuse to skip school and watch TV all day (at least when his family wasn't making him train or do make up work).

 

Raph had even let him lay next to him in his favorite sunny spot, and showed Mikey just how awesome the basking thing could be. He didn't even care that his mother had managed to get several pictures of the two of them laying together, and commenting on 'how cute' they looked doing so, though Raph always turned red when he heard about it.

 

All this should have made Mikey the happiest mutant turtle around (though, with his only competition being Raph and Slash, it wasn't really much of a contest). But sometimes even when things should be going your way, bad stuff can happen regardless.

 

One thing that disappointed Mikey was the fact he could no longer go out as much as he used too. It hadn't really occurred to him just how much he would have to hide as a mutant, and just how much he missed interacting with people outside his family. Raph did his best to help, having gone through the same already, and Mikey spent a lot of time at the Lair with his friends, but that didn't help the cooped up feeling he had most of the day.

 

Then there were his new instincts. Mikey found himself pulling his head and limbs into his shell whenever he was even remotely surprised (though thankfully it hadn't yet happened in a fight), and could not seem to stop himself from doing it. He also had a harder time controlling his second eyelids, and would sometimes walk around unknowingly sporting uncanny white eyes. And with winter just around the bend, both he and Raph found themselves getting sleepier, and less resistant to the growing cold. Donnie believed that their bodies were trying to shut down for hibernation, and recommended that they try to stay as warm as possible to fight it off, meaning even more time staying cooped up inside away from the cold.

 

These problems were only added to when Mikey had a horrible nightmare about a mutant named Pizzaface sending out living pizzas to turn his family and everyone in the city into zombies, and allowing themselves to be put into calzones for the pizza mutant to eat. Even though Mikey managed to win in the dream, a small part of him kept wondering if it really was a dream, or something more.

 

But the latest disappointment in Hamato Michelangelo's rotten week was staring him in the face this very minute.

 

"What do you mean I can't jump that?" he demanded to Jason and Casey, pointing at a particularly wide gap between buildings from the roof they were on.

 

It was one of the warmer nights that Mikey had been allowed out on (so long as he wore a giant parka and oven mitts to stay warm). He, Casey, and Jason had decided to go rooftop skating that night, with Casey procrastinating on his homework, and Jason taking a break from caring for Malachi, who had caught a cold from the winter chill (Leatherhead was currently keeping him company in his place).

 

The other two had just expressed to their orange wearing friend their doubts about him making the jump, much to Mikey's indignation.

 

"Dude, it's too wide," said Casey, pointing at the gap. "You'd be a pancake it you tried."

 

Jason nodded in agreement. "Sorry, man, but he's right. Even I couldn't make that jump. Bummer, it'd be sweet if I could."

 

Mikey's scowl deepened. "Well I say I can make it. Watch."

 

With that he was shooting off across the roof, heedless to Casey's yell of, "Mikey! Don't! Raph'll kill me if you become alley pizza!"

 

Using a decretive curve on the roof as a ramp, Mikey launched himself into the air across the gap. While in mid air, he came to the realization the others had been right, and the gap was too wide to jump. But unwilling to admit he was wrong (and not wanting to go splat on the ground) Mikey quickly came up with an idea to make it work.

 

Jason and Casey yelled in distress when they saw Mikey vanish over the edge of the building into the alley below. But to their surprise and relief, they saw that he was clinging to the side of the building, his skateboard tucked into the back of his coat.

 

Seeing them staring, he waved one hand at them, showing off the shuko spikes around his palm. He then began scaling the wall until he was on the roof of the building.

 

"Told'ja I'd make it!" he called over to them.

 

"That was totally bodacious!" called Jason gleefully, "Wish I was still a gecko, then I could totally do that!"

 

Casey, meanwhile, wasn't as amused. "Dude! Are you  _crazy?"_ He shouted angrily.

 

Mikey waved away his concern. "Chillax, bro," he called back. "No little jump like that is gonna take down a ninja!" He then did a little victory dance on the roof, only for it to be interrupted when he felt his body shiver violently as a cold wind blew past.

 

His two friends noticed this, and immediately sobered. "Let's get you home, Mikester. This cold's no good for you," called Jason.

 

As much as Mikey wanted to get out of the cold, he recoiled at the idea of being cooped up back at the dojo. Thinking quickly, he blurted out, "No, no, not yet! We can still-uh-we can go to Murakami's! Yeah, have you two been there? It's this rad noodle place my sibs and I go to. The chef there is blind, so I can still go with no problems."

 

The two human boys exchanged glances at his fast paced speech, and shrugged. "Okay, I guess," said Casey. "I could eat."

 

"Cha, I'm starved," agreed Jason. He glanced back at Mikey and grinned. "Lead the way, my man."

 

Mikey beamed, and led the two to Murakami's restaurant, boasting the whole way about how good the food there was, and how it had been his idea that helped Murakami-san invent his signature dish, pizza gyoza.

 

But as they rounded the corner, they stopped dead at the sight before them.

 

Behind the shoji screens that covered the restaurant windows, they could see silhouettes of three people trashing the place, and the sound of crashing and banging could be heard from down the street.

 

"Aw, not again," Mikey groaned as he realized what he was seeing. Glancing at the others he quickly explained, "The Purple Dragons have never been able to scare Murakami-san into paying them protection money, so they keep trying to wreck his restaurant. Me and the others usually kick their butts and tell them to get lost, but, you know, Purple Dragons are slow learners."

 

"Well lets just make sure the lesson sinks in this time," said Casey with a grin, pulling his mask down over his face. "Time for a class of Pain 101."

 

Jason hesitated, and Mikey told him, "Jay-Man, you just focus on helping Murakami-san out of the way while Casey and I take out the trash."

 

Jason grinned, and reached up to pull the brim of his baseball cap low over his face. "Sounds good to me."

 

With simultaneous shouts of "Booyakasha!" "Goongala!" and "Cowabunga!" from Mikey, Casey, and Jason respectively, the three burst into the restaurant and the first two began wailing on the gangsters while the latter helped Murakami-san to safety.

 

Between Mikey and Casey, the Purple Dragons were quickly sent running with their tails between their legs, and as always, Murakami-san gave Mikey and his friends a free meal as thanks for saving him.

 

As the three teenage boys enjoyed their food they were unaware that a few blocks away, the three gangsters they had chased off had stopped to catch their breath.

 

Once he could speak without wheezing, the shortest of the Purple Dragons pulled out a cell phone and hit speed dial. "Yo, it's Fong. We found one of those turtle kids you wanted…"

 

__________________________

 

One round of pizza gyoza later, Casey and Jason had to call it a night, much to Mikey's disappointment.

 

"Sorry, Mike," said Jason apologetically as they left the restaurant. "But I'm not mutant anymore, and LH would, like, ground me if I didn't go to school in the morning. Bummer, I know."

 

"Same here, only it'd be my Dad that grounds me," Casey agreed. He turned in the direction of his house and Jason followed him in the direction of the nearest manhole. "Later."

Mikey sighed in disappointment. "Okay, bye guys!" he called after them, before climbing a roof to go home as well.

 

He'd barely gone a block before he got the sense he was not alone. Pulling out his nunchucks and scanning the shadows, he shouted, "Who's there?"

 

In response, several Foot-Bots appeared before him, their eyes glowing in the darkness.

 

Mikey began spinning his weapons in anticipation. "Ha, you think you buckets of bolts can really take me on?" he taunted.

 

"No," said a voice from behind him, making Mikey freeze. Slowly turning around he found himself staring up at Tiger Claw.

 

"But they do serve a decent distraction," the tiger continued, before drawing back his fist to strike.

 

Mikey wilted under the larger mutant's gaze and gulped.

 

Casey and Jason had finally found a manhole for Jason to go down when they heard Mikey scream in the distance. Sharing a startled glance, the two instantly took off on their wheels towards the source of the sound.

 

They arrived just in time to see Tiger Claw and a patrol of Foot-Bots throw an unconscious Mikey onto the back of a motorcycle and drive off, leaving the two teenage boys in his dust.

 

"Not again!" wailed Jason, knowing that this was like the Kraang kidnapping Raph all over again.

 

Casey looked ill as well. "Oh man," he groaned as he pulled out his cell phone, "Raph and Miwa are so gonna kill me."

 

__________________________

 

Mikey groaned when he came too. "Where am I?" he mumbled as he tried to make out the room through the pounding in his skull. All he could tell was that he was strapped to a table under a single light bulb in an otherwise dark room.

 

Then it occurred to him that what he'd just said was the line every detective or super spy said when they woke up in his situation, and he had to grin at that. "The name is Tenshi, Hamato Tenshi," he muttered to himself to play up the cliché.

 

"I am aware," said a growling voice from the shadows.

 

Any amusement Mikey had instantly vanished, and he gulped audibly as Tiger Claw strode into sight. Everything that happened came back to him in a rush, and his insides curled with dread as he wondered what was to come.

 

"H-hey Tiger Claw," Mikey said nervously. "H-how's the Kraang vendetta going? You know, with the Foot working with them and all."

 

The feline gave Mikey a sinister grin that revealed all of his sharp teeth. "It is proceeding well," he said almost conversationally. "Master Shredder assures me once Hamato Yoshi lies dead, I may dispose of those disgusting aliens however I wish."

 

A surge of courage burst through Mikey's veins and he bellowed, "You'll Never Get My Father, You Flea-Bitten Alley Cat!"

 

Tiger Claw actually laughed at that. "I did not have the opportunity to meet your mother for very long, cub, but I see you have inherited her fighting spirit."

 

Hearing the villain talk about his mother, and reminding him about his mother's kidnapping a few weeks ago only made Mikey angrier, and he began struggling hard against his bonds.

 

Tiger Claw paid no mind to his struggles, and made his way out of the light to a dark wall. With the flick of a switch, the room lit up and Mikey could see he was inside a walk in freezer, but with Kraang dissection equipment hanging from the ceiling overhead.

 

"Despite my distaste for the Kraang," Tiger Claw continued, "they were gracious enough to allow me use of this place." He then turned a dial next to the light switch, and frigid air began pooring through the vents, making Mikey shiver.

 

Tiger Claw then strode back over to Mikey and pulled down a knife from the hanging equipment and pressed it against the skin on his neck, making Mikey freeze up and hold stiller than he ever had in his life, not even allowing himself to move to shiver from the cold.

 

"Now," the cat said in a menacing voice, "you are going to help me find your family. I suggest you cooperate sooner rather than later, before my fingers start to slip, or the cold becomes too much for your body to ignore."

 

Mikey let out a whine of fear, but otherwise kept silent. More than anything, he knew he had to get out of there.

 

__________________________

 

Needless to say, the Hamatos were no more thrilled that Mikey had been kidnapped then they had been when Raph was. In fact they were possibly even more frantic to find him.

 

When Raph was captured, they knew Raph was the strongest and most stubborn of all of them, and used that to assure themselves that he would be alright. But this time it was Mikey. Their little brother, and the baby of the family. The one all four of them worked the hardest to protect no matter what. The idea of him at the mercy of the Shredder was unthinkable, and they were desperate to get him back as fast as possible.

 

"Does turning into a turtle also stick a sign on your back that says ' _kidnap me'?"_  asked Miwa in frustration as Donnie worked on his computer to track Mikey by his cell phone.

 

Raph scowled at the reminder. "If there is, we can only wait 'til brainiac here makes more retro-mutagen to wash it off," he snapped.

 

Donnie paid them no attention, and kept working at his computer.

 

April, who had been called in, placed a comforting hand on her boyfriend's shoulder and said to them all, "Don't worry, guys. We'll find him, I know it."

 

Jason frowned as he heard his phone go off. "Aw bogus," he muttered as he read the text. "LH says Malachi's cold's gotten worse, and he doesn't think it would be a good idea to leave him right now. Sorry."

 

Leo got a pained expression on his face, but conceded that he couldn't pull the gator away from his sick charge. He also knew Jason wouldn't be much help in the rescue mission, so he turned to Tang Shen and asked, "Mother, do you think we have any medicine to help with Malachi's cold? Jason could take it down with him, and take over sick watch if we end up needing Leatherhead."

 

Tang Shen nodded. "I believe we do. Come, Jason," she said, leading the teenager out of the lab. Jason shot one last apologetic look at the rest of them before following Tang Shen out.

 

Yoshi, however, kept his eyes on his genius son. "Have you found him, Donatello?" he asked.

 

"It looks like the Foot are trying to jam my signal," Donnie replied, his eyes glued to his computer screen, and his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth as he worked. "But if I make a few modifications to boost the signal and…" his computer beeped, and he beamed. "Got him! Downloading his signal to Metalhead now."

 

A second later, Metalhead beeped as he got the signal.

 

Leo jumped to his feet. "Then lets go get our brother back."

 

The others didn't need telling twice, and rushed out the door to find him.

 

__________________________

 

Mikey was fighting with every ounce of his self-control not to move an inch for fear of the blade at his throat.

 

Such a thing was growing more difficult for him by the second. The air in the freezer kept getting colder and colder, and the instinct to shiver was becoming almost impossible to contain. Add to that Mikey's ADHD, which meant he had a very difficult time sitting still in the first place, and the turtle was certain if something didn't change soon he was going to

go insane.

Fortunately, for the entire time he'd been there, Tiger Claw's focus had been on his face, and as such didn't see that Mikey had subtly been fiddling with the strap holding his wrists down. It might be wishful thinking, but he couldn't help but think that one of the straps felt looser than it had been when he started.

 

Finally, Tiger Claw pulled the knife away from his throat, and looked grudgingly impressed. "It seems I have underestimated you, young Tenshi," he said.

 

Mikey's only response was to sigh in relief, and begin shivering violently from more than just the cold.

 

"But of course," Tiger Claw continued, reaching upwards and activating a small saw that was hanging above them, "that simply means I will have to be more creative in my efforts to make you talk."

 

Mikey's eyes went impossibly wide at the sight of it, and he couldn't stop the scream that clawed its way out of his throat.

 

With one final wrench, he managed to yank free his left arm from his bonds. Before Tiger Claw could stop him, he reached up and grabbed a gas mask that was hanging among the torture instruments, and smashed it against the cat's face, filling Tiger Claw's lungs with an anesthesia.

 

As the feline mutant coughed on the gas, Mikey grabbed the saw Tiger Claw had been planning to use, and used it to slice through the remaining straps holding him down. He then wasted no time bolting from the freezer, pausing only long enough to snatch up his nunchucks from an outside table.

 

As the turtle ran out of sight, Tiger Claw recovered from his coughing fit and looked up as he heard someone else enter the room.

 

"You allowed him to escape," stated the Shredder as he stared down at his second in command. "Why?"

 

"Indeed, Master Shredder, I  _allowed_ him to escape," said Tiger Claw, shifting into a kneeling bow. "You saw as well as I that the cub would not reveal his home so easily. I could have forced him to tell, but doing so would have broken him beyond repair, and he would made a useless son to you as such. By allowing him to escape, the tracker I placed on him will lead us straight to his littermates, as well as Tang Shen. I will give him a brief head start before I follow and bring them all to you."

 

The Shredder stared at him impassively, before turning and sweeping out of the freezer. "See to it that you do," he said darkly. "Fail me and pay the price."

 

Tiger Claw bowed even deeper as his master left, but could not stop the chill that ran down his spine. One that had absolutely nothing to do with the cold.

 

Meanwhile, Mikey burst out of the building he was in, only to find that Tiger Claw's Kraang Torture Chamber was on a boat in the middle of the Hudson.

 

Looking down at the waters below, Mikey knew he was in for a long cold swim on top of the chill he already had.

 

Taking a deep breath to steel himself for it, he muttered, "Good thing turtles are amphibious." He then cannonballed off the side of the boat with a yell of, "Booyakasha!" and splashed into the water below. Once the shock of the frigid water lessened some, he began swimming to the closest shore as fast as he could.

 

He was shivering violently by the time he pulled himself up onto a dock. Consoling himself that there would be warm pizza, hot chocolate, and his mother's homemade miso soup waiting for him at the dojo, he forced himself to stagger onwards towards his home.

 

Little did he know that a few minutes after he left Tiger Claw came onto the deck of the ship he'd fled, and boarded a motorboat to shore.

 

__________________________

 

As the team drove through the streets towards Mikey's location, Metalhead suddenly let out a beep, and activated a map on Donnie's computer screen.

 

The genius looked at the map and his eyes widened. "Mikey's on the move!" he called to the others. "And judging by the speed he's going, I'd say he's on foot."

 

April leaned in to look over his shoulder. "Isn't that a good thing?" she asked. "It means he escaped, right?"

 

Donnie frowned. "Yes and no," he said reluctantly. "Its good he's moving, and hopefully away from Shredder's goons, but…"

 

"But for all we know it could be a trap," Leo finished for him.

 

Donnie nodded. "The Shredder's nuts, but he's not an idiot. Mikey might even be a trap and not know it."

 

"So we find him fast and watch our backs when we do," said Raph as if it were that simple.

 

"Easy for you to say," said Casey. "Not all of us have shells." He knocked on Raph's for emphasis, much to the turtle's annoyance.

 

"Trap or no trap, we can't let a chance to get Mikey back slip by," said Miwa.

 

"She's right," said Leo from the driver's seat. "And if Mikey did manage to get away, he might be hurt." As he said that, he floored the pedal, and sped the Shellraiser through the streets faster than ever to their brother.

 

__________________________

 

Mikey slumped against an alley wall, too exhausted to continue.

 

After a disastrous attempt to take to the rooftops, he had instead made his way through the alleys and streets until he finally found a manhole into the sewers.

 

But to his distress, he found that he couldn't even muster up the strength to open the cover. His attempts to do so only seemed to drain him even more, and he soon found he could no longer stand, much less make it home. He was now so cold he didn't even have the energy to shiver, and he was growing sleepier by the second.

 

As he fought to keep his eyes open (he knew from all the movies that falling asleep when this cold was really, really bad), his ears picked up one of the most beautiful sounds he'd ever heard. The roaring engine of the Shellraiser as it drew closer.

 

Pulling up the last of his energy, Mikey crawled along the alley floor towards the direction he heard the Shellraiser, and was soon caught in the vehicle's headlights as it screeched to a stop in front of him.

 

Weak with relief, Mikey could do little more than smile sleepily as his siblings rushed out to him, lifted him up to look him over, and peppered him with questions he was too tired to answer.

 

His siblings, however, didn't share his relief. Though there were no visible injuries, their brother's weakened state was alarming enough. When it was clear Mikey wasn't about to answer them, Donnie and Raph began examining him for injuries themselves.

 

"He's soaking wet, and his skin is like ice," said Raph, scooping up his little brother and running him into the Shellraiser. "We gotta warm him up ASAP."

 

Casey and April watched with wide eyes as the turtle brought his brother inside and gently lay him on the floor of the Shellraiser. Metalhead also watched, and scanned the younger terrapin to see how he could be of assistance.

 

"Oh Mikey," April whispered in sympathy when she saw the state of him.

 

But the siblings paid them no attention. "It's more than that," said Donnie, as he and the older two rushed back in as well. "His reptilian physiology can't handle such extreme cold. If we don't keep him awake he'll go into hibernation and likely won't wake up 'til Spring."

 

As Donnie said this, Miwa tore into their first aid supplies, and found the emergency blanket and several warming gel packs. As she brought it all over, Leo and Raph carefully removed Mikey's sopping parka and gear so that their sister could wrap it around him.

 

As they did so, Metalhead let out an alarmed sounding beep.

 

"What now?" asked Casey in irritation.

 

In response, the small robot walked over and pulled something free from its hiding place in Mikey's shell. Holding it up to the light, Donnie gasped at what he saw.

 

"It's a tracker," he said, taking it from his robot and examining it.

 

As he did so, Miwa wrapped Mikey in the blanket and gel packs, and huddled next to him to share body heat. Seeing this, Casey promptly cranked up the Shellraiser's heat to full blast, before sitting down on Mikey's other side to help, and tried to get the turtle to talk to them and stay awake. Metalhead also moved to help, crouching in front of Mikey, and pointing his flamethrowers upwards like a pair of torches.

 

Leo looked at the small beacon in Donnie's hand. "So Mikey was a trap," he said darkly. "He was supposed to go home, and lead Shredder right to our doorstep."

 

"N-no w-w-way I'd d-do that-t-t," Mikey slurred through chattering teeth.

 

"Not on purpose," said April in an assuring tone.

 

The redhead had started looking through their supplies for another blanket to help Mikey. Finding none, she shed the hoodie she'd worn to keep warm, and wrapped it around him as best she could. Following her example, the other teens removed the extra layers they'd added for the cold and bundled Mikey in them as best they could. Soon the turtle was buried under a mish-mashed pile of coats and scarves, but despite it he was still freezing.

 

Seeing this, Donnie shot the others a concerned look. "I say we ditch the tracker and get Mikey home as quickly as we can," he said. "He needs to be warmed up as soon as possible if we want to fight off hibernation."

 

Raph frowned. "I'm all for getting Mikey home," he said. "But that tracker is our ticket to payback for the creeps who did this to him in the first place. I say we set a little trap of our own."

 

Leo frowned as he considered the idea. Then he nodded as he came to a compromise. "Alright, Casey, you, April and Metalhead drive Mikey home as fast as you can. Use the subway tunnels so you can't be tracked on street level. While down in the tunnels, the rest of us will take the tracker and lead whoever's following it away."

 

The rest of his team nodded in agreement, and Mikey's hand burst out from under his coat pile. "E-everybody s-stop! I-I know exactl-ly w-where y-you sh-sh-should g-go," he said with a wide, if tired smile.

 

His siblings exchanged glances, and Donnie couldn't help but let out a squeak of, "I feel scared."

 

__________________________

 

Tiger Claw followed his tracker until he reached the alley that Mikey had collapsed in.

 

"Little reptile," he said as he scanned the area for signs of Mikey, "where are you?"

 

He stopped to sniff the manhole cover Mikey had failed to lift, but still had his sent all over it. "Underground," he said in realization. "In the sewers!"

 

That made sense. The cub must have gone below to avoid civilians. But from the looks of his tracker, he was making good time through the tunnels.

 

Staying on the roofs so that his prey would not know he was being followed, Tiger Claw followed his tracker as it moved steadily onwards, before coming to a stop.

 

"Got you," Tiger Claw said triumphantly as he rushed onwards to his final destination.

 

He eventually came to a butcher shop called Patty Mann's. An odd choice of address, but he supposed Hamato Yoshi must have had to find some type of employment after Master Shredder ran him out of Japan. Especially when one had five cubs and a stolen mate to feed.

 

He picked the lock on the back door, and made his way in through the shop's freezer. Large frozen carcasses hung on racks before him, blocking up his nose with their stench. But he did not need it presently. He had the Hamato's address, now to simply bring back proof to his Master, and his mission would be accomplished.

 

As he stalked through the hanging meats his ear twitched as he heard the faint sound of someone in the room with him.

 

He sniffed the air experimentally, but could only smell the frozen meat. "I can't smell you," he said, knowing it would be useless to use stealth now. "But I  _can_ hear you."

 

His ears twitched as he focused on finding the source of the noise. If he managed to bring back to Master Shredder one of Tang Shen's cub, then what further proof did he need that this was their place of hiding.

 

There was the sound of rushed footsteps behind him and he wheeled around. But he could see nothing through the carcasses. There was no sound of the door to the shop opening or closing, so his prey was still there, just hiding.

 

Growling under his breath, Tiger Claw scanned his surroundings for one of the cubs. Clearly they knew he was there, the question was, why were they not attempting to attack him, or sound the alarm to the others.

 

As he heard movement behind him once again, realization hit Tiger Claw like a bolt of lightning. "They're stalking me," he growled to himself.

 

This wasn't the Hamato Clan's residence. This was a trap.

 

Knowing he had to get out of the freezer, Tiger Claw caught sight of the exit into the butcher shop's kitchen.

 

But before he could move towards it, one of the still human ninjas shot forward and kicked Tiger Claw in the face, informing him that it was not just Tenshi he was contending with, but likely all five siblings.

 

He attempted to chase after the one who kicked him, and sliced through one of the carcasses with his sword.

 

"Are you afraid to face me?" he snarled, only to get a knee in the face as a reply.  _"Are you afraid to Fight ME!"_ he roared in frustration, trying to draw his prey out.

 

Finally, his ears picked up the next attacker, and he reached out just in time to catch Miwa by her ankle, and fling her away.

 

But the girl recovered quickly, and soon vanished back among the swinging meats.

 

Scowling, Tiger Claw backed himself into the kitchen, keeping his eyes peeled for more of the Hamato ninja.

 

Only to receive a kick from behind by Raph, who had been hiding in the kitchen to avoid the chill of the freezer.

 

Sent sprawling back into the freezer, Tiger Claw roared, and rushed back out to confront the red wearing turtle, only to see nothing but a well stocked butcher kitchen.

 

As he backed up against the cutting table, Leo, Donnie, and Miwa stepped out of the freezer. Raph stepped out of his hiding place next to the door and joined the three in glowering at Tiger Claw, his eyes white with rage.

 

Tiger Claw tensed as he prepared for the coming fight. The four ninjas glared back at him silently.

 

Then the lights flickered and when dark for a second. When they came back on, the four ninjas had vanished, and the saw on the cutting table sprang to life with a whirr.

 

Tiger Claw looked around, and brought his sword up just in time to block a strike from Leo. He then grabbed the boy, and threw him into Raph, who was trying to attack from the other side.

 

As the two were flung away, Donnie leapt onto the table with the saw, and swung his bō at the tiger's face.

 

Tiger Claw caught the staff in his mouth, and jerked his head hard enough to swing Donnie into a wall. But when the mutant made to pin him there, Miwa shot forward, and threw an egg full of blinding powder into the mutant's face, before kicking him in the gut away from Donnie.

 

Snarling and wiping his eyes, Tiger Claw found that with his nose clogged with the stench of meat, and his eyes burning from the powder, he only had his sense of hearing to fall back on. And even that was hampered by the constant noise of the meat saw shrieking on the table.

 

In other words, he was losing.

 

But his hearing was far sharper than any other, and he was able to use it to deflect, dodge, and attack the four Hamatos well enough, but he hated to admit that they were getting in far more hits than they usually would in a fight.

 

He snarled as he lashed out with his sword, trying to hit his opponents, the Shredder wanting them alive be damned. The Hamatos were attacking with far more ferocity than they usually displayed, and in his limited state, he had to compensate or face their wrath.

 

But he suddenly froze as he felt the sharp tip of a katana resting against his neck.

 

"This is for what you did to our brother," said Leo's voice, sounding angrier than he had ever heard.

 

Tiger Claw growled at him, and used his sword to knock Leo's away, but received a kick in the gut for his troubles.

 

Tiger Claw felt his back slam against the wall of the kitchen, and could make out the sounds of the four siblings closing in on him. But then his ears picked up a different set of sounds coming from behind him. Cars honking, people talking, and other various sounds of the city that never sleeps.

 

Realizing there must be an open window above him, Tiger Claw dropped his sword and drew his guns too quickly for the teenagers to stop him. He promptly shot at the ground with both the ice and the laser gun, the heat and cold combining to create a wall of steam, which he used as a smoke screen to escape out the window.

 

Raph let out an outraged cry as he saw the bigger mutant escape out the window. "Let's go after him!" he yelled, moving to do so.

 

"Hold on, Iyasa," said Leo stopping him. "We made our point. Let's go home and check on Tenshi."

 

Raph didn't look happy about that, but his worry over Mikey won out, and he nodded in agreement.

 

The four teens began filing out of the butcher shop. As they left, Donnie paused only long enough to throw the tracking device at the still running saw, slicing it to ribbons, before following his older siblings out.

 

__________________________

 

Despite everyone's efforts to warm him up, Mikey still dozed off on the ride home with April, Casey, and Metalhead. But this time he instinctively felt that it was okay to do so, that this sleep would just be a rejuvenating nap, not a one-way ticket to hibernation.

 

He came too in the family's Japanese style bathtub surrounded by perfectly warm water, and his parents hovering worriedly at the edge.

 

Seeing their worried faces, he sent them a smile and said, "Can I get some bubbles, and my rubber ducky?"

 

Tang Shen let out a small gasp of relief, and reached over to embrace her son regardless of the water soaking her front.

 

Yoshi also looked relieved, and reached down to rub his sons head, before stepping out to inform the anxious pair of teenagers outside that he was alright.

 

To Mikey's annoyance, his parents, April and Casey all insisted that he stay soaking in the warm water until his siblings returned home. He thought he might get some help when Jason came rushing in to confirm he was alright, but unfortunately his best friend sided with the others, and told him to stay put as well ("Besides, I thought turtles liked the water," he'd said jokingly).

 

Finally, Leo, Miwa, Donnie, and Raph came home after making sure to take a long twisting route to ensure Tiger Claw hadn't followed them.

 

Once they were all gathered in the living room, and Mikey was wrapped in an electric blanket with a mug of hot cocoa in his hands ("You guys are  _way_  overreacting, I'm fine!" he complained), he told them the whole story about Tiger Claw, and his interrogation techniques.

 

When his family and friends heard what had happened they were outraged.

 

Raph slammed his fist against the wall. "I should have hit Tiger Claw a lot harder," he snarled. "No one does that to my brothers! No one!"

 

"Good to know you care, Raph," said Mikey, trying to make light of the situation as Donnie did a more thorough examination of him.

 

"Well, you have a bump on your head where Tiger Claw jumped you, but otherwise you should be okay," said Donnie drawing back. "Though, I want you to be careful these next few days, who knows what nearly hibernating did to your immune system."

 

Mikey winced at the mention of it. "Tell me about it," he said in distaste. "I never wanna get that sleepy again."

 

"Did it hurt?" asked Leo in concern.

 

Mikey shrugged. "The cold hurt, but that wasn't the scary part. The scary part was how final it felt. It was like I was just so exhausted that I'd drop off any second and I wasn't sure I'd ever wake up, or if I'd even  _want_  to wake up." He grimaced at the memory. "Just thinking about it freaks me out," he whined, and chugged down some of his hot chocolate to banish any remaining feelings of cold. Only to yelp and flail around as the hot liquid burned his tongue.

 

Everyone else exchanged glances and smiled. Even though it had been a close call, Mikey was still Mikey, and he'd be just fine.

 

__________________________

 

After his humiliating defeat at the hands of the teenagers, Tiger Claw reluctantly returned to the Foot Head Quarters, and kneeled before the Shredder's throne to inform his master of what had happened.

 

The Shredder was not at all pleased.

 

"Not only did you allow one of Shen's sons to escape," the Shredder said dangerously. "But your plan to track him failed, and you return to me defeated by four mere  _children?_ As skilled as Shen's children are, I had expected more from you, Tiger Claw. You  _disappoint_ me."

 

Tiger Claw tensed in his kneeling position, and looked up to see his master standing right before him with his gauntlet raised.

 

Before the tiger could do anything, the Shredder slashed downwards with his gauntlet.

 

Blood flew through the air, and Tiger Claw roared in pain.

 

From where they were watching, Rahzar, Fishface, and Buzzkill gasped and drew back in horror.

 

The Shredder looked apathetically down at his lieutenant as Tiger Claw clutched his face, blood pouring from the remains of his left eye.

 

"This is the price of disappointing me, Tiger Claw," said the Shredder coldly as he walked past the mutant out of the room. "Do  _not_ let it happen again."

 

Tiger Claw gasped in pain, but managed to whisper, "Yes… Master…"

 

The Shredder sent a withering look to the other three mutants in his employ, and they all drew back and gulped fearfully. They knew that should they cross him again, they would no doubt receive a similar punishment.

 

Even so, the three were extremely unnerved by what they had just witnessed. Tiger Claw had always seemed to be the best of them. The one that could do no wrong, or at least could always find someone else to blame if he did do something wrong. If he was punished so severely, what hope was left for the three of them?

 

Satisfied he had struck the proper amount of fear into his underlings' hearts, the Shredder swept out of the room. If all went as planned, Tang Shen would soon be his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see, this chapter borrowed heavily from both Wrath of Tiger Claw, and The Way of Invisibility from the 2003 series. With no Karai to get her earth-shattering revelation, I needed something else to put in, and mixing those two seemed to work well. There's also some foreshadowing in this chapter, but that'll come into play later. As for the hibernation thing, I figured in the show the turtles had had years to adjust to winter, and figure out how to stay awake, but these two are being blindsided by their instincts, and are working it out as they go along. We don't know how Tiger Claw lost his eye in the show, but here I guess it's pretty clear.


	32. Aliens Stole My Brain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The obligatory mind switching episode. Those are always fun (though not for those involved)

As Donnie had predicted, Mikey got sick from his over exposure to the cold. Because of both him and Malachi being down with illness, the entire team lessened their patrols for the week, only stepping when it was important, and avoided engaging Foot Patrols when they were a member short.

 

As such, they could only watch as the entire Foot Clan chased an invisible man down the street.

 

"What's that all about?" asked Leo from their hiding place.

 

"I don't know, but that guy must have done something to really piss them off," said Raph.

 

As they watched Shredder's mutant lackeys finally catch up to their invisible foe, Rahzar's claws managed to slash through whatever hardware he was using to stay transparent, revealing a skinny black man with an oversized purple Mohawk.

 

Miwa let out a snort at the sight. "That outfit," she said with a laugh. "It looks like something out of Tron."

 

Donnie, however, looked fascinated. "It may be cheesy, but I'd love to get a better look at the tech. Imagine if I could find a way to incorporate it into our gear?"

 

Raph shot him an unimpressed look. "Invisible ninjas? Doesn't that kinda defeat the point?"

 

They continued to watch as the Mohawked man seemed to inflate his flamboyant hairstyle until it was large and glowing, then he threw it at the Foot-Bots like a weapon.

 

Donnie raised an eyebrow at that. "Okay, I admit, that part is a little excessive and silly."

 

"You mean it wasn't before?" asked Leo blandly.

 

Below them, the man managed to make enough of a gap between the Foot-Bots to get past them. The Foot Clan continued their pursuit, but all of a sudden a helicopter flew down and dropped a rope ladder for the man. The man grabbed it and began flying away from them all, gloating over his escape as he went.

 

Only to be blind-sided when Buzzkill came out of nowhere and shot acid at the backpack the man was wearing.

 

The man cried out in alarm as the acid ate through the straps, and it fell from him to the Foot below. As the pack fell, the watching teenagers saw a flash of metal as the Shredder's Kuro Kabuto fell from the bag, and was caught in Fishface's waiting hands.

 

The teens watched in disbelief as the Foot Clan vanished from sight the second they got the helmet, and the man with the Mohawk flew away on his helicopter looking disappointed.

 

"You're kidding me," said Raph in disbelief as it sank in what had just happened.

 

"The Shredder sent the  _entire_  Foot Clan out just to get back that stupid helmet he wears?" Leo asked in equal disbelief.

 

"Now  _that_ is excessive," said Donnie.

 

Miwa smirked. "If he loves it so much, who wants to shoot paintballs at it next time we fight him?"

 

There was a simultaneous show of hands in agreement.

 

__________________________

 

A few days later, both Mikey and Malachi were back on their feet and ready for action again, and just in time too. Donnie managed to intercept a message from his Kraang communication orb that the aliens had a new plan to cripple the Earth's defenses. They were planning to test it in one of their warehouses that night.

 

It was decided that the five ninjas would scout ahead to find out what the plan was. The rest of the team was on standby outside the warehouse, ready to come in at a moment’s notice if there was any trouble.

 

The five ninjas slipped silently into the upper level of the warehouse, and quickly saw what the Kraang had been talking about. In the middle of the main floor stood a large machine that looked like a large metallic ball on a thin stick, with two arm like bars resting on joints on either side of the sphere. On both sides of it were a pair of dissection tables, waiting for new occupants.

 

As they watched, three Kraang approached the machine, one in a human disguise, the other two the standard brain robots. The three began talking, but the ninjas were too far away to hear it.

 

Raph raised his sais, and prepared to leap into battle. Not being able to fight while they were short team members had been a pain, and now he was itching for a brawl.

 

But Leo held up his hand to stop him. "Not until we know what they're up to," he said softly.

 

Raph scowled at being told to hold back. "Does it matter? They're not bakin' cookies," he hissed in reply.

 

Next to him, Mikey made a face. "Ew! What would Kraang cookies taste like? Chocolate chips and brains?"

 

Miwa rolled her eyes. "And yet you'd still eat it, Mr. Cast-Iron-Stomach."

 

Leo rolled his eyes, and jerked his head at the giant machine in the middle of the room. "So what do you make of this thing, Tenshi?"

 

Before Mikey could reply, Donnie shot a look at his leader and asked, "Why are you asking him?"

 

"'Cause I'm the Kraang genius, bro," bragged Mikey proudly. "I've got mad skills with the alien tech, remember?"

 

Donnie rolled his eyes. "Then what is that thing, oh mighty genius?"

 

Mikey looked it over, then shrugged. "I dunno, but its something bad."

 

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," said Miwa sarcastically.

 

Donnie clapped then a hand over both his little brother and his sister's mouths before Mikey could retort. "Quiet," he hissed. "Here they come."

 

He then had to pull one of his hands away quickly as Miwa tried to bite it.

 

As they watched the proceedings below, they saw the Kraang drag in a man off the street. The man was understandably freaking out at the sight of the Kraang, and constantly begging them not to probe him.

 

"Huh," said Miwa softly, making her brothers all look at her. Seeing their questioning looks, she whispered, "It kinda makes you realize just how used to weird stuff we've gotten. When the Kraang first showed up we could hardly believe it, but now we just look at every new monster of the week, or weird Kraang plot and aren't that surprised anymore."

 

Donnie frowned. "I'm not so sure that's a good thing," he whispered back.

 

They went back to watching as the Kraang strapped the man to one of their dissection tables. Next to him, a Kraang hit a button on the machine's control panel and the sphere span around until each of the arms was pointing down at one of the dissection tables, one pointing at the man's head, the other at the still empty table.

 

"That's too big to be a probe, right?" Mikey said, eyeing the machine with a freaked out expression.

 

Below, one of the Kraang blocked their view of the empty dissection table, and told the others that, "The Kraang Neuro-Switcher will switch test subject's mind with that which is called 'a pigeon'."

 

The Kraang then stepped back, and revealed a small grey pigeon strapped to the other table. The bird blinked curiously, and looked around with a coo.

 

The man strapped to the other table recoiled. "Er, I think I'd prefer the probing," he said fearfully.

 

Seeing that there was no longer any time to waste, Leo shouted, "Okay, NOW!" to both his siblings, and to signal those waiting outside.

 

As the ninjas dove from their hiding places towards the Kraang below, the Shellraiser came bursting through the wall, bringing with it Leatherhead, Casey, April, and Metalhead. Sir Malachi snuck in his own window with Jason, and began using his powers to befuddle the aliens while the human boy watched the bird's back.

 

The Kraang immediately started shooting at all of them, and rushing around to try and stop them from ruining their plan. One of them pressed a button on the Neuro-Switcher, causing a pink beam to shoot out of the arms, and hit the man and the pigeon on their heads, making both writhe in pain.

 

Raph fought his way over to the man, and used his sais to brake the shackles holding him to the table, and pulled him out from under the beam.

 

"Mister, you okay?" he asked the man once they were a safe distance away, momentarily forgetting that his appearance would likely freak him out.

 

But instead of yelling or screaming, the man looked at him with a cross-eyed expression, and cooed like a pigeon. He then go to his feet, and began walking like said bird, complete with flapping his arms like wings.

 

Raph stared in disbelief at the sight. "You gotta be kidding me!"

 

But sure enough, he looked over at the other table to see the bird on it freaking out and wailing that he was a pigeon.

 

Amidst the confusion, the Kraang dressed in a human suit said, "Kraang test successfully tested." He then turned to his fellow aliens and ordered, "Kraang, exterminate kids for Kraang."

 

"What does Kraang think that Kraang is doing?" asked another of the Kraang, who was frantically shooting at Leatherhead, only for the alligator to bite its android's head off.

 

"Dude!" shouted Mikey as he dodged the lasers. "It's too freaky! That guy's got the brain of a pigeon!"

 

"Still makes him a lot smarter than you," Raph snapped as he dodged the lasers right beside him.

 

"Don't let him get hurt!" yelled Leo, using his swords to block a blast that would have hit the pigeon-man. "Take those Kraang down fast!"

 

"Malachi!" shouted Miwa. "Can't you distract more of them?!"

 

Within his hiding place, Malachi had his eyes closed in deep concentration, and Jason called an answer for him. "Malachi can only use his powers on so many people at once, dudette! And he says the Kraang are, like, better at seeing his stuff is bogus than people are!"

 

But still, several of the Kraang did seem to be in Malachi's thrall, and were shooting at their own comrades rather than at the good guys.

 

The rest of the team was also doing their part to take down the Kraang. Leatherhead was smashing them all with riotous fury. Metalhead was blasting them to bits. The Hamatos were cutting down any that came close to them, and April and Casey brought up the rear, and took point next to the pigeon-man to protect him.

 

Mikey rushed over to where the man pigeon was still strapped to the table and shouting, "Get Me Out Of Here!"

 

"I'll save you Mr. Peepers!" the orange wearing turtle yelled as he used his kusarigama to break his restraints and pull the bird to safety.

 

He then ran over to the pigeon man, and shoved the bird into his hands. "Dude, get ahold of yourself, man!" he yelled.

 

"Did you really just say that?" asked Casey in disbelief as he used his hockey stick to smack a Kraang's head off.

 

"That was bad, even for you," agreed April as she used her tessen to block laser fire.

 

Raph, meanwhile, had fought his way over next to the machine's control panel, taking out any Kraang in his sights. But then the Kraang in the human disguise snuck up behind him, and shoved him against the control panel.

 

"The kids cannot win against the Kraang," the Kraang said.

 

Raph snarled, and shoved the android off him, and kicked him into the other control panel. "Tell it to the ground!" he yelled.

 

But because of their constant bumping into the controls, the machine began starting up again, and shooting pink beams out of its arms.

 

Everyone moved to dodge as the two beams flew all over the place, until they came to rest on the heads of the pigeon man and the man pigeon in his hands.

 

The two writhed under the beam again before collapsing to the ground, the man groaning, and the pigeon cooing to show they were themselves again.

 

"We got reverse brain switch!" called Donnie to the others.

 

"Iyasa! LH! We're good to go!" he yelled to Raph and Leatherhead, who were still caught up in the fight.

 

The alligator reluctantly began backing down, but Raph was still tussling with the human disguised Kraang.

 

"I'm busy here!" the red wearing turtle yelled as he slammed the Kraang against the machine. He then tried to stab it with his sai, only for the alien to move at the last second, and the sai hit the Neuro-Switcher instead.

 

The machine instantly began going haywire as it fizzled and sparked above their heads. Then, before anyone could move, it shot one last set of pink beams at Raph and the Kraang's heads before it exploded, knocking the alien and the turtle unconscious, and sending them flying back.

 

"Iyasa's Down!" shouted Leo, and Leatherhead ran over to scoop him up. "Grab the pigeon and the man!"

 

With the three unconscious bodies in hand, the Hamato team withdrew from the warehouse, leaving the Kraang behind.

 

Little did they know, as they ran out the turtle in Leatherhead's hands groaned in a voice that was definitely  _not_ Raphael's, and the human disguised alien reached out to them as they left with a weak call of "Guys!" before collapsing to the floor unconscious.

 

__________________________

 

It was a cramped fit in the Shellraiser for the whole team, but they managed. Once they were a safe distance away they dropped the man and the pigeon off on the sidewalk, hoping he'd think the whole thing was a bad dream.

 

That left them with the problem of the unconscious Raphael, who was slumped in the back of the Shellraiser.

 

"How's Raph doing?" Leo called back from the driver's seat.

 

"Just gotta wake him up!" Mikey called back with an evil grin. He then moved to slap Raph awake, but his wrist was caught by a very disapproving April before he could lay a hand on his brother.

 

But before either of them could attempt a different method of waking Raph up, Casey pulled a water bottle out of his golf bag and dumped some of the contents on Raph's head, making the turtle's eyes snap open and sit up.

 

"Works every time," said Casey smugly.

 

Miwa, however, frowned at the sight. Usually being awoken in such a manner would have Raph waking up with more of a reaction, followed by him yelling, chasing, and beating on whoever had done the deed until he felt his rude awakening had been justified. But her brother was currently doing none of that, only staring straight ahead with a blank expression on his face.

 

"Is something wrong?" she asked him, hoping there was some reason for his uncharacteristic behavior.

 

But Mikey didn't even notice anything wrong. Instead he beamed down at his brother. "Glad you're back, Raph. High-three," he offered, holding out his own three-fingered hand for Raph to smack.

 

Without showing a hint of emotion, Raph slowly climbed to his feet and gazed around at them all. Instead of giving Mikey a high-three, he instead gripped the other turtle's shoulders and said in a monotone voice, "Kids? Here? Where is the location of the Kraang where this Kraang is-?"

 

That was all 'Raph' got to say before Leatherhead let out a snarl and grabbed the turtle by the throat, yanked him away from Mikey, and slammed him against the side of the Shellraiser.

 

Everyone else let out cries of alarm at the sight, and Jason grabbed the gator's arm and tried his best to keep him from crushing Raph's windpipe. "Chill, LH, it's a good Kraang impersonation, but it's no reason to-"

 

"It is  _not_ an impersonation," snarled Leatherhead angrily. "Do you not see?"

 

Mikey, Casey, Jason, and Malachi looked confused, but the rest caught on instantly.

 

"Then, you're not our brother," said Donnie looking at Raph's body in horror. "Ra-er-Iyasa must have been brain switched with a Kraang."

 

Casey looked horrified. "But then that means we left him back there!"

 

Before anyone could say anything, the Kraang in Raph's body pulled one of the sais from Raph's belt and slashed it at Leatherhead's hand, making the gator roar in pain, and release him.

 

"Kids, Kraang must destroy!" said the turtle, and he began stabbing at all of them with the sai.

 

Leo slammed on the brakes of the vehicle (narrowly avoiding hitting a taxi as he did so), and everyone scrambled in the cramped space to avoid the weapon, and Malachi's eyes glowed green as he began using his powers. At once the Kraang stopped focusing on the occupants of the Shellraiser, and instead began repeatedly stabbing the metal side of the Shellraiser, thinking it was one of his enemies.

 

With him still under the illusion, Mikey converted his nunchuck into a kusarigama, and quickly tied the Kraang turned turtle up and disarmed him before he even realized what happened. Once he was secure, Malachi released him from his spell.

 

The turtle strained at the chains but couldn't seem to break them. He instead sat still and stared at them all with a blank look on his face.

 

"The ones who are know as the kids will release Kraang at the time that is known as 'right now'," said Not-Raph in his monotone voice. Combined with his expressionless face, the stark contrast from Raph's usually overly expressive features was just bizarre.

 

April shuddered at the sight. "This is too weird," she said.

 

"I agree," said Miwa, pulling out a roll of duct tape and slapping it over Not-Raph's mouth to keep him from talking.

 

Donnie, meanwhile, was working on bandaging the bleeding cut on Leatherhead's hand. "What's the plan, Raion?" he asked worriedly. "We need to get Iyasa back somehow."

 

Leo looked them all over solemnly and nodded in agreement. "I know. But where do we even start?"

 

The others all exchanged glances, equally lost. Finally Donnie suggested, "If we go to my lab, with Metalhead's help I might be able to use my equipment to track where he might have gone."

 

Metalhead gave a thumbs-up in agreement.

 

Leo nodded reluctantly. "Alright, then we'll do that. But before we go, someone find a way to cover his eyes," he said, pointing at Not-Raph as he gave the last order.

 

Miwa reached over to turn Raph's mask sideways over the Kraang impostor's eyes. Jason found a paper bag in the back of the Shellraiser and shoved it over the turtle's head for good measure.

 

Leatherhead glared daggers in Not-Raph's direction and growled under his breath, but Sir Malachi put a hand on his to gain his attention. "I know thou has a hatred for there alien creature," he said sagely. "But do bare in thine mind that our comrade, Iyasa, shall be in need of his vessel when we findeth him once more."

 

Leatherhead reluctantly nodded in agreement, and sulked in the Shellraiser the rest of the way to the dojo.

 

__________________________

 

When Raph awoke next, he instantly felt that something was wrong.

 

"Kraang, transport Kraang to med bay for vitamin infusion," said a Kraang's voice right next to his ear, and he felt himself getting wheeled along on a gurney.

 

For some reason it took Raph a few minutes to figure out how to open his eyes, but once he did so, he brought his hand up to rub his aching head.

 

Only to freeze when he saw a human hand come up to meet him instead of the green three fingered one he had come to expect.

 

For a brief instant he thought perhaps Donnie had finished his new batch of retro-mutagen. That he was back to his human self again.

 

But that gleeful thought came to a crashing halt as he found that though his hand was in front of his face, he couldn't actually feel it there. He also couldn't help but think the hand didn't look quite like his used to either. It was too thin, and it didn't have the callouses he'd acquired from years of martial arts and weapons training.

 

Something was very wrong here.

 

And for that matter, where was here, anyway? He didn't recognize the ceiling passing above him.

 

"Where am I?" he muttered to himself.

 

At once a Kraang leaned over him and said, "Kraang has been damaged, Kraang."

 

"Kraang?" Raph snapped, suddenly feeling more awake. "Who you calling-?"

 

He broke off and stared at his hand again, for the first time noticing the dark sleeve of a pinstripe suit covering his arm. Sitting up, he frantically began feeling features, and finding that instead of his human face, he instead had the long and generic visage of the Kraang's preferred human disguise.

 

"Oh no," he muttered to himself as what had happened slowly sank in.

 

Another Kraang at the front of the gurney turned and said to him, "Kraang has been damaged. Kraang is acting… strange."

 

Raph winced, and knew he had to talk his way out of this quick, or else he'd be at the mercy of these aliens without his weapons or his family to back him up. As much as he loved to fight, he didn't think the odds were in his favor to pick a fight this at time.

 

"Nah, I'm fine," he said with false cheer, and tried to roll off the gurney, only to face-plant on the floor when his legs didn't work for him.

 

Pushing himself back to his feet, he continued quickly, "I feel great- I-I mean- er," he broke off when he realized that he wasn't doing a good Kraang impression (and that for some reason his arms were sticking straight up in the air). He immediately lowered his voice and tried to imitate the Kraang's run-on form of speech while slowly backing away from two Kraang. "This, uh, Kraang is feeling much, um, Kraangier. Got, uh, Ten stuff to do, so I'll just be, uh, Kraanging off."

 

He finally managed to get around the corner away from the two Kraang with the gurney. A task made extremely difficult by the fact that the android body he was in did not move like his original human one at all. He could barely walk, and his arms kept going into odd places. But despite the awkwardness, he still pushed himself to put as much distance from him and the two suspicious Kraang as he could.

 

Raph couldn't help but think that his main coordination problem came from not being able to feel just about everything about the body. He didn't feel his legs under him. He didn't feel the arms at his sides, and he couldn't even feel his head when an accidental stumble caused him to knock it hard against a wall in his haste to get away.

 

Finding an empty hallway with a window, he hurried over and slumped against it. Looking at his reflection in the glass, he saw a Kraang's reflection looking back at him, the only difference being that the Kraang's face had a far more frightened expression on it than he had ever seen when he fought the aliens before.

 

With a groan, he thunked his head against the glass in despair. "Aw Kraang! Worst. Day. EVER!" he moaned. "Being a turtle is better than this."

 

Looking past his reflection, he saw the glittering lights of the New York skyline, and realized he was in TCRI once again.

 

He was sorely tempted to just leave the building and go home, but he knew another mind-switcher machine had to be here, and if he left who knew if he'd be able to get back in to change himself back (even with his siblings' help). Or even if he'd be able to get out in the first place with how clumsy he currently was in this unfamiliar body.

 

Experimentally, he tried to raise and lower his arm, only for the movements to be far over done, and nearly make him lose his balance.

 

' _Why is this so hard?'_  he thought angrily to himself. He'd had a human body for most of his life. He knew how to work one.

 

Then the answer hit Raph, and almost smacked himself for his stupidity. This  _wasn't_ a human body. This was a robot body that the Kraang rode around in, so of course he couldn't feel anything, it was just a metal machine.

 

Realizing that, Raph hesitantly poked himself in the stomach where he knew the pilot seat was at. He instantly pulled his hand back as if it had been burned. He'd definitely felt  _that_. And somehow it felt even weirder than the lack of feeling in the robot body.

 

Freaked out, and not sure what he was supposed to do, Raph glanced at his reflection again and sighed. "Why does this stuff always happen to me?" he asked.

 

__________________________

 

Yoshi and Tang Shen were once again anxiously awaiting their children's return home when they heard the scuffle outside their dojo's secret entrance.

 

Going over to observe the secret sewer entrance, they were surprised to see most of their children carrying a chained up and blindfolded Raphael into the hallway.

 

At this concerning sight, Tang Shen ran over and asked, "What has happened? Was it the mushrooms again?"

 

She reached to remove the paper bag over the restrained turtle's head, but Leo reached out and caught her wrist before she could do so.

 

"Don't," he said. "Iyasa's had his brain switched with a Kraang."

 

Tang Shen stared at her son in disbelief at the sheer absurdity of that statement. Behind her, Yoshi also was looking at his children and wondering if the mushrooms had indeed come back and dosed all of them for such a strange announcement.

 

Seeing their disbelief, Miwa lifted the bag just enough to pull the duct tape gag off the turtle's lips.

 

"Release Kraang now, and Kraang will disintegrate you relatively quickly," said the alien's monotone voice from Raphael's lips.

 

Metalhead let out a series of beeps and whirrs in response to that statement.

 

Though his face was still blank, Not-Raph's eye twitched a bit. "The insult the machine known as Metalhead stated is inaccurate, and anatomically impossible for Kraang."

 

Metalhead just beeped back in reply.

 

Before Not-Raph could say more, Miwa shoved the gag back in place, and pushed the bag back over his head. She then sent Metalhead an impressed look. Who knew the short robot could trash talk.

 

Seeing that their son was indeed not himself at the moment, Tang Shen and Yoshi shared an alarmed look before Yoshi said sharply, "Raion, explain. Now!"

 

Leo winced under his father's gaze, and began telling his parents all that had happened that night.

 

The more he said, the more Tang Shen had to pinch her brow to fight the oncoming headache. First aliens, then her sons mutating one after the other, and now a mental switcheroo added to the mix. She could not begin to fathom just what could be in store for her family next.

 

All she could hope for was that her family would be able to handle it.

 

__________________________

 

Raph, meanwhile, was still having trouble moving in his new body. With little idea of what else to do, he began wobbling through TCRI trying to find another mind-switch machine, or, better yet, some way to contact his family to assist him. As much as he hated asking for help, he could tell he definitely needed it this time.

 

As he slowly made his way down the hallways, he saw the shadows of approaching Kraang, and quickly searched for a place to hide. Finding none, he turned and faced the wall as they passed and hoped none of them would notice him.

 

It worked for the most part, as the majority of the Kraang passed him by without a second glance (which made him wonder just what the Kraang did in their free time that would have them consider his actions in the realm of normal). But one Kraang stopped and looked at him expectantly, and Raph knew he couldn't just ignore him till he went away.

 

Schooling his features, Raph turned and said in his best Kraang impression, "So, um, Kraang who are Kraang, can you, um, like, tell me how to get to the nearest Kraang Brain Switcher Thingy?"

 

He had to mentally wince at how bad the impression was, and it was not helped by the fact that his arms kept acting up while he spoke, going all over the place like a warped rendition of the YMCA dance.

 

The Kraang in front of him stared at him with a flat look. "The query Kraang has stated makes no sense to Kraang. Kraang is busy."

 

"Busy doing what?" Raph bust out, before realizing how it sounded, and then repeated, "Busy doing what?" in a more monotone voice.

 

The Kraang didn't seem to notice, and instead led him to a different room in the building for whatever he was supposed to be busy doing.

 

When the electronic door slid open, Raph's eyes widened as he saw what was in the center of the room. "A communication orb," he whispered to himself. ' _Maybe Kraang, um, I could use it to contact Donnie,'_ he thought in relief as he followed the Kraang into the room. Another Kraang was already there discussing things with a video screen.

 

On a video screen in the room, Raph recognized Kraang Prime from his team's last assaults on TCRI. Only this time Kraang Prime was wearing his own robotic suit, which no doubt had to be huge to fit the massive Kraang. But unlike the regular Kraang endoskeletons, Kraang Prime's robotic body was not at all humanoid. Instead it was a massive metal circle surrounding the alien with tentacle like appendages sticking out from it.

 

"All Kraang in Dimension X are mobilizing for the invasion known as the invasion of Earth," Kraang Prime said through the screen, stepping aside to show the massive Kraang army assembled behind him.

 

If Raph could in this android suit, he would have paled at the sight of the sheer number of Kraang ready to take over his home, and kill them all without hesitation.

 

Raph shot a furtive glance at the communication orb in the center of the room, and began shuffling towards it.

 

But before he could reach it, Kraang Prime turned back to look through the screen, and said, "Kraang! How is Plan Ten progressing?"

 

Raph hoped one of the other two Kraang in the room would answer him, but as they both turned to look over at him, and he immediately froze from trying to reach the orb.

 

"Kraang!" Kraang Prime snapped as the aliens all glared at him. "I am addressing Kraang!"

 

Raph tried to compose himself, but only managed to fall on his face again. Pulling himself back to his feet, he said, "Oh, me Kraang. Um, Plan Ten, uh, well as Kraang can see, everything is, um, Kraang-tastic," he said, hoping they wouldn't see his nervousness.

 

Kraang Prime gave him an impassive look for his antics, but only said, "Then let the switching of superior Kraang minds with inferior human leader minds  _Begin!"_

 

With that the screen shut off, and the two Kraang in the room went their separate ways, leaving Raph alone with the communication orb.

 

Making sure the coast was really clear, Raph sighed in relief and turned his attention to the orb. Then he smacked his forehead as a thought struck him.

 

He didn't have the first  _clue_  how to use this thing.

 

__________________________

 

Back at the dojo, the team finished telling the Hamatos' parents what had happened.

 

"So now we have Iyasa's body," Leo concluded, sparing a glance over at said chained up body. "But now we need a way to track down his mind."

 

"And how do you hope to do that?" Tang Shen asked.

 

The teenagers exchanged glances, then everyone looked over at Donnie and Metalhead, as they'd said they could to it.

 

The genius did a double-take at the scrutiny. He had spent the entire trip back racking his brains for a way to do just that, but had come up empty. In the end, he gave them all a helpless shrug, which Metalhead mimicked.

 

Yoshi sighed as his clan began clamoring about their lack of plan. "Have patience," he said in hopes of calming his worried children down. "A solution will arise. You must wait and be ready for it."

 

"Aw," Mikey groaned. "But I hate waiting. I wish the solution would show up now."

 

On cue, Donnie's communication orb in his lab began buzzing, and pink dots flashed across its white surface.

 

"I wish I had a life time supply of pizza!" Mikey shouted at the ceiling, only to slump over in disappointment a minute later when it didn't work.

 

As he did so, the rest of the clan locked the Kraang brained Raph into a soundproof secret room, and hurried into the genius' domain to find out why it was reacting.

 

Donnie was staring at the orb in utter confusion. "But that hasn't been active for months," he protested. "I think the Kraang figured out we had one, and was more careful where they sent their messages so I couldn't intercept them."

 

"Well, it looks like it's working now," said Miwa dryly.

 

"You don't think those bogus aliens are, like, giving a mass text announcing that they got Raph, do you?" Jason asked looking worried.

 

The others exchanged worried glances, fearing that could very well be the case.

 

"I certainly hope not, my friend," said Leatherhead, placing a comforting hand on the teen's shoulder.

 

Donnie looked pensive as he typed on his computer to see why the orb was acting up.

 

On his computer screen, a video call opened up, revealing a human eye far to close to the screen to see anything else. Focusing on them all, Raph's voice came through the computer's speakers. "Guys, it's me, Iyasa," he said.

 

Then he drew back to show the face of a Kraang. Only this Kraang had its face set in a worried, and almost scared expression on his face, much unlike the expressionless faces the alien's usually wore.

 

"I'm stuck in a Kraang body at TCRI," Raph continued as his hand acted up again, and made a salute-like gesture to the screen. Raph shot the hand an annoyed glance, before he added earnestly, "Ya gotta believe me."

 

Finally, the absurdity of the night finally caught up to Casey, and he burst out laughing and couldn't seem to stop. He was only quelled when Tang Shen reached over and pinched his ear hard enough to make him yelp, and shot him a severe look, telling him that this was not a joke.

 

But Mikey slapped his hand on the computer table next to Donnie, and leaned in extremely close to the web camera. "Wait a minute," he said accusingly. "How do we know he's the  _real_  Iyasa? What's the secret ninja password?"

 

Raph gave Mikey a look dryer than the Sahara. "I will  _pound_ you, Tenshi!" he snapped.

 

Mikey nodded, still right up in front of the camera. "Close enough," he said.

 

Donnie rolled his eyes, and shoved Mikey out of the way, and began typing on his computer frantically. Next to him, Metalhead plugged himself into the computer and began helping with whatever the genius was doing.

 

"Are you alright, my son?" Tang Shen asked worriedly to her body-swapped child.

 

The Kraang's face softened as Raph's always did when Tang Shen comforted him. "I'm alright so far," he admitted. "These Kraang suits are harder to operate than they look, and The Kraang are crawling all over where I go, but I'm not hurt."

 

"We'll get you out of there, little brother," said Miwa in a tone leaving no room for argument.

 

"And we'll, like, mind-meld you back to your mean green self, too," agreed Casey, having recovered from his giggle fit.

 

Though Leatherhead knew it was Raph inside the metal suit, he had a hard time not seeing past the face of his hated enemy on the screen.

 

To avoid loosing himself to his temper, the alligator turned his attention to Donnie, who was still typing furiously on his computer. "What are you doing, Donatello?" he asked. "You do not need to work to keep the connection, it is already present."

 

Donnie nodded absently. "I know. But now that Raph has us connected to TCRI's database, so Metalhead and I trying to download any data I can from their computers about their invasion plans. Every bit of information helps."

 

Metalhead beeped in agreement.

 

Mikey frowned. "Shouldn't I be doing that, since I'm the Kraang genius?" he asked, reaching for the keyboard.

 

Donnie shot him an extremely annoyed glance, and slapped his hand away, inciting a yelp from the orange wearing turtle.

 

"A bold endeavor for the opportunity given, Gifuto," said Sir Malachi. "But make haste, my friend, for I fear the longer we correspond, the more likely Iyasa is to being caughteth."

 

"He's right," Leo said in agreement. He looked back at the screen and said, "Iyasa, do you know how much more time you have."

 

Through the screen, Raph opened his mouth to reply, only to freeze as the sound of a electronic door opening behind him.

 

"Who is Kraang talking too?" asked the mechanical voice of a Kraang just out of sight.

 

Raph sent one last panicked glance through the screen, before cutting the connection, and making the screen go blank.

 

Silence reigned in the lab for a few second, before Leo turned to the others and said, "Let's go save our brother."

 

The rest nodded in agreement.

 

"What's the plan, Leo?" asked April.

 

"We take Raph's body with us, and break into TCRI to find his mind, and switch them back," said Leo. "Miwa, Donnie, Mikey, April, and Casey, you're with me on that part of the plan."

 

The leader then turned to the others. "Jason, you'll be outside keeping the Shellraiser ready for a quick get away. LH, you along with Metalhead and Malachi will storm the lobby to make a distraction."

 

The alligator nodded seeing the wisdom in Leo's plan. "As well as keep me away from Raphael, so that my temper does not harm him in his current state."

 

Leo winced as his ulterior motives were brought out into the open. "Sorry, Leatherhead," he said apologetically. "But with that knee-jerk reaction you have to Kraang, I don't want to run the risk of you attacking him on accident."

 

"I understand, Leonardo," said Leatherhead. "I too feel that this is the best course of action. I would never forgive myself if I hurt my friends."

 

"Then lets get this show on the road," said Miwa, and the rest followed her out of the room.

 

__________________________

 

Raph stiffened rigidly as a Kraang entered the room behind him, and quickly shut off the communication orb, bringing his conversation with his family to a screeching halt.

 

Turning to answer the question, Raph said in his best Kraang voice, "Uh, Kraang, duh…" he said, trying to come up with some excuse.

 

But before he could work out an answer, another Kraang stepped in and said, "Kraang did not report for vitamin infusion," to him.

 

"Oh, right," said Raph nervously while trying to keep up the Kraang speech. "Kraang must have forgot."

 

The two Kraang exchanged glances, before one turned to him and said pointedly, "Kraang never forget."

 

Raph gulped as he realized that he'd given himself away. "This is all a big Kraang-y mistake, seriously," he said nervously, grabbing his still glitching arm to keep it still, and backing away from the two aliens nervously.

 

But the Kraang just followed after him. "Kraang, you are ordered to exit the human construct and be analyzed," said one firmly.

 

Even if Raph knew how to pop out of the metal body (which he didn't), there was no way he was letting these brain squids analyze him. That was just asking for him to get caught.

 

Hoping he could still talk his way out of it, Raph asked, "And if Kraang refuses?"

 

"Then Kraang must take necessary action to protect Kraang," said the second Kraang, who leveled the blaster it was carrying at Raph. The first Kraang followed suit, and the human turned turtle turned Kraang found himself held at gunpoint and trapped between them.

 

"Destroy the defective Kraang," ordered the second Kraang, and both blasters powered up to do just that.

 

Desperately, Raph smacked both aliens with his glitching arm, and bolted for the door. "I'm out of here!" he yelled.

 

Only to yelp in pain as he felt the laser fire pepper his back, and make him fall to the ground.

 

With the body no longer responding to any movement Raph tried to do, he found himself ejected from the stomach to a world that was suddenly much larger than it had before ( _'so that's what that feels like')_ , and the two Kraang still pointing their blasters at his face.

 

With no time to even think about it, Raph leaped for the door, and scurried down the hallway as fast as his little tentacles could carry him (and mentally filing the fact he had freaking  _tentacles_ under 'Things to not think about EVER').

 

Bolting down the hallways of TCRI to get away from his pursuers, he caught sight of a mechanical door sliding closed, and darted into it a mere second before it shut completely.

 

Outside, he heard the sound of the Kraang chasing him run past the room, thinking they were still on his tail.

 

Raph let out a heavy sigh of relief, and turned to look at the room he was in.

 

Only to yelp in fear when he saw that it was crowded with more Kraang androids.

 

Holding up his tentacles (do not think about it,  _do not think about it_ ) defensively, Raph shouted with far more bravery than he was really feeling, "Back off Kraang! Don't make me hurt you! I  _will_  use these!"

 

But then he blinked and realized the Kraang-bots were all devoid of any aliens within them, and therefore harmless.

 

Raph stared at them for a second, before it hit him what he could use these for. Despite the fact that little extra tentacles sprouted from his head at the thought, Raph's face broke out into a wicked grin as he came up with a new plan.

 

He knew his siblings were coming for him, and he wasn't about to be some helpless brain blob when they got there.

 

Just then he heard the building's alarms go off, and a Kraang voice announce that TCRI was under attack, and called reinforcements to the lobby.

 

Raph's smirk grew as he realized what that meant, and hurried over to the nearest empty android.

 

Time to meet up with the others.

 

__________________________

 

As Leatherhead, Sir Malachi, and Metalhead threw a party downstairs in the lobby, the rest of the group and Not-Raph used their grappling hooks to get to the upper floors of TCRI, and begin searching for their brother.

 

Only to be stopped in the second hallway by a group of Kraang on their way to help with the fight in the lobby.

 

The teenagers immediately pulled out their weapons to fight as the Kraang leveled their blasters at them.

 

"Enemies known as the kids, you have been captured by the Kraang and will be destroyed," said the Kraang at the front of the group.

 

The teens tensed, but before the Kraang could open fire, another voice rang out, and a robotic hand reached up to wave above group. "Stop! Do not destroy the ones who are kids!"

 

The rest of the Hamato Clan exchanged glances at the sound of Raph's voice doing a fairly decent Kraang impression, complete with the echoing sound the androids without skin made when they spoke.

 

The Kraang who had spoken looked back at Raph as he pushed his way to the front of the group. "Kraang must destroy the kids," it said.

 

Finally reaching the front of the group, and moving to stand between his siblings and the aliens, Raph said quickly, "No, Kraang must transport kids for brain-switching with Kraang, by order of Kraang Prime. The rest of Kraang must go downstairs to help with intruders."

 

The Kraang all stared at him for a minute, but in the end they bought it. They then slowly turned and began to walk away, Raph shooing them on as they went.

 

Once the group was out of sight, Raph heaved a sigh of relief, and turned to the others. "You guys are lame. How could you get captured so easily?"

 

"Coming to save you," Leo quipped, walking over to hand Raph his sais.

 

But the leader was quickly shoved aside by Casey and Mikey, who were itching for a better look at Raph's latest new look.

 

"This is too awesome, Raph," Casey said, hilarity evident in his voice as he reached out to poke the small pink alien that was his friend. "You feel like chewing gum!"

 

Mikey was also poking Raph's Kraang form, and said with a laugh. "You're all pink and tentacle-y! Just so wrong!"

 

The poking made Raph open his alien form's eyes, and he scowled at the giggling pair. He then directed the android he was in to slap the two idiots across the face, which only halted their laughter for a second before they started again.

 

Getting annoyed by their antics, Miwa walked over and took a leaf out of her mother's book by pinching Casey on the ear, and Mikey on the cheek to stop their laughing. With them whimpering in pain she pulled them away from their brother-turned-alien.

 

Sending his sister a grateful nod, Raph moved over to Leo to get his sais back. "Well it's time to make it right," he said. "Lets move."

 

Donnie nodded before pointing down the hall and saying, "This way, I was able to find the location of the Neuro-Switcher machine in those files I grabbed from the communication orb."

 

"Then let's get this over with," said April, who had been left to guard Not-Raph, and the alien-brained turtle had been staring at her creepily. "The sooner the better."

 

"No arguments here," said Raph as Donnie led the way to the machine.

 

__________________________

 

They found the room with the Neuro-Switcher mostly deserted, since the Kraang that had been there had left to handle the mess in the lobby. There was only one working on at the machine, and it was quickly taken out by a throw of Raph's sai.

 

"Hah," Raph said as he pulled his sai out of the Kraang's head, and the little brain blob scurried away squealing. "I'm finally getting the hang of this body."

 

"Well, hopefully you wont have to be used to it for very long," said Donnie as he and Mikey hurried over to the machine.

 

Donnie looked over the twin panels of complicated controls, felt completely lost. But Mikey just cracked his knuckles and sauntered over to look at it with a confident expression. "Piece of cake," the youngest said brightly, not noticing the annoyed glance Donnie shot him.

 

"Well, hurry up," said Leo as he watched the door where the Kraang had fled. "No doubt that Kraang went to get reinforcements. Plus, I don't want to leave LH and the others fighting against all of TCRI for too long."

 

"On it," said Mikey, and he immediately began pressing several buttons on the machine.

 

It immediately began to whirr as it started up, and the arms of the machine turned to point at the group.

 

"Ready… aim…" Mikey muttered to himself as he fiddled with the machine, regardless of how it was making his siblings nervous. The he mashed his hand on the final button and yelled "FIRE!"

 

Pink blasts shot from the machine's arms, but instead of switching Raph back, it instead struck the foreheads of Casey and April, who both yelped as they were hit.

 

The others gaped in shock as this happened, unable to believe their eyes.

 

When 'April' opened her eyes again, she looked down and a silly grin spread across her face. "Cool," said Casey's voice out of her mouth as he twisted around to get a better look at the body he was in.

 

'Casey' let out a sound of disgust at the sight, and snapped in April's voice, "Stop checking yourself out, Casey!" She then turned give Mikey a death glare. "Switch us back  _Right Now!"_

 

"Piece of cake, huh?" asked Donnie dryly.

 

Mikey wilted and reached for the controls again. "Sorry, this thing's super hard to aim. I'll fix it."

 

"Maybe I should try," said Donnie, moving over to help.

 

"No, I got it," Mikey, but Donnie's pushing knocked against the controls, and the pink blasts only half hit their proper targets.

 

Raph opened his eyes and looked down to see glove-clad human hands, and heard a loud crash as whoever was now in the Kraang suit fell over from the numbness of the limbs.

 

"YOU IDIOTS!" shrieked Miwa's voice from the Kraang body, making both of the little brothers cringe, and Leo sidle away from all of them and closer to the control panel to avoid getting hit by the next blast.

 

"Yup," Raph said from Miwa's body. "Worst day  _ever!"_

 

"It was his fault!" Donnie and Mikey said in unison, both pointing at each other as they said so.

 

"I don't care who's fault it is," snapped Leo. "Just fix it so we can get out of here!"

 

To emphasize his statement, Leo jabbed his finger at the machine. But he underestimated the distance, and accidentally hit a button to make the machine go haywire.

 

Immediately two more streams of pink light blasted out, hitting Leo and Mikey on the foreheads.

 

Leo, unused to the weight and balance of being a turtle immediately fell on his shell, and Mikey scowled at them all from their leader’s body. "Would you guys just let me do my job!" he shouted in exasperation. "I'm the Kraang genius here, let me be genius-y!"

 

Donnie, the only one still in his own body, held up his hands sheepishly, and backed away from the controls slowly.

 

Just then the doors flew open, and Kraang started pouring in with blasters.

 

"Oh just what we need," said Leo as he braced himself against the machine to stay upright. Glancing over at Mikey, he said, "Can you be genius-y fast, we all need to get switched back stat! Everyone else, take the Kraang down!"

 

Mikey gave his own body a salute, and jumped back on the machine's controls. Everyone else but Miwa and Leo dove into the fray, and the latter two attempted to get up and move in these unfamiliar bodies.

 

As the only one not swapped, Donnie was doing the most damage against the Kraang. Though Raph was not familiar with his sister's limitations, his previous knowledge of using a tantō came in handy as he fought back as well. Casey and April were doing the best they could, even though they were unused to each other's weapons, and there was not enough time to switch them around.

 

Mikey, meanwhile, was fiddling with the controls on the Neuro-Switcher. Then he shot a grin at the immobile Leo and Miwa, who had taken shelter next to him after finding themselves too useless to fight. "Got it!" he chirped, and fired up the machine once more.

 

The pink light once again hit Raph and Miwa on their temples, switching the two back.

 

Miwa grinned ferociously under her scarf when she found herself in the middle of the fray, and began wailing on the Kraang around her.

 

Raph, back in the Kraang body, was less than pleased as he pushed himself back to his feet. "Why'd you stick me back in this thing?" he asked angrily.

 

Mikey kept working on the machine to switch the others back. "Sorry, bro, but I was kinda worried what Armonia would do to me if I didn't get her first."

 

Raph glanced into the fight where Miwa was hacking the aliens to bits with a sort of malicious glee in her eyes. "Good point," he admitted grudgingly, before spinning his sais and running to join the fight.

 

The next bolts of pink light struck Mikey and Leo, putting the two of them back in their own bodies as well.

 

When Leo opened his eyes, and found himself in front of the control panel, he quickly beat a hasty retreat to avoid what happened last time he'd touched it. "Thanks, Tenshi," he said quickly as Mikey moved to take his place.

 

Mikey sent him a grin, and worked at the machine while Leo ran to join the fight.

 

In the midst of the battle, none of the Hamato Clan noticed that a stray laser blast hit Not-Raph, freeing him from his chains. The Kraang turned turtle surveyed the scene before him with a disinterested expression, before catching sight of Raph fighting against some other Kraang in his body. His eyes narrowed, and he started to make his way through the crowd to get him. "Kraang will have his revenge against kids," he said as he pulled his gag off his mouth.

 

When Raph spotted his own body coming towards him holding a blaster, he snarled, "You!"

 

"One called, Iyasa," said the Kraang emotionlessly as he fired up the blaster.

 

"I'm gonna knock you straight out of my body," snapped Raph.

 

And with that the two ran at each other, and began to fight.

 

"Tenshi! Hurry up!" yelled Raph as he disarmed the blaster from his own hands. "I don't want to beat up myself!"

 

"I'm on it!" yelled Mikey as he worked to aim the Switcher at the two of them. But it was a bit harder to do when both targets were moving. "Dudes! Stop moving!"

 

But Raph was too caught up in his fight to hear him. With a kick, he knocked the mind swapped Kraang flat on his shell, and dove at him with his sai. At the last second, he caught himself. "Wait!" he yelled in realization. I can't stab myself!"

 

But that was all the time it took for the Kraang to reach over and reclaim his blaster, and use it to shoot Raph's android's head off.

 

Raph yelled as he was once again ejected from the robot body, and stared worriedly up at the blaster being leveled at him by Not-Raph.

 

"The kid known as Iyasa will never be a turtle again," said Not-Raph as the blaster charged up. "Prepare to be exterminated."

 

Seeing this, Mikey quickly slammed his hands onto the controls, sending the pink light shooting at his brother and the Kraang.

 

Both froze as the light took effect, before collapsing to the ground once it finished.

 

Raph had never been so happy to see green three-fingered hands when he reopened his eyes. "Hey! You did it, Tenshi! I'm back!" he called down with a relieved laugh, before kissing his own hands in joy.

 

Catching sight of the little Kraang he'd been switched with, his expression turned sour, and he stopped it from escaping by planting his foot on one of its tentacles. "Oh no you don't," he said angrily as he reached down and snatched the alien off the ground. "Time for some payback! I call this, Plan One!" With that he smacked the Kraang like a paddleball, before kicking it away.

 

Meanwhile, Mikey had finally lined the final body swapped pair up, and shot the lights at April and Casey, switching the two back to themselves.

 

"Finally!" cheered April in relief, not noticing that Casey looked slightly disappointed about the swap.

 

With everyone back in their own bodies, Leo ordered, "Alright! Tenshi, sabotage that thing, and let's go!"

 

Mikey grinned and twirled his nunchucks, but Donnie walked over and said, "May I?"

 

Mikey nodded and gave a small bow, "Most certainly, dear brother" he said in a fake British accent.

 

Donnie twirled his naginata, and stabbed it through the base of the Neuro-Switcher, making it spark and beep frantically. "Done and done!" he called as he bolted for the exit, the rest right on his heels.

 

The Kraang still left in the room after the fight looked up at the machine, and one managed to say "Aw Kraang," before the whole room exploded.

 

On the first floor of TCRI, the Kraang fighting Leatherhead and the others in the lobby all stopped when they heard an explosion rock the building from up above.

 

A few seconds later, the elevator door opened, and out poured the rest of the teenagers.

 

"Hey, Kraang!" called Leo with a wide grin. "Your thirty-fifth floor just exploded, you might want to get on that before the rest of the building burns down, you, know,  _again!"_

 

The Kraang all exchanged glances, before those that could still do so hurried towards the stairs and elevator to fix the problem, leaving the Hamato Clan a clear exit.

 

"Let's go," said Leo as he led the others out the door and into the Shellraiser.

 

From the driver's seat, Jason looked Raph over skeptically. "Look amigos, I'm going nowhere 'til I see solid proof Iyasa's not a bogus poser again."

 

Raph smirked. "You want proof, huh?" he said.

 

He then grabbed Mikey in a headlock, and said, "Say it!"

 

Mikey squirmed and wailed, "Dude! Why?"

 

"'Cause you stuck me in Mi's body, now  _say it!"_

 

Mikey let out a resigned sigh, and recited, "Raphael is all wise and powerful."

 

"And…"

 

"And he's better than me in every possible way."

 

_"And…"_

 

Jason let out a laugh at the sight. That was definitely Raph alright. He then started up the Shellraiser and drove them all home.

 

__________________________

 

Back at the dojo, Donnie was searching through the files he and Metalhead had stolen from the Kraang while Raph regaled them with all that he went through in TCRI.

 

He finished his tale by saying, "And now it's good to be back in the ol' red and green," he said brightly, flexing his muscles and not even caring that he hadn't been born a turtle. But then his face fell, and he continued, "And, uh, guys, thanks."

 

At the last word, Donnie stopped his research, and everyone stared at Raph in shock (except for Tang Shen, who smiled proudly at him).

 

"Did he just say…?" Mikey asked in surprise.

 

"I think he did," agreed Leo, looking equally befuddled.

 

Ignoring their surprise at his gratitude, Raph sighed and added, "I just wish I could have taken out more of TCRI.  _But_  I did catch a glimpse of the Kraang's invasion plan. They've go thousands of soldiers ready to go."

 

The rest of the team looked worried, knowing that they wouldn't be able to fight an entire army on their own.

 

Like all kids in need of guidance, Leo turned to his parents for answers. "So how will we stop them?" he asked.

 

Tang Shen and Yoshi exchanged glances, not really having an answer that would satisfy those looking to them for help.

 

"As I said before," said Yoshi, stroking his beard as he spoke. "A solution will arise in time."

 

"And who knows, I may find that solution in these files I got," Donnie piped up. "Not to mention, Metalhead and I have been working on plans for a little side project for awhile now that just might do the trick.

 

With a flourish, Donnie pulled up an image on his computer screen and showed it to the others.

 

The image was a blueprint of a giant turtle-shaped robot that was able to seat four, and was armed to the teeth.

 

When Mikey saw it, he beamed at his immediate older brother. "Donnie, you are an even bigger genius than I am."

 

Donnie could only smile proudly, and begin going over his plans with them all.

 

__________________________

 

Back at TCRI, the Kraang that Raph had switched with was in a new android, and standing in front of the video screen to speak to Kraang Prime.

 

"Then Kraang's strange behavior was because Kraang was not Kraang, but the kid known as Iyasa pretending to be Kraang," said Kraang Prime.

 

"Kraang Prime is what is known as 'correct'," said the Kraang.

 

"Was Kraang able to gather information from the switching of superior Kraang mind with lowly kid mind that Kraang may use to destroy the kids?" asked Kraang Prime.

 

"Kraang did discover information that will be beneficial to Kraang," said the Kraang. "Kraang found that the one known as Iyasa is really the one known as 'Raph'. Kraang observed the faces of those that are allies of the kids, and found their identities on that which is called 'Facebook'."

 

With that, the Kraang pulled up both Jason and Casey's facebook pages on the screen.

 

Kraang Prime smirked sinisterly. "Then search these 'Facebooks' to find the identities of the kids, and prepare to set that which is known as 'a trap'."

 

"And should Kraang inform the one called the Shredder of this information?" asked the Kraang.

 

Kraang Prime was silent as he contemplated that idea. "No," he said finally. "The one known as the Shredder will not be informed of this information. It may prove useful for Kraang to use it to barter with the one known as the Shredder at a later time."

 

The Kraang nodded in agreement, and the video shut off, leaving the alien to scan though the pictures on the social media site.

 

Pulling up a class picture of all the kids in Casey and Jason's grade and studying it, the Kraang said, "This image has what is known as 'possibilities'."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love a good mind switch episode. They're just full of so much awkward funny-ness. I also tried to add a little more brain-switching, just because there wasn't really enough of it in the actual show, as well as my headcanon why Raph had such a hard time in the Kraang body. What do you think?


	33. A Mother's Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Shredder's plan is ready, now all he needs is for his prey to walk into the trap.

Within Buzzkill's lab, the fly mutant was hard at work completing the task that the Shredder had set for him. The ninja master had ordered a very specific mixture of mutagen to be made, though for what purpose, he still did not know.

 

"Whatever you require, I can create it," muttered Buzzkill to himself, practicing his speech to the Shredder to avoid getting on his bad side again. "More mutagen, a few chemicalsss. And so-"

 

"STOCKMAN!" came the Shredder's voice from the door to his lab, making the fly jump and knock his latest attempt at retro-mutagen into the beaker he'd been working on.

 

"Oops," he muttered as he saw the mess. "That ssshould be okay."

 

He then turned to greet his master and Tiger Claw, who had followed behind him. "Massster SSShredder."

 

"Is the mutagen ready?" the Shredder asked, his tone making it clear that any answer other than yes would be met with pain.

 

Fortunately, despite his spill, the mutagen was indeed ready. "Prepared to your ssspecifications," said Buzzkill as he flew up to dump his beaker into his repaired mutagen vat. "The ssserpent DNA is ready."

 

"Good," said the Shredder as he observed the vat with a mad gleam in his eye.

 

"Master, if I may ask?" said Tiger Claw hesitantly, an eye patch over what used to be his left eye being the stark reminder of what happened when he last displeased the Shredder. "Why did you wish to have this mutagen made?"

 

The Shredder spared him a glance, before saying, "I intend to lure the Hamato Clan here. Once that is done, I will drop Hamato Yoshi into the mutagen, transforming him into the mindless and treacherous serpent he is on the inside."

 

The Shredder made his way over to the cage containing the snake that Buzzkill had used to get his snake DNA. Without taking his eyes off the serpent he continued, "Once Tang Shen and her children see the monster that Hamato Yoshi truly is, they will come to me willingly. And then…" With a lightning fast strike, the Shredder stabbed through the cage bars, and stuck the serpent in the neck. The snake writhed and hissed until it finally fell dead on the floor of the cage. "… I will put my old rival out of his misery once and for all."

 

Buzzkill gulped at the sight of the dead snake, and hid himself behind the mutagen vat. Tiger Claw winced at the sight as well, but quickly schooled his features.

 

"And how do you intend to lure them here?" Tiger Claw asked carefully.

 

The Shredder glanced at him, before turning his attention to a cage dangling above the vat. "We will need to gather the proper bait," he said ominously.

 

Buzzkill shuddered again. "Glad I'm not them," he hissed to Tiger Claw.

 

The feline mutant made no reply, but inwardly, he agreed with the fly wholeheartedly.

 

___________________

 

Donnie sat in the living room while Leo and the rest of his siblings watched one of their old favorite shows, Super Robo Mecha Force Five. But unlike the others, he was paying no attention to the TV screen, but was instead reading through the files from the ones he'd stolen from the Kraang, looking for some clue as to how to stop the invasion.

 

The genius then frowned as he read through his latest page of data.

 

"Hey guys!" he called, bringing him to the other's attention. "Check this out."

 

He handed his laptop to Leo and explained as the leader looked through it.

 

"According to that file, the Shredder ordered a large supply of mutagen with some specific modifications made to it," he said. "I'm not sure what those modifications are for, but-"

 

"But knowing Shredder, it can't be anything good," said Raph cynically.

 

Donnie nodded in agreement. "Plus, after the Kraang sent it, there's a note saying that Shredder intended to have Buzzkill alter it even more after they got it. Who knows what that mangled fly could be mixing it for. All the notes say that the end result is supposed to be used against  _us_."

 

His siblings exchanged glances at the news.

 

"We'll need to find out what he's up to," said Leo firmly, handing Donnie back his laptop.

 

"But how?" asked Miwa. "It's not like we can just knock on his door and ask politely."

 

"Yeah," agreed Raph dryly. "That just sounds like a good way to get stabbed in the face."

 

Leo tapped his chin thoughtfully, then glanced back at the TV screen. On it Dr. Blip and the Princess were wearing disguises to infiltrate a popular villain hideout to eaves drop on their enemies' plans.

 

Snapping his fingers, Leo said, "That's it!" Looking at the others he said, "We'll stake out Shredder's lair in disguise. That way we can spy on the Foot, and Shredder won't see us coming."

 

His siblings glanced at the TV, then Leo, then back at the TV.

 

"And here I thought you'd finally stopped getting your plans from cartoons," said Miwa in exasperation, remembering how Leo had tried to model his leadership tactics after Space Heroes at the beginning.

 

Leo frowned at their skepticism. "Look, it's too dangerous to sneak into Foot HQ when we don't even know what we're looking for. This is the best way we can get information, and not get hurt in the process."

 

The others exchanged glances, and shrugged, conceding his point.

 

___________________

 

"Explain to me again why  _I_ have to pretend to be  _his_ girlfriend," Miwa hissed into her phone a few hours later as she and Casey Jones wore disguises and pretended to be on a date at the coffee shop across the street from Shredder's Lair.

 

"Because it's about as opposite as who you really are as you can be," Leo replied from where he was pretending to be a window cleaner on the other side of the building. "After all, we don't want Shredder to know its us."

 

Miwa scowled into her coffee, and Casey looked slightly sour too.

 

Even so, the two had to admit, Leo had a point. With Miwa's long dark wig, and lack of her usual heavy makeup, and Casey's blond wig and false teeth, they really didn't look like themselves, and pretending to be a couple only sealed the deal.

 

The rest of the still human group was scattered around Shredder's lair, milling around, and pretending to be part of the scenery.

 

Leo wore a hat and overalls as he sprayed the windows along his building, all the while keeping an eye on the old church.

 

Donnie and April were also acting as a couple stargazing on another roof (as impossible as it was in New York), though in actuality their telescope was trained on Foot HQ rather than the sky. Donnie was wearing a pair of coke bottle glasses and a floppy hat to disguise himself, and April wore a short black wig, and a goth-like outfit to hide her identity.

 

On the streets below, Jason was also in on the action, skateboarding around the building, and doing various tricks on the railings and steps nearby. Like many of the others, he wore a red-haired wig under his helmet, and sunglasses even though it was dark.

 

Mikey and Raph had been unable to disguise themselves properly (aside from some tacky female disguises that Mikey had come up with, but Raph quickly vetoed), and had to sit out of this mission, much to their disappointment. Instead they were in the Shellraiser a few blocks away in case an emergency escape was needed.

 

Thus far, it was looking to be a quiet night. Not a Foot-Bot in sight, much less any of Shredder's flunkies.

 

After about an hour, Raph called and said, "Is something happening and you guys just aren't telling me? Because if I have to stay here with Mikey for much longer, I'm gonna break something."

 

"What'd I do?" asked Mikey indignantly.

 

"You're singing aloud to your music, and it's driving me nuts."

 

"Please don't break anything in the Shellraiser," said Donnie over the phone worriedly.

 

"Raph does have a point," said Jason. "I've already nailed grinding that rail thirty times. Nothing's happening."

 

Leo sighed. "Just be patient you guys, you can't expect something exciting to happen right away."

 

"Need I point out to you, little brother, that you're on the last window of that building. If you just stick around after that, it'll kinda be suspicious," said Miwa.

 

Leo sighed in defeat as he realized she had a point. "Alright guys, just let me finish this window, and we'll call it a night," he said.

 

He pretended not to hear the cheering coming through his phone speakers at that announcement.

 

But just as Leo gave the final wipe to his window, the sound of motors roared down the streets as the Shredder, Tiger Claw, and an entire gang of Foot-Bots came driving down the street on motorcycles.

 

"These guys are ninjas, right?" asked April. "That's not really all that subtle of an entrance."

 

"According to some research I did, the Shredder has bought off some of the police force, so whenever reports of ninjas on motorcycles come in, they get ignored," Donnie replied.

 

"Great," said Raph sarcastically. "So now even the police are on his side?"

 

As they watched, the motorcycles turned into the alley next to the church, and as they watched, the Foot dismounted, and the Shredder seemed to be talking to Tiger Claw about something.

 

"Can anyone hear what they're saying?" Leo asked softly.

 

"No," said Jason, who was the closest. "They're too quiet, and if I get closer they'll spot me."

 

Miwa frowned when she heard that and stood up from her and Casey's table, tossing some money on it as she did so and shutting off her phone.

 

Casey stared up at her in confusion. "What are you doing?" he asked.

 

"Getting a better look," she said bluntly, before grabbing his wrist, and dragging him towards the alley.

 

Casey started to protest, but quickly shut up at a glare from the kunoichi.

 

The two slipped quietly in the alley, and hid behind a dumpster to listen in on the Foot.

 

"-Nd how do you hope to gather the bait you will need, Master Shredder," Tiger Claw was saying.

 

"In due time, Tiger Claw," said the Shredder. "And once we have it, our plan may proceed."

 

Casey and Miwa both leaned forward to hear more about the plan, but Casey's head accidentally knocked against a box stacked on top of the dumpster, making it topple over and fall to the ground with a loud thump.

 

Immediately the Foot turned their attention to their direction. "Who's there?" the Shredder demanded.

 

Casey shot Miwa a look, knowing they wouldn't be able to escape the alley before they were caught.

 

But Miwa only took a second to make a disgusted face, before grabbing Casey by the front of his shirt and hissing, "This is  _just_  a fake-out make-out, clear."

 

Then she yanked him towards her, and kissed him on the lips.

 

Casey was so stunned by the fact he was currently kissing Miwa, that before he could wrap his head around it he felt himself be yanked away from her.

 

He gave Tiger Claw a stupid grin. "We just came here to make-out," he said in a daze.

 

 

Miwa, meanwhile, was screaming her head off, and pretending to be an average citizen who was seeing a mutant for the first time.

 

She grabbed Casey's hand and dragged him away from Tiger Claw to the entrance of the alley to escape.

 

But in an instant, the Shredder was in front of them, glaring down at them with a stony expression. "Hello Karai," he said, looking Miwa directly in the eyes.

 

Not even taking a second to wonder how he had recognized her, Miwa threw a shuriken at the Shredder's face, and tried to duck around him.

 

But the Shredder was too fast, and in a flash he grabbed her by her wrist, and punched her in the stomach hard enough to knock her out.

 

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" shouted Casey, barreling towards the ninja master to get her back.

 

But before he could, Tiger Claw's fist slammed into is side, and sent him hurtling into the alley wall.

 

Groaning in pain, Casey looked up to see Tiger Claw lifting him by the collar of his shirt.

 

"Tell her family that if they ever want to see her again, have her parents and sibling and none else come to Stockman's lab, or else her brothers will no longer be the only  _freaks_  in the family," growled the tiger.

 

He then threw Casey out of the alley, and the hockey nut crashed into Jason, who had been coming to help.

 

Before either could get to their feet, the Foot Clan was back on their motorcycles, and driving off into the night, taking the unconscious Miwa with them.

 

A second later, Leo, Donnie, and April arrived from their own lookout spots to stare helplessly in the direction they had gone. Raph and Mikey arrived a second later in the Shellraiser, looking equally disheartened.

 

"What are we gonna tell Mom and Dad?" asked Mikey, summing up what they all were thinking.

 

___________________

 

Needless to say, both Yoshi and Tang Shen were furious when they heard what had happened.

 

"Clearly this is a trap," said Yoshi gravely, his eyes flashing in anger over the news he had received. "But I do not see how we can stand by. Not when Miwa is at stake."

 

He then turned to Tang Shen, but she held up a hand to stop him before he even opened his mouth. "I know what you are going to say, my love, and no. I will not stay behind for this."

 

"But-" Yoshi started to say.

 

Seeing that her husband still wanted to protest, she continued, "The Shredder's demands were very clear. He wants the both of us there. If I stay, who knows what he could do to our daughter. Or to you."

 

Yoshi looked pained by the idea, but knew she was right. Drawing her close to him, he whispered, "Just promise me you will come home with the rest of us."

 

"You have my word," said Shen, hugging him back tightly.

 

Reluctantly pulling away, Yoshi turned to their four waiting sons. "Let's go save my daughter."

 

___________________

 

Miwa awoke to the sensation of being carried like a sack of potatoes. She groaned and opened her eyes to see that Tiger Claw had her hefted over one shoulder, and was trailing behind the Shredder.

 

The kunoichi immediately began struggling to get free. But Tiger Claw only tightened his grip on her, and growled, "It is useless to try to escape."

 

The Shredder then turned to look when he heard she was awake, and Miwa sent him the most hateful glare she could manage. "How did you know it was me?" she snarled.

 

The Shredder scoffed. "You really thought I would not recognize you without you ninja garb?" he asked. He then reached out, and trailed a hand through the long black wig that Miwa was miraculously still wearing. "You are the splitting image of your mother. There was never a doubt about your identity."

 

Miwa tried to bite his hand as it passed by her face, and was internally relieved that if he recognized her as she was now, he may not when she went back to her usual look.

 

The Shredder slapped her for her attempt at biting him, and before Miwa recovered from the blow, Tiger Claw threw her into a small coffin-shaped cage, and strapped her inside it, gagging her with a piece of tape as he did so.

 

As Miwa struggled to get free, she felt the cage being lifted high into the air, and froze in fear as she realized where she was.

 

She was back in Buzzkill's lab. The cage she was in was dangling from a chain over the new vat of mutagen her clan had been investigating. Remembering what she'd overhear earlier, she suddenly had a sinking feeling she knew exactly what Shredder's bait was.

 

She also doubted that she would be immune to mutagen like April was. If she fell…

 

"You are more ruthless than I thought," Tiger Claw said, drawing her attention to the ground rather than the mutagen directly below her. "Purposefully mutating your mate's cub."

 

"I have no intention of mutating her," said the Shredder. "She is bait. The only one to be mutated tonight is Hamato Yoshi."

 

Hearing this, Miwa began struggling even harder against her bonds. Who knew what Shredder had done to that mutagen, and if it was for her father, it couldn't be anything good.

 

Unfortunately, all she managed to do was make her cage swing back and forth above the vat.

 

Suddenly, Tiger Claw's ears perked up, and he said, "I smell the snake."

 

Then in a flash he drew his laser pistol and sent a blast in the direction the sent came from.

 

The laser lit up the ceiling for a brief moment, revealing Yoshi standing their looking down at them all, before leaping down to stand before his enemies.

 

His sons also dropped from their hiding places (Raph landing on Buzzkill in the process), leaving Tang Shen hidden up above with her crossbow, and a grappling gun to help keep her from being a stationary target.

 

"Welcome, my old friend," Shredder said to Yoshi mockingly.

 

But Yoshi was in no mood for games. "Let my daughter go," he demanded coldly.

 

Above them, Miwa struggled harder than ever, and tried to yell through her gag that it was a trap.

 

"You are welcome to rescue her," the Shredder replied evenly, "if you can."

 

Instantly the lab swarmed with shadows as Foot-Bots crawled from their hiding places to surround them.

 

Like lightning, Hamato Yoshi shot forward, and pulled a hidden blade from his walking stick to fight with. Leaping at the Shredder, the two resumed the fight they had began in the subways months before.

 

His sons followed suit against the Foot-Bots, and arrows rained from above courtesy of Tang Shen.

 

When one of the arrows pierced the head of a Foot-Bot next to him, Shredder looked up and scanned the darkened rafters for the source. "Then Tang Shen  _is_  here," he said. "Good."

 

He was quickly pulled back into his own fight when Yoshi made a stab at his throat, and parried the blow with his gauntlets.

 

Meanwhile, the boys were taking out the Foot-Bots with relative ease, but then Donnie found himself stepping on something that wasn't the lab floor.

 

He only had enough time to look down, and ask, "Huh?" before a pyramid cage snapped up around him, trapping him inside in a hunched position, and making him drop his bō staff.

 

Mikey and Raph also found themselves being corralled into the cages, which were even more cramped for their mutant bodies than they were for Donnie.

 

As Yoshi broke away from his fight against the Shredder to aid his sons, many of the Foot-Bots lassoed him with ropes around his body, arms, and neck, and pulling him in all different directions. Arrows from Tang Shen tried to pierce the ropes, but they were always quickly replaced by more. To stop her from trying again, Foot-Bots began climbing up the walls after her, and keeping Tang Shen busy avoiding her own capture than to aid those below.

 

As the last one on the ground free, Leo tried to back away and think up a plan to turn this around. Only for a kick from a Foot-Bot to send him landing on his back in another cage.

 

Seeing this, Shredder turned his attention to Yoshi, thinking they were all subdued.

 

Fortunately for Leo, his sword got caught in the top of the cage, keeping it from closing completely.

 

Prying himself free, he bolted past the remaining Foot-Bots, and grabbed a chain on a pulley near the mutagen vat. Slicing through its anchor, Leo shot up to Miwa's cage, and landed on top of it with a 'clang!'

 

Pulling her gag off, he couldn't resist saying, "I have to say, the damsel in distress thing is not a good look for you, Nee-chan."

 

Miwa rolled her eyes at him. "Shut up and get me out of here," she snapped.

 

Just then a shout of "RAION!" came from their father below, and Leo looked up just in time to see the Shredder flying towards him.

 

Landing on the cage next to him, the Shredder grabbed Leo by the throat, and held him up despite the protests of the rest of the Hamato Clan.

 

Glaring at Leo hatefully, Shredder said, "It seems you are far too much like your father to be of any use to me, boy! Perhaps it would be best if you join him in his fate."

 

Leo's eyes widened as he saw the Shredder raise his clawed gauntlet and brought it down towards his throat. Acting quickly, Leo kicked both of his feet into the Shredder's gut, propelling him away from the mad man, and causing the Shredder to cut through the chain holding up Miwa's cage instead.

 

The result had Leo falling one way, the Shredder falling another, and Miwa on a direct course for the vat below.

 

"ARMONIA!" shouted her family from the ground below as they watched helplessly as she fell.

 

Miwa screamed in terror as she plummeted towards the ooze.

 

Only for her cage stop jerk to a stop inches from the mutagen.

 

The trapped kunoichi blinked in surprise as she stared at the ooze inches from her face, then craned her neck to look up, and gaped at what she saw.

 

Tang Shen was standing upon the rafter directly above her. She had used the grappling gun that Donnie had given her to hook onto the cage, and keep it from landing in the mutagen just in time. The woman's arms shook as she as she strained to bare the weight of her daughter and the cage as she slowly began to rock it back and forth until she was finally able to fling the cage away from the vat.

 

Miwa landed hard on the ground, and she gritted her teeth as her prison rattled on impact, but she would live, and not as some mutant. Leo quickly ran over to finish freeing his sister, and pulling her from the cage.

 

The girl looked up to shoot her mother a look of immense gratitude, which quickly turned to a look of horror as she screamed, "LOOK OUT!"

 

Tang Shen only had enough time to glance up and see a Foot-Bot come rushing towards her. The robot slammed into her, and she tumbled from the rafter towards the vat below.

 

And this time, there was no one there to catch her…

 

" ** _SHEN!"_**  roared Yoshi from below as he watched his beloved splash into the mutagen.

 

"MOMMY!" wailed Mikey, his eyes wide with horror.

 

"MOTHER, NO!" shouted Raph as he struggled fiercely to get free of his cage to save her.

 

"MOM!" yelled Donnie, searching desperately for her through the green glow for her.

 

Even the Shredder looked horrified as he saw Shen disappear beneath the green liquid. "Shen," he whispered hoarsely as he crouched along the rim of the vat.

 

As Leo and Miwa huddled together next to the vat, they were horrified to glimpse their mother's hand come to rest against the glass of the mutagen, before it was pulled away, and something long and scaly swam past.

 

But Leo knew one thing for sure. This was all his fault. It was his plan that got them into this mess, and now his mother…

 

Finally, a creature crawled her way out of the mutagen, and went tumbling towards the ground below.

 

Wasting no time, Splinter yanked himself free from the ropes, and bolted forward to catch his wife as she fell.

 

Behind him, Miwa freed her siblings from their cages, and Leo frantically ran over to his parents.

 

The lead teen gasped as he took in the sight of what his mother had become.

 

When he and his siblings had been young, his mother used to read them stories from mythology from all over the world. One of Leo's favorites had been the Greek myth about Perseus and the adventures he'd had.

 

Recalling those stories, there was only one way her could describe what his mother looked like now.

 

Medusa.

 

Tang Shen's once beautiful long black hair had been replaced with a writing nest of dark indigo snakes. Her face retained a semblance of her original self, only now it was pale white, smooth, and covered in scales. From her partially opened mouth, he could see a forked tongue and long fangs. Where her nose had been was a pair of small slits, and the minimal makeup she'd been wearing had seemed to have seeped into her scales for the only color on her pale white face.

 

The rest of her was just as unnerving. The dark blue gi she had been wearing was in tatters over her body, creating a stark contrast to the milky white scales that covered her. Where her legs used to be was a long serpent-like tail with a sharp arrow like tip at the end. Her hand were still human shaped, but now sported long knife like fingernails that were curled in the shape of fangs.

 

"My love," Yoshi whispered with a heart-broken expression on his face as he held her tightly in his arms.

 

Suddenly, Shen's eyes snapped open, and Leo only had enough time to see that they had turned to mutagen green slits, before Shen wrenched herself free from Yoshi's grip, and shoved him away with her tail.

 

Leo jumped back as his mother let out a feral sounding hiss in his direction, before she dove at a Foot-Bot that had been trying to sneak up on him, and tearing it to pieces before moving on to the other Foot-Bots in the room, leaving destruction in her wake.

 

One of the mangled Foot-Bots fell sparking next to a leaking barrel of oil and kegs of gas, which exploded and quickly set the whole lab ablaze.

 

"No! My Lab!" wailed Buzzkill as more and more of it caught fire. But the fire quickly became too high, and he fled out a window in terror.

 

Meanwhile, the Shredder was making his way towards Yoshi despite the flames. "You, Hamato Yoshi!" he bellowed as he drew the blades on his gauntlets. "YOU DID THIS!"

 

He then made to run at Yoshi to fight to the death, but before he could the roof collapsed and blocked him off from his hated rival.

 

" ** _NO!"_** Shredder roared as he was once again trapped away from finishing this vendetta once and for all.

 

Despite the blaze growing ever closer to him, he continued to search for a way through to resume the fight, and likely would have continued to do so if it had not been for Tiger Claw.

 

"Master Shredder!" Tiger Claw said, running up to him. "We must go!"

 

But the Shredder shoved him away, and continued to look for a way around the debris. "Leave me!" he snapped.

 

"Hamato Yoshi  _will_ suffer for what has happened today," said Tiger Claw, trying to reason with him. "You have  _won!_ "

 

The look the Shredder gave Tiger Claw made it clear that if the mutant hadn't been out of his reach at that moment, the feline would have lost his other eye then and there.  _"WON?"_ he spat, as if anything about this could possibly be considered a victory.

 

He then looked up to see Tang Shen perched on the rim of the mutagen vat, manically ripping apart a Foot-Bot head, and letting out a hissing crow of victory.

 

Pulling off his faceplate, the Shredder vowed, "I shall avenge you, my beloved." Then he finally followed Tiger Claw out of the burning building.

 

On the other side of the collapsed ceiling, Donnie yelled, "We gotta get out of here!"

 

"We need to get Mother first!" Leo called back, looking for some way to coax her down from her perch.

 

Raph ran to the base of the vat, and called up, "Mother! We gotta go!  _Now!"_

 

But Tang Shen ignored him, to intent on further mangling her Foot-Bot head.

 

"Shen, Please!" Yoshi shouted, but she ignored him as well.

 

Suddenly, Donnie let out a cry as a portion of the ceiling fell on top of him, trapping his ankle, and pinning him dangerously close to the flames.

 

"DONNIE!" yelled Miwa in alarm, and she and Raph rushed forward to free him.

 

Only to be beaten there by a flash of white and blue.

 

Before their eyes, the serpentine Tang Shen used her tail to flip the debris off of her son, snatched Donatello up, and carried him out of the building in a matter of seconds, barely giving the purple wearing ninja a chance to yelp in surprise.

 

The rest of the family took off after them, searching desperately for Shen and Donnie in the downpour that had started outside.

 

"You don't think she ate him, do you?" asked Mikey with a freaked out expression.

 

"No," said Leo firmly. "No matter what happens, Mother would never hurt us."

 

"We just gotta find them," agreed Miwa with a nod, yanking the now rain-soaked wig from her head and throwing it into a nearby dumpster.

 

Yoshi remained silent, still in shock from the night's occurrences. But he searched just as hard as the teens to find his mutant wife and his son.

 

"Guys! Guys! A little help over here!" came Donnie's voice a few rooftops away, making them pause. The genius didn't sound particularly panicked, just overwhelmed.

 

Feeling relieved, the others hurried towards where Donnie's voice had come from, and stopped to stare at the sight.

 

Donnie was sitting fairly rigidly on the roof, looking more than a little freaked out.

 

The reason for it was clear. Tang Shen had wrapped herself completely around Donnie's body, and seemed to be nuzzling affectionately him with her snake covered head.

 

"Ssson…" she said in a whispery sounding voice.

 

Leo sighed in relief, and pointed at them. "See, told you she wouldn't hurt us," he assured Mikey.

 

The youngest gave a weak half smile, but said nothing. Miwa slowly reached over and gave her little brother the hug he desperately needed.

 

"It's not  _too_  out there," Donnie admitted uncomfortably. "While snakes are not known for their maternal instincts, some species of pythons have been known to guard and incubate their eggs, even though doing so means they pretty much starve until their young hatch."

 

At Mikey's confused expression, Raph clarified. "Mother is still Mother, and she loves us even like this."

 

Yoshi slowly approached his wife and son. "Shen," he said in a voice barely above a whisper.

 

Tang Shen opened her eyes and looked at him, before recoiling and hissing furiously, her nest of hair writhing cloud of serpents snapping at him. There was no recognition in her face.

 

Yoshi pulled back with a heart-broken expression. "Shen," he said sadly. "Please."

 

Ever so slowly Tang Shen stopped hissing, and studied Yoshi with an odd look on her face, like she was trying to remember something. "Yossshhhiii…" she finally said in her now whispery voice.

 

Slowly she released Donnie and slithered over to Yoshi with the same odd expression on her face.

 

Then before she reached him, she collapsed to the ground, and writhed there. Raph tried to dart forward to help her, but Mikey and Leo held him back. With the way Shen's tail was thrashing, she would more likely hurt him than let him aid her.

 

Then, something in the snake mutant's appearance began to shift, until kneeling before Yoshi was Tang Shen, looking back to her human self.

 

"Whoa," whispered Miwa in awe at the sight.

 

But when Tang Shen looked up past her curtain of hair, they could all see that her skin was still scaly white, her fingernails were still claws, and her eyes, tongue, and fangs were still the same as her Medusa form.

 

"Come… home…" she hissed softly, as if struggling to get the words out. "M-my word…"

 

Yoshi gently reached down and helped Tang Shen climb unsteadily to her feet. "Yes, you gave your word, my love. To come home with us."

 

Tang Shen stared blankly back at him, clearly not comprehending what he was saying. Suddenly she jerked away from him and hissed, and didn't calm down until Raph hurried forward to hug her, and she instantly began nuzzling him like she had Donnie (though, fortunately, without changing back to her Medusa form to do so).

 

Seeing the wild look on his mother's face, Leo bowed his head and said, "This is all my fault. It was my plan that got Mi captured. I'm so sorry, Father." He waited for Yoshi to say something, anything, but there was silence. Looking back up, he asked, "Father?"

 

Yoshi continued to stare at his wife with a lost look on his face, before finally saying in a distant sounding voice, "We should go home, my children." He then turned, and without really looking at them, started walking back towards the dojo.

 

The others trailed miserably after him, Raph scooping Shen up bridal style to follow, and Shen still nuzzling him as he did so.

 

"You can make a retro-mutagen for Mom, right?" Mikey asked Donnie, his expression hopeful.

 

Donnie looked down sadly, "I don't know, Mikey," he said. "I hope so." But with who knew what Buzzkill had added to the mutagen, it could take a long time to find a cure.

 

Raph looked down at his mother in his arms, and how she gazed unblinkingly back at him with an alien expression.

 

Frowning in resolution, he burst out. "I'm not taking any retro-mutagen 'til you cure Mother."

 

The rest of the Hamatos all turned to stare at him, and even Tang Shen cocked her head curiously.

 

"I mean it," Raph said firmly. "Any retro-mutagen you make you better use to make a cure for her. Don't waste any on me until then."

 

Mikey's eyes widened, and he nodded emphatically. "Me too," he vowed, looking over at the rest as he said so. "I don't mind being a turtle that much. Plus, me and Raph are still, you know,  _us_. But Mother's not…"

 

He trailed off and looked at Shen, who was currently watching a squirrel scamper across the roof with a hungry expression.

 

"She's not Mother right now," Miwa finished for him sadly.

 

Mikey nodded.

 

"She will be," Leo vowed.

 

Donnie nodded in agreement, sharing his siblings determined looks. "If I can make a retro-mutagen for regular mutants. I can make one for her. I can do it, I know I can."

 

Yoshi had been listening to all this, and looked out into the rain with a proud if sad expression on his face.  _'See what wonderful children we have, Shen?'_ he asked his wife silently.

 

As if in response, Tang Shen leaned out to nuzzle against Donnie again, as if thanking him for the hard work he was about to do.  _'Wonderful children indeed,'_ he could almost hear her reply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again someone mutated, but was it the person you were expecting? This was a chapter I'd been planning almost since the beginning of the fic, and I had a hard time making sure I was getting it right. What do you think?


	34. When it All Fall Apart Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A date night to help Donnie destress quickly goes sour.

Things with Tang Shen only went downhill from there.

 

While their mother would have some moments of clarity in her mutated state, the majority of the time she was a semi-feral mess, acting far more like a snake than a woman. Whatever the mutagen did to her seemed to have either repaired, or made it easier to ignore her former injuries, making her more flexible and more dangerous than ever.

 

Her family managed to convert one of their secret rooms into a place for her to hide, but it was extremely unnerving for the Hamatos to need to lock her up like some kind of animal, and they were all dealing with it in different ways.

 

Yoshi was beside himself in grief, and had canceled all his classes until further notice. He spent most of the days sitting outside Tang Shen's room, overcome with guilt that he'd failed to protect her once again. He spent his time outside her room, since most of the time Shen didn't seem to recognize him, and would hiss angrily him if she felt threatened. Even so, she had never attacked him.

 

Miwa was also blaming herself for what had happened to her mother, but unlike Yoshi, she went out of her way to avoid Shen if she could help it. She was sure if she hadn't let herself be captured, this wouldn't have happened. "It should have been me," she miserably confided in Leo the morning after they'd brought Tang Shen home. "I was on a direct course for that mutagen. If she hadn't strained herself to save me, she would have been able to dodge in time."

 

Leo, who was also suffering from guilt over the events, had no words of comfort to give to his sister, and instead only hugged in an attempt to show her he didn't blame her. Since Shen's mutation, Leo was at a loss of what to do. What he'd feared had come to pass, and one of his family had been mutated into a shell of their former self. He obsessively went over the events of that day again and again to try and find what he could have done different to avoid this happening, but all he ever came up with was a blank. No matter what scenario he came up with, it didn't change what had happened, and it was making him snappish and hostile to all those around him.

 

Raph had appointed himself to be Shen's primary caretaker. It was him who never shied away from entering her room to bring food, or to just sit and talk to her to attempt to bring her back to sanity. More often then not, all he would achieve was getting caught in one of Tang Shen's constricting hugs, and sometimes would not be able to coax her to let go for hours.

 

Donnie had taken a leave of absence from school, and spent all his time sequestered in his lab with Metalhead, either working obsessively on making more retro-mutagen, or constructing his Turtle-Mech to fight off the eminent Kraang Invasion. If he could, he would have spent all his time on the retro-mutagen, but a gentle reminder from April told him that the Kraang were to make their move any day now, and they would not wait while Donnie made retro-mutagen for his mother.

 

Mikey did his best to try and keep all of their spirits up, and was Raph's assistant in caring for Tang Shen. He would always go into the room with smiles, and his arms full of photo albums to try and help Shen remember her human life, even though it was hard to turn pages with her tail coiled around him. Even so, he eventually admitted to Raph that even he was really not as cheerful as he was pretending to be.

 

Strangely, while Shen remained affectionate with all her children, it was with the two turtle mutants that she seemed to give the most attention to. Donnie speculated that is may be because their shared reptilian nature resonated more with Shen's current warped view of the world. Another theory he had was that the shape of their shells reminded her of eggs, and instilled more of a maternal instinct in her than the others.

 

Those outside the Hamato family were at a loss of what to do, but did their best to help where they could. April remained steadfastly supportive of her boyfriend, and got Metalhead to help ensured that he ate and slept at some point between all his work. Even so, she could tell he was nearing the end of his rope, and if something didn't happen soon, he would snap.

 

Casey routinely dragged Raph and Miwa out of the Dojo to bust some Purple Dragon heads in an attempt to cheer them up. But it was clear neither ninja's heart was in it. They still stopped the gang's crimes, but neither took enjoyment in the violence like they usually did.

 

Malachi and Jason decided to kidnap Mikey for an afternoon of LARPing in hopes of cheering him up. Having an epic quest in the sewers did seem to brighten the turtle up for a time, but once he came home, his good mood plummeted, and he went back to his false cheer.

 

Leatherhead found himself becoming a confidant for Yoshi, often joining him outside Shen's room, and listening quietly as the man spoke of memories of his wife, and how he had sworn to protect her after Shredder hurt her before. Even so, he could do little more than offer assurances, and try to coax the man out of his depressive slump.

 

Oddly enough, it was Slash who helped Leo most of all.

 

Leo had left the dojo to get some air, and had found himself on a rooftop a few blocks away, pacing while trying to come up with a plan to fix things, and once again obsessing over his previous mistakes.

 

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts, that he didn't even notice the giant mutant turtle arrive.

 

Slash quirked an eye ridge when he saw that Leonardo didn't seem to notice his presence. If there was one thing he knew from his years as Raph's pet, it was that Leo had a sixth sense about when someone was trying to sneak up on him. For him to not even notice that the giant turtle was standing five feet away from him meant that something is really wrong.

 

"Penny for your thoughts?" Slash said casually as he leaned against the roof access door behind Leo.

 

The ninja jumped a foot in the air, and wheeled around with a startled expression on his face, and a concealed blade in his hand.

 

Slash held up his hands in the universal signal of 'I come in peace'. "If I was here to fight, I would have beat your head in when you were muttering to yourself like a crazy person."

 

Leo scowled at the sight of the massive turtle. "What do you want, Spike?" he asked, not letting his guard down.

 

"It's Slash," Slash snapped. "And I was wondering just  _why_  you were so out of it you didn't seem me coming a mile away. I wasn't exactly being subtle."

 

Leo looked flustered that the mutant had noticed he was so distracted, but didn't give an answer.

 

Slash frowned. "Is Raphael alright?" he asked in concern. "The last time you were this worked up was after he mutated."

 

Leo reluctantly shook his head. "Raph's fine, it's just… Mother, she…"

 

Suddenly it was like the dam broke, and Leo found himself pouring his heart out to the mutant turtle about all that had happened. Tang Shen's mutation, his perceived guilt on the events, how his family seemed to falling apart as a result of all of it, and how he was trying so hard to figure out a way to fix it, but only coming up with a blank.

 

Slash had been surprised that Leo was telling him all this, but he could sense the teenager needed this, and so he kept silent. Truthfully, it brought Slash back to nostalgic memories of his days as Spike, and how Raph had used to confide everything in him.

 

By the time Leo had gotten everything off his chest, he sent Slash a confused look. "I have no idea why I told you all that," he admitted.

 

Slash shrugged nonchalantly. "I got one of those faces people spill their secrets to," he said sarcastically.

 

Remembering how Raph had always insisted Spike was a good listener, Leo nodded slowly, but still looked uncomfortable about the entire thing.

 

Seeing he was still distrustful, Slash rolled his eyes and said, "Look, I don't want to kick your ass and steal Raph away for our own crime fighting team anymore. He and the rest of you  _literally_  knocked some sense into me about that."

 

Leo's frown deepened, and he asked, "Then why  _are_  you here?"

 

"I wanted to know what was wrong," Slash said bluntly. "Besides, you feel better now right?"

 

Leo paused, and thought about it. Truthfully, he did feel better now than he had before, like just talking about it all had lifted a great weight off his shoulders. "Yes," he said in surprise. "How'd you…?"

 

Slash rolled his eyes and turned to leave. "You can't change the past, Leonardo. Obsessing over it'll get you nowhere, and it won't help in the long run. All you can do is try to fix it any way you can, even if it's just the small things."

 

With that, the spiky turtle leapt off the roof, and out of sight.

 

Leo stared thoughtfully after him, before hurrying home to see if Donnie needed a lab assistant, or if Raph and Mikey could use some help, or if he could get his father and sister out of their slumps.

 

Slash watched him go from the shadows.

 

"Idiot," he grumbled to himself. "I know better than anyone you can't take back your mistakes." After all, he had made plenty of them.

 

Pushing Raphael away being his greatest.

 

_____________________

 

With Leo getting his head on straight, things started getting better around the Hamato household, but they were still far from ideal.

 

Even with all the help Donnie was getting from his siblings, his Turtle Mech was still far from operational, and the retro-mutagen needed a few more months to synthesize before it could be used.

 

All of this was putting the genius under a great deal of stress, and it was showing more and more clearly by the day.

 

Finally April had enough.

 

She told Donnie's siblings the plan beforehand, and then showed up at the dojo in a sunny yellow dress, jewelry, heels, and her hair down from its usual ponytail.

 

The second she arrived, Donnie's brothers and Metalhead dragged him out of his lab, threw a decent looking shirt on him, and roughly ran a brush through his hair to make him look presentable (made harder by him trying to fight them off throughout the process).

 

But when he caught sight of April, his jaw dropped in awe at the sight of her.

 

"A-April," he stammered. "You look-"

 

"Like I'm ready to go on a date," April said bluntly. "Because that's what we're going on right now."

 

Donnie was so surprised by her forwardness that she was almost able to drag him out the door before his brain caught up.

 

"A-a date?" he squeaked screeching to a halt at the threshold.

 

April turned and gave him a determined look. "Yes, a date," she said. "You've been holed up in your lab for weeks, and I know what you're working on is important, but you're wound up so tight you're going to snap. One night of fun won't kill you."

 

"But I need to monitor the retro-mutagen as it synthesizes, and I still need to find a power source for the Turtle Mech, and…" Donnie started to say, but April leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, which promptly shut him up.

 

"All of that is something Metalhead can do while we're out," April pointed out as she pulled Donnie towards the door again.

 

The genius glanced back to see Metalhead give a thumbs-up and beeped in agreement, before making a shooing motion at Donnie to make him go.

 

"I-I suppose one night off won't hurt," Donnie admitted, warming up to the idea slowly.

 

April's face broke into a wide grin. "Great, then let's go."

 

With that she dragged him out the door and into the night.

 

_____________________

 

Just to show how well April knew him, Donnie found himself at a technology convention that was in town. He had been wanting to go to it for weeks, but with all that had happened, any thought of the convention had completely been forgotten. It wasn't your typical date spot, but it was one that Donnie was thoroughly enjoying.

 

April had to smile at the kid-in-the-candy-store expression on her boyfriend's face as he looked at all the technology. She had to admit his geekiness towards the subject was adorable.

 

But as Donnie fanboyed over watching a scientist named Harold Lillja show off his anti-gravity gauntlet, April noticed someone in the crowd that she knew.

 

"Irma!" she called out, waving for the purple-haired girl to come over.

 

Donnie looked up at the call, and accidentally knocked into the table Lillja had been levitating.

 

"Watch it kid," called the scientist in a haughty tone.

 

"Oh sorry," said Donnie backing away quickly.

 

Lillja huffed, and set the table back on the ground. "Kids these days, so obstruse."

 

"That's not a real word," Donnie called over his shoulder as he hurried to join April and Irma.

 

"-Thank you so much for getting me the tickets to this, Irma," April was saying as he got there. "We're having a great time."

 

Irma shrugged and said, "It was nothing." She turned and scrutinized Donnie with a critical eye. Then a smirk spread across her face. "Well, don't you clean up nicely."

 

Donnie fidgeted, and knew his appearance was only halfway decent thanks to his brothers' manhandling earlier. "I assure you, Irma, I'd have done better if this hadn't been a surprise."

 

"I sure hope so," said Irma with a sassy smirk. "But whatever, it's not like this is a black tie event or anything. Over half the main attractions are dressed worse than you are."

 

She sent a nod back towards Lillja, who was dressed in worn-out kakis, a lab coat, and a ratty tie-dye t-shirt.

 

"Still, thanks again, Irma," said April with a smile.

 

"What are friends for?" asked Irma. "No if you excuse me, there's supposed to be a glutton free buffet around here somewhere."

 

With that the goth girl wandered off, and the couple returned to their trek through the convention.

 

Just as Donnie caught sight of a kid his age showing off his invention of micro-bots, a sudden scream pierced the air in the convention.

 

April shot Donnie an alarmed look. "That was Irma!" she shouted, turning to look for the source of the scream.

 

"SOMEONE HELP ME!" came the scream again, helping April zero in on it.

 

Through the crowd, the two teens caught sight of Irma being dragged through an exit by a Kraang, while several more spilled in with their blasters at the ready.

 

"Those that are known as 'scientist' will surrender, and be that which is called 'slave labor' for Kraang," said the Kraang at the head of the hoard.

 

Instantly the convention erupted into chaos as panicked people ran for the exits to escape the aliens.

 

Finding shelter from the stampede behind a pillar, Donnie and April scrutinized the oncoming Kraang.

 

"What do we do, Donnie?" April asked, already texting on her phone to alert the others.

 

"We have to save Irma, and stop the Kraang from taking any more hostages," Donnie replied, pulling his collapsible bō staff from his pocket, and extending it.

 

April sent her boyfriend a skeptical glance. "You're not exactly in uniform, Donnie. Are you okay to fight?"

 

Donnie shrugged as he pulled his purple mask out of his pocket and tied it to his face. "I kind of have to be, these people are more important than my secret identity. Besides, a ninja is a master of deception, I'll get by."

 

To prove his point, Donnie left their hiding spot, and snagged an abandoned black jacket from a nearby chair, and swung it over his shoulders, making sure the hood was pulled low over his face, effectively hiding his features.

 

Seeing this, April pulled her tessen from a hidden pocket in her skirt, before kicking off her heels and hurrying to join him.

 

The Kraang were pressing through the crowds, grabbing people too slow to get away from them left and right.

 

The suddenly a table flew at them, knocking several aside, and allowing many of the hostages to escape.

 

"You freaks think you can just waltz in here and steal the show?" shouted Lillja as he used his invention to levitate another table at the aliens. "Well, you've got another thing coming!"

 

The Kraang opened fire on the scientist, and he had to use the gauntlet to pull another table up to cover him.

 

Donnie shot forward, and disarmed several of the Kraang, and drawing their attention away from the man. "I've got this!" he called to Lillja as he fought. "Help get the civilians get to safety!"

 

Lillja scoffed. "You wanna die an action hero kid, be my guest."

 

But then he saw Donnie take down several Kraang with a series of blows from his weapon, as well as saw April jump in to join him, and start decapitating Kraang with her tessen.

 

"Kids these days," Lillja said to himself in wonder. He then turned to the remaining crowd and said, "You heard the kid, get the hell out of here!"

 

That was all the remaining civilians needed to hear, and they bolted, leaving April and Donnie alone against the Kraang.

 

After a grueling fight, they finally took out the last android, and ran through the exit to find Irma.

 

Only to be just in time to see Irma bound and gagged, and thrown in the back of a van. Before they could reach her, the van screeched away, and out of sight.

 

"Irma!" shouted April after it.

 

But Donnie was already working out a way to track her. "The Kraang never think to take away their hostage's phones," he said. "If Irma still has hers, than I'll be able to track her the second the others get here with the Shellraiser."

 

April nodded, and pulled up her cellphone to check. "Leo says they're on their way in it as we speak, and they're bringing your gear with them, and a change of clothes for me. Jason says he and the Lair mutants will meet us there on foot, and Casey'll do the same on his bike."

 

She then sent him an apologetic smile. "So much for a relaxing date."

 

Donnie gave her a warm grin and took her hand. "For what it's worth, I had a lot of fun while it lasted."

 

They were still holding hands by the time the Shellraiser arrived.

 

_____________________

 

Casey peddled his bike as fast as he could after Donnie sent him the address Irma was being held at.

 

He would be the first to admit, he wasn't as fond of Irma as Mikey and April were. The two of them had always seemed to rub each other the wrong way. But even so, he wasn't about to let the girl get turned into something nasty by the Kraang if he could help it. And more than that, his friends were going to be risking their lives fighting them, and he wasn't about to let them fight alone.

 

But as he shot through the city, he noticed a police car sitting in the middle of the street.

 

Just as he was about to swerve to go around it, the car's light burst on and made Casey screech to a stop from the spots that burst in his eyes as a result.

 

As he rubbed his eyes to see clearly again, he heard the sound of the car's doors opening and closing, and the sound of footsteps coming towards him.

 

Casey groaned as he realized what was happening, and sarcastically muttered "Great."

 

"Can I help you, officers?" he asked aloud as his vision cleared, and he could look up at the cops approaching him.

 

"You're speeding, kid," said one of the cops. "You know what that means?"

 

Casey looked down at his bike, then sent the cops an incredulous expression.  _"Speeding?"_ he said. "It's a bike! It's not included in speed limits. And even if it was, not even someone as awesome as me can peddle that fast."

 

But the cops continued to stalk towards him, and Casey started to get a feeling that something was really wrong.

 

"We'll figure out a charge later," said one of the officers as he loomed over Casey. "Nightwatcher."

 

Casey's eyes widened when he heard that. "How do you know my-?" was all he got to ask as both officers grabbed him and started dragging him towards the car.

 

"Get off me!" he yelled as he struggled against their hold. "I've got rights! Let me go!"

 

But the police paid him no attention and kept dragging him to the car.

 

Something was definitely wrong here.

 

_____________________

 

Something was definitely wrong here.

 

That was Malachi's view of the situation, at least.

 

When he, Jason, and Leatherhead had gotten a messaged from April's friend had been kidnapped, they had hurried to join them in rescuing the fair damsel.

 

Only to be blocked by sewer workers and construction at every turn when trying to get out of the sewers.

 

"Bummer," said Jason, peering around the corner at the latest manhole they were trying. "This one's blocked too, dudes."

 

Leatherhead growled in impatience. "Then we will have to find another way around," he said, turning back down the tunnel.

 

Only to see lights coming in their direction by people wearing hardhats.

 

Seeing this, Malachi quickly whipped up an illusion to hide the three of them as the workers closed in.

 

Just as they were getting close, the workers who had been blocking their exit came around the corner, trapping them on all sides.

 

"This is a mondo disastero thing we're in here, guys," hissed Jason to the others worriedly.

 

The other two only shushed him, and all three pressed themselves against the wall in hopes of avoiding the workers.

 

"Did you find them?" asked one of the approaching workers.

 

The one of the ones that had been blocking the exit shook his head. "No, but I heard voices. Was that you?"

 

On cue the worker took that moment to step on Leatherhead's tail, making him cry out in pain.

 

Knowing they were caught, and wanting to minimize the damage, Jason quickly leapt forward and hopped around on one foot to pass himself off as the one tripped over.

 

The sewer workers scowled at the sight of him, and grabbed the teenager by the wrist. "What are you doing here, kid?" he demanded.

 

Jason sent them a sheepish look. "I came down here on a dare," he lied quickly. "Gnarly, right?"

 

The group of sewer workers exchanged glances, and then glared at Jason. "You're coming with us, Mondo Gecko," said the one holding Jason's wrist.

 

Jason was so surprise he knew that name (especially since he was no longer an amphibian), that he was dragged down the hall before he could get a word in edgewise.

 

Leatherhead and Malachi shot each other worried looks, before taking off after them to try and free Jason, and maybe get some answers.

 

It looked like the Hamatos would have to make due without them for now.

 

_____________________

 

Donnie tracked Irma's cell signal to an abandoned warehouse near TCRI. It was decided he, April, Miwa, and Leo would go in and try and free Irma themselves (they would come up with some excuse to explain their outfits and codenames later), and Raph, Mikey, and Metalhead would stick to the shadows and rafters as shuriken and laser support.

 

If worse came to worse, and Irma saw the turtles, both April and Mikey gave glowing support that the goth would be trustworthy enough to keep their secret.

 

And so, the four slipped in the door, and the turtles snuck in the upper windows.

 

In the middle of the warehouse, tied to a chair was Irma. Her head was down, and she didn't look up at them, but she looked no worse for the ware.

 

The four teenagers crossed the room, and April reached Irma first, shaking her gently. "Irma?" she whispered, trying to rouse her friend.

 

Irma looked up and smiled at her. "April!" she said loudly. "I knew you'd come!"

 

"Shhhh!" hissed April. "We're gonna get you out of here. Raion, hand me a kni-"

 

She broke off as she saw the expression on Leo's face.

 

"What do you mean, you knew  _we_  would come?" he asked suspiciously. "Wouldn't you be more likely to expect the police?"

 

The others sent their leader a confused look. "Raion, what-?" Miwa started to say, but a burst of laughter from Irma cut her off.

 

"Oh I knew alright," said Irma, her smile turning malicious as she stood up, the ropes falling away showing they were never tied. Then her voice changed completely to a more squawky male voice. "Because only you  _kids_  would be dumb enough to walk right into our trap!"

 

The warehouse was suddenly full of light, revealing an entire army of Kraang with their weapons aimed at the teens.

 

Mikey and Raph blinked in the light as it revealed them as well. The second Mikey recovered, he sent a betrayed look in Irma's direction. "Irma…?" he said, looking like a kicked puppy.

 

But Irma only sent a smirk at him before going completely ridged, her face and neck twitching awkwardly. Then her neck seemed to extend up from her shoulders, revealing a long metal rod.

 

"Holly Chalupa!" shouted Mikey from his perch, and the four teens on the ground jerked away from the 'girl' in alarm.

 

To their horror, the rest of Irma seemed to completely unfold, growing larger and more mechanical, until a hulking Irma-Bot towered over them, and 'her' stomach opened to reveal-

 

"Oh my gosh! Irma was a  _Kraang?!_ " shouted April as she saw the laughing eye-patch wearing alien in the android's stomach.

 

"Lowly insects," said the Irma-Kraang in the same screechy male voice as before. "Kneel before the genius of Kraang Subprime! Greatest Kraang spy in  _all_  of Dimension X! The trapping of you kids was the final component needed to launch FULL SCALE  _INVASION!"_

 

On cue, portals started opening all over the warehouse, bringing forth even more Kraang to the already large group of aliens in the warehouse.

 

From his position in the rafters, Raph could see out the upper windows, and saw more portals opening all over the city for an entire army of the aliens spilling out onto the streets. The people were running in terror at the sight of them. Following the standard Kraang androids was Kraang Walkers stomping through the city, and Stealth Ships began filling the sky.

 

"Guy's, they're all over the street!" Raph yelled down to the rest.

 

Kraang Subprime laughed again at the look of horror on all of their faces, before looking around at his own kind. "What are you waiting for, idiots? Attack!"

 

And with that, the army of Kraang opened fire on the Hamato Clan.

 

_____________________

 

Casey struggled against the cops dragging them towards his car, yelling obscenities at them the entire way.

 

But the police were uninterested in his rants, and continued to drag the struggling teenager away, despite the crowd they were drawing.

 

Finally, Casey managed to pull free one of his hockey sticks, and he smacked one of the officers in the face with it.

 

That made the officer stumble back and glare at him. But before Casey could apologize, the cop's image flickered, and was replaced by a Kraang wearing a holographic disguise.

 

Casey gaped at it, and turned to see the second cop was also letting down his disguise. Freaked out, he managed to wrench his arm away from it, and held his hockey stick in front of him defensively.

 

Glancing over at the crowd of onlookers, he shouted, "Run you idiots!"

 

The people didn't need telling twice. A second later, portals began opening all along the street and more Kraang came spilling out, followed by a Kraang Walker that was stomping a little too close for comfort in the vigilante's opinion.

 

Horrified, Casey quickly took down the two who had pretended to be cops, before jumping back on his bike and peddling as quick as he could to where his friends had told him to go before the Walker could squash him to a pile of goo.

 

Even  _he_  knew he couldn't take on an entire invasion alone.

 

_____________________

 

Back in the sewers, Jason was babbling at the sewer workers who had caught him, trying to get them to let him go and pass himself off as a dumb kid on a dare.

 

One of the sewer workers, an overweight man in orange said sympathetically, "Hey guys, maybe we should just let him go. I don't think the kid meant any harm."

 

But the other workers ignored him and continued on.

 

Leatherhead and Malachi followed after them quietly trying to think of a way to get Jason away from them.

 

Suddenly a shadow shifted in the darkness, and reared up above the sewer worker holding Jason.

 

The overweight worker let out a scream at the sight of it and bolted away wailing about giant squirrels.

 

But the worker holding Jason only had time to look up at the shadow, before a large mace burst out of the darkness and slammed down on his head.

 

Jason stared horrified at the sight, until he saw the smashed worker's image flicker and turn to that of a crushed Kraang.

 

Seeing that the jig was up, the rest of the remaining 'workers' dropped their disguises, revealing themselves to be Kraang as well.

 

That was all Leatherhead needed to know. With a mighty roar, the alligator pounced on the Kraang and began tearing them to pieces. Malachi grabbed Jason's hand and pulled him out of the line of fire to keep him safe from the gator's rampage.

 

Some tried to escape past the shadow with the mace, but were quickly beaten back with brutal force.

 

Once the last Kraang was beaten into the ground, the shadow stepped into the light, revealing himself to be Slash.

 

"You three alright?" he asked, kicking a Kraang head out of his way as he came closer.

 

The three regarded him hesitantly, having heard stories about this turtle from the others.

 

"Yeah, we're okay," Jason said finally. "Thanks."

 

Slash ignored their suspicion, and said, "Where are Raphael and the others, things are going crazy topside, and we need them  _now_."

 

"What doeseth thou mean?" asked Malachi in confusion.

 

Slash just jerked his head towards the nearest manhole, and led the three up to the streets.

 

Leatherhead, Malachi, and Jason were horrified to see the Kraang and their war machines marching through the streets like some kind of warped parade, pulling people from buildings and herding them into large groups to be guarded by several more armed Kraang.

 

"They just started snatching people up the second they came through," Slash said as the four peered out from the alley. "Don't know why. Where are the others?"

 

"A friend of theirs was captured," Leatherhead explained. "They went to rescue her."

 

Slash scowled. "It was probably a trap then," he said.

 

Malachi suddenly went ridged. "Wait," he said, dropping his accent. "If they're snatching people up, then… my parents…"

 

Jason paled. "Mine too," he said horrified. Sure, they had kicked him out, but that didn't mean he wanted them to get taken by the Kraang.

 

Leatherhead looked down at their stricken faces, unsure of what to do.

 

But Slash had no such hesitancy. "I'll escort you to your homes, and help you get your families to the Lair. Leatherhead will go find the others and meet you there later."

 

Both boys nodded gratefully, but cast a glance Leatherhead to make sure it was okay.

 

"It has been some time since we were to meet the Hamatos to rescue their friend," Leatherhead said to Slash. "If it was a trap, as you said, they will likely not be there anymore."

 

Slash nodded in agreement. "You go to the dojo to find out if they're back, and if not, tell Hamato Yoshi what's happening. I'll go check at Casey and April's places after I help these two."

 

Leatherhead regarded Slash carefully, before nodding and choosing to trust him with this. "And crush any Kraang in our path," he added with relish.

 

Slash laughed and hefted his mace onto his shoulder. "Trust me, Leatherhead, that part's a given."

 

Despite the situation, Malachi, Jason, and Leatherhead shared his grin.

 

_____________________

 

Back at the warehouse, the teens and Metalhead were fighting for their lives against what seemed to be an endless number of Kraang soldiers.

 

"We can't keep this up!" shouted Miwa to the rest of them as she decapitated a Kraang for what felt like the hundredth time.

 

"I don't think we have a choice," Raph shouted back with a grunt as he stabbed an android through the chest.

 

"This is so messed up!" shouted April from where she was crouching for cover behind a pillar. "One of my best friends for the past year was a Kraang?"

 

"Fooled you!" shouted Kraang Subprime with a wicked grin. "Fooled you all!"

 

But the Kraang spy was cut off when Metalhead threw a crate at him. He dodged, but the Irma head on the top of his android was jostled by the attack.

 

Seeing this, Mikey's eyes widened in realization. They then narrowed dangerously, and he grabbed a heavy metal pipe off the floor, and shot through the hoard of Kraang for Subprime.

 

Taken by surprise by this tactic, Subprime tried to shoot the orange wearing turtle, but Mikey ducked and dodged every shot before taking a flying leap over Subprime's hulking form.

 

With a war cry, Mikey slammed the pipe against the Irma head on the top of the android with all his strength.

 

The force of the blow was able to knock the girl's head clean off the android's shoulders, and it bounced along the ground with a large dent in it and the face caved in. As it lay on the ground, it sparked with electricity, and three mechanical legs waved uselessly as it tried to get back up.

 

Everyone turned to stare in surprise at these actions, even the Kraang turned to look in confusion at the normally cheerful turtle for his violent actions.

 

"My head!" Subprime cried in outrage, before rounding on Mikey. "Why you little-"

 

But the alien broke off at the sight the furious expression on Mikey's face. "There's no blood," he said coldly, sending a dark look at the Irma head.

 

"What?" asked Kraang Subprime in confusion.

 

Mikey forcefully jabbed his finger in the head's direction. "When I first met Irma I accidentally hit her with my skateboard, and gave her a bloody nose!" he bellowed accusingly. "But when I hit  _you_ , there's no  ** _blood!_**  So let me ask you this! Where! Is! The Real!  _IRMA!_ "

 

The rest of the Hamato clan looked horrified as they realized what Mikey was saying.

 

Kraang Subprime stared at him for a solid minute, before bursting out laughing. "You're smarter than you look, kid," he said before giving Mikey a sinister grin. "Let's just say, little Ms. Irma was a  _great_  help for perfecting the mutagen."

 

Mikey's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as he realized that Subprime meant that they had mutated and experimented on her.

 

At that realization, something in the youngest ninja snapped, and he threw himself at Subprime with a bellow of rage.

 

Seeing that brought everyone else back to Earth, and immediately went back to trying to kill each other again.

 

But it was clear none of the Hamato family were getting anywhere fast. For every Kraang they took down, three more appeared in their place.

 

"We have to get out of here, Leo!" shouted Donnie as he and April stood back to back as they fought the androids off. With Kraang Subprime being Irma for who knew how long, it was more likely than not that their codenames had already been compromised.

 

"I'm working on it!" Leo called back, searching desperately for an exit they could use to escape. But the Kraang were teeming all around them, and there was no clear way through them to an exit.

 

Donnie nodded, began scanning his surroundings as well to help. As he did so, he noticed a Kraang sneaking up on April.

 

"April, LOOK OUT!" he shouted, turning to help her. But he wasn't fast enough, and the Kraang grabbed April in a chokehold, and began dragging the struggling girl through the crowd.

 

"DONNIE!" April shrieked as she was dragged off, trying desperately to free herself, but was unable to break the Kraang's grip.

 

Donnie ran after them, but quickly found several Kraang standing between him and the redhead.

 

Popping the hidden blade out of his bō staff, he glared at the aliens fiercely. "I'll only ask this once. Give me back my  _girlfriend!"_  he said dangerously, before slicing through the Kraang with more ferocity than ever before.

 

Seeing all this, Raph turned to Miwa with wide eyes and stated, "Donnie and Mikey are both acting like  _me_ , this really is the end of the world."

 

Miwa stabbed through another Kraang and snapped, "Not if we can help it!"

 

Raph frowned, and nodded, before throwing several shuriken at some Kraang trying to sneak up on the two of them.

 

But despite their best attempts, the Kraang that had April pulled the girl all the way over to where Kraang Subprime was fighting against Mikey.

 

"The one who is known as April O'Neil has been captured by Kraang," said the Kraang as it held April out for the spy to see.

 

Mikey looked over in alarm at that, and Kraang Subprime used that opportunity to swat the turtle away as if he was an annoying fly.

 

"Excellent," said Subprime as he and the Kraang turned to leave the room.

 

"APRIL!" yelled Donnie as he saw his girlfriend disappear out of the building.

 

With a wild and desperate look in his eyes, Donnie turned his attention to Miwa, and grabbed at something from her shuriken pocket.

 

"What are you  _doing?!"_  Miwa shouted as her brother pilfered something from her pocket.

 

He held it up, and she paled at the sight of several Boom Stars in his hand. "Donnie, don't! You'll bring this whole place down on top of us!"

 

But Donnie wasn't listening. With a yell of, "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" he activated the all of the Boom Stars, and threw them into the crowds of Kraang away from himself and his family.

 

Seeing this, the Hamato clan all scrambled to put as much distance between them and the coming explosion as they could.

 

A good thing too, as the Boom Stars detonated, and took out the assembled Kraang and most of the warehouse along with it.

 

Coughing on the dust and smoke, Leo stumbled out of the warehouse, and searched desperately for his siblings.

 

There was the sound of breaking glass next to him, and he saw Raph burst through a window and land next to him, also coughing. "Remind me… to kill Donnie after this…" he said as he tried to force air back into his lungs.

 

Leo shot a worried look at the remains of the warehouse. "If he's not dead already," he said looking apprehensive.

 

As if summoned by his worry, Leo's cell phone began ringing, and he quickly pulled it out to see Donnie's caller ID.

 

"Donnie, where are you," Leo demanded as he answered the phone. "Are you alright? Is anyone with you?"

 

"Mikey's with me by the Shrellraiser, and we're both okay," said Donnie rapidly. "The Kraang have April in a van, and they've taken off, we have to go right now if I want to catch them… Leo, please…"

 

Leo knew instantly what Donnie was implying. Though every fiber of the genius' being was screaming at him to save April, he was still waiting to hear if Leo would give him the order to do so.

 

With a sigh, Leo said, "Go. Raph and I'll find Miwa and Metalhead, and start helping civilians. Meet us at April's once you have her."

 

"Got it," said Donnie in a determined voice, and Leo heard him start the Shellraiser's engine in the background. He must have been calling from the front seat.

 

"And Donnie," Leo added. "You two be safe."

 

"We will," Donnie promised, and he hung up the phone.

 

Leo immediately hit speed dial for Miwa's number, and waited with baited breath for her to answer.

 

"I'm okay, Leo," said Miwa the second she answered the phone. "I know your head was about to explode worrying."

 

Despite the situation, Raph had to laugh at his sister's snark, and the expression on Leo's face as a result of it.

 

"I'm out the west side with Metalhead, and we're both alright," Miwa continued.

 

"Good," Leo said, finding his voice again. "Me and Raph are on the east side, and Donnie and Mikey have gone after April in the Shellraiser."

 

"Big surprise," said Miwa dryly. "Now what?"

 

"We should keep fighting the Kraang, and help all the people," Leo said. "We'll meet Donnie and Mikey at April's later. For now we just need to do what we-"

 

Suddenly a throwing star flew down and imbedded itself into Leo's cell phone, cutting his call off.

 

"-can," Leo finished as he and Raph wheeled around to see the source of the shuriken, drawing their weapons as they did so.

 

Standing along the rooftops across the street was more Foot-Bots than either boy had ever seen before.

 

"Does 'doing what we can' involve getting ambushed by the Foot?" Raph sarcastically.

 

"No," said Leo confidently. "It involves us taking out the Foot. Come on!"

 

With that, he and Raph rushed towards the Foot-Bots, and prepared for their next fight.

 

_____________________

 

April was getting  _really_  sick of being kidnapped, and it showed.

 

She never stopped struggling for a second, she bit, clawed, punched, and kicked any and every part of the Kraang she could reach, and she shouted every obscenity she knew at them.

 

But despite this (and it taking four Kraang just to hold her down) she was still strapped down onto a seat in the back of the Kraang van, something Kraang Subprime gloated over immensely.

 

"Finally," Subprime said as he stood in front of her, and seemed to take pleasure in the enraged and defiant look on her face. "Do you know how long we've been trying to get you, O'Neil?  _YEARS!_ Your parents did a good job of hiding you, and the those stupid kids kept us from grabbing you, but it'll all be worth it today."

 

"Not a chance, alien creep!" April snapped, still trying to struggle free of her restraints. "My friends will do to you what they did to the Technodrome last time! Completely wipe you out!"

 

Subprime scowled at the mention of the Technodrome, but then waved it away. "Yeah right," he said. "There's no way you dumb kids will be ready for what we have in store for you. Especially when we're done with  _you_." To emphasize the point, he reached out with Irma's purple painted fingernail, and tapped April on the nose.

 

April couldn't help but gulp at that. "To me?" she asked.

 

"Oh, don't worry," Subprime said. "We aren't going to kill you. There's a little something inside you that we need to  _really_  get this invasion going."

 

"This won't be another thing with a giant needle is it?" April asked dryly, remembering the cloning incident at TCRI.

 

Subprime laughed at that. "Oh, that wouldn't have  _killed_  you. Lobotomized you, sure, but you would have lived."

 

April turned green as she realized how close she had been to being lobotomized.

 

"But no needle this time," Subprime said with a sinister grin, pulling a helmet with large wires attached to it from a shelf in the van. "No, what we need from you… is your  _brain_."

 

But before he could put it on her head, the van suddenly swerved, and Subprime was thrown against a wall and dropped the helmet.

 

Banging on the window between him and the driver, Subprime bellowed. "Drive much, you nimrod! We're working here!"

 

"The ones known as the kids are doing that which is known as the pursuing of Kraang," said the Kraang driver in response.

 

"WHAT!" Subprime screeched, and April felt a smirk spread across her face.

 

Seeing it, Subprime scowled, and snatched the helmet off the van floor.

 

"I wouldn't be smiling if I were you missy," he snapped as he slammed the helmet onto April's head.

 

Immediately April felt like her brain was being sucked out through a crazy straw, and the girl let out a scream of pain. But then she just as quickly went silent and stared straight ahead with a blank look in her eyes.

 

Subprime merely grinned, and he watched the wires glow as April's mental energy was uploaded to the entire Kraang database.

 

"The final ingredient has been extracted," he said with wicked glee. "Now the invasion can  _really **BEGIN!"**_

 

_____________________

 

"Faster Donnie!" Mikey yelled from Raph's usual seat at the sewer lid launcher. "We're gaining on them!"

 

"I'm trying!" Donnie yelled back in frustration from the driver's seat. "But don't forget April's in there! We have to be careful not to hurt her along with it!"

 

Mikey opened his mouth to reply, but both teenagers froze when they heard April's piercing scream emanate from the van they were chasing. It was loud enough for them to hear it clearly despite the distance and the engines of both vehicles.

 

"I think she's being hurt already," said Mikey worriedly.

 

Then the scream cut off as suddenly as it came, and somehow that was even worse than hearing it.

 

Donnie gritted his teeth in worry, and narrowed his eyes in determination. Then he shot the Shellraiser forward to ram the van in front of them.

 

"Not if I can help it," he said.

 

One way or another, he was going to save his girlfriend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so the invasion begins. This will be another three-parter, so be ready for that. What do you think? This happens sooner than it does in the show because Leatherhead was not in Dimension X to sabotage the Kraang from there, or bring the Hamatos in there to blow up their army. I decided to go with the fan theory that Irma was once a real girl, but was then replaced by a Kraang. She was replaced after Plan 10, so that's why the Kraang haven't made their move before now. Also, Harold Lillja is a character from the IDW comics who's friends with Donnie. I just thought I'd bring him in for a cameo. And yes, the kid at the convention with microbots is a reference to Big Hero 6.


	35. When it All Falls Apart Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Invasion has begun

With the pandemonium that was already in the streets, Leatherhead decided to forgo stealth and instead rushed through the streets in broad daylight, attacking any Kraang that stood in his way.

 

He still used one of the secret entrances to the dojo, and hurried down to the basement. The Kraang had not yet reached this neighborhood, so it was likely the man did not yet know of the invasion from where he sat vigil.

 

Sure enough, Yoshi looked over in confusion when Leatherhead approached. It appeared that Tang Shen was having one of her moments of clarity, and Yoshi had let himself into the room to comfort her. Though now that Leatherhead was here, he sent a worried glance at his wife, hoping the alligator wouldn't set her off.

 

Fortunately, Shen didn't go back to her feral state at the sight of the other reptile mutant, and instead blinked at him curiously.

 

"The Kraang are making their move," Leatherhead said bluntly. "They're all over the street, and pulling people from the buildings. Are your children home?"

 

Yoshi and Shen exchanged worried glances, and Yoshi said, "No, I have not seen them since April took Donatello out on a date."

 

Leatherhead sighed when he heard that. "We got a message from them that their friend had been kidnapped. But we were delayed in reaching their location until the invasion started. I don't know where they are."

 

Yoshi stood, and said, "Then we must find them," he said firmly, making his way towards the door. "Show me where you knew they were last."

 

Both he and Leatherhead turned to leave, but were surprised when Tang Shen made to follow.

 

"Shen, it is dangerous-" Yoshi started to say in hopes of stopping her from going.

 

But Shen only gave him a determined look, and shifted into her Medusa form. "Sssave ourrr babiesss," she hissed in a tone that left no room for argument.

 

Then before they could stop her, she darted out the door and waited for them down the hall. Glancing back, she asked, "Cccoming?"

 

Yoshi and Leatherhead exchanged glances, before hurrying after the serpent woman.

 

_____________________

 

 

When Leo was cut off in mid sentence while talking to Miwa, it was a clear sign to her that something was wrong.

 

Any doubt left in her mind about this was banished by the time she and Metalhead managed to get around the building and found Leo's discarded cell phone with a Foot shuriken still sticking out of it.

 

To make matters worse it was starting to snow, making it dangerous for both Mikey and Raph to be out for long in the cold. Both were wearing as much warm clothes as they could to prevent the chill and still have enough movement to fight, but those would only work for so long in the frigid air.

 

"Great," she said, pulling the shuriken free and examining the Foot crest on it. "Just what we need, the Shredder's flunkies mixing things up on top of everything else."

 

She glanced down at Metalhead and asked, "So, do you have some kind of, I don't know, scanner that can tell us where they went?"

 

Metalhead let out a beep, and pointed in the direction of a neighborhood under construction. The entire area was being renovated as part of the city's plans, and wouldn't be open until next year. The fact that the place was mostly empty was probably why it was devoid of any Kraang now that the ones in the warehouse had been destroyed, as the aliens were mostly attacking the residential areas. Even so, there were a few scared people on the street, but they were too busy watching out for the Kraang to pay any notice to the two of them.

 

"Perfect," Miwa said sarcastically as she looked where the robot pointed. "Wanna bet those two are in over their heads and need us to save them by now?"

 

Metalhead crossed arms and nodded his head in agreement.

 

Miwa sighed, "Well then, we better go rescue them."

 

But Metalhead let out a shrill beep, and pointed down the road away from where Raph and Leo had gone.

 

Miwa looked over to see Casey Jones peddling towards them and looking exhausted and slightly singed.

 

"About time you got here," Miwa said dryly.

 

Casey scowled at her and snapped, "Hey! I nearly got captured by Kraang posing as cops, and then had to dodge the rest of these invading creeps all the way here.  _Sorry_ , Babe, but that made me a little late. What'd I miss?"

 

Miwa started making her way towards where Metalhead had indicated Leo and Raph were, and filled Casey in as she went. "First, don't call me Babe. Second, Irma got kidnapped, but then it turned out it was really a Kraang disguised as Irma, and the real one was abducted who-knows-when, currently is who-knows-where, and probably has been mutated by now. And then April got captured,  _again_ , and Donnie went nuts and blew up the building trying to rescue her. Now he and Mikey went after them in the Shellraiser to get April back, and Leo and Raph have apparently been attacked and driven this way by the Foot."

 

Casey stopped dead and gaped at Miwa as she rattled off all that had happened. Then he picked his jaw up off the ground and hurried to catch up to her and Metalhead, leaving his bike next to the wrecked warehouse.

 

"Everything cool happens when I'm not there, doesn't it," Casey griped.

 

Miwa opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off when Metalhead's mouth snapped open, and an alarm began blaring from the speaker in his mouth. He pointed down the street from where they were, and the three saw another portal start to open, this one being the biggest yet.

 

"Okay, maybe not  _everything_ ," Casey amended as he saw the portal grow to giant size.

 

As they watched, a long metal leg stepped out of the portal, followed by another, until the massive form of Kraang Prime stood towering over the buildings before them, looking over the city with a satisfied expression. At the top part of his gigantic robot body was an entire tank of mutagen, and a spout attached to one of his arms to shoot the ooze out of.

 

"Yes!" said Kraang Prime as he surveyed the panicking civilians running below him. "Finally all the components have been gathered. Kraang Prime has come to Earth."

 

"Please tell me we have some kind of plan to fight  _that_ ," said Casey as he and the other two started backing away from the mammoth Kraang.

 

"Just the Turtle-Mech, but it's nowhere near finished," said Miwa worriedly. "Or anywhere near that big."

 

"Shit," said Casey, summing up what both teens were thinking quite nicely.

 

"People of Earth," Kraang Prime continued. "The Kraang forming of your world is about to begin!"

 

With that, he pointed the arm with the mutagen spout at the closest group of people to him, and sent a shot of mutagen to rain down on top of them.

 

The people screamed and scrambled to safety, but many were unable to escape and were doused in the green ooze.

 

"No!" shouted Miwa in horror as she realized what would happen to them.

 

A second later, the people emerged from the ooze, no longer resembling the humans they were seconds ago. Instead, creatures with warped Kraang-like heads and arms crawled free and screeched brainlessly at the few civilians who had manage to avoid the goo, before lurching like zombies towards them.

 

"Now that is  _really_  messed up," said Casey said faintly.

 

Both Miwa and Metalhead could only nod in reply.

 

Just then, Kraang Prime seemed to spot the three of them, and his eyes narrowed in rage.  _"You!"_  he snarled as he began stomping towards them.

 

"RUN!" shouted Miwa, knowing full well they couldn't take that thing.

 

Metalhead launched some missiles at the giant Kraang to give them some cover, and the three turned tail and ran away (or flew in Metalhead's case, as he was too slow to keep up running).

 

Howling in rage, Kraang Prime stormed after them, mutating everything he could while trying to hit the three with the ooze.

 

Unfortunately for the teens, the direction they were running was taking them farther away from Leo and Raph with every step.

 

_____________________

 

 

Amidst the fire and panic in the streets of New York, the Shredder stood upon a pile of rubble and watched it all unfold with an apathetic gaze.

 

"The city is ours, Master Shredder," said Tiger Claw next to him.

 

Shredder surveyed his surroundings and said, "Ever since I was a boy I have seen this very vision. The world in  _chaos_."

 

As Tiger Claw watched the same scene, he said, "The Kraang are dangerous allies. They will betray you, you know this. They care nothing for the human race."

 

As if to prove his point, they saw a little girl crying in the street in the distance, and a Kraang Walker began stomping towards her with its lasers set to fire. A kid on a pizza delivery moped jumped from his ride to snatch up the little girl before she could be shot and ran past them with her sobbing in his arms.

 

"Nor do I," said the Shredder as he watched the events with disinterest. "And though the Kraang are treacherous, their aid is one of Shen's best chances of becoming human again. Rest assured, the moment they restore her and her sons, I will allow you to carry out your vengeance against them.

 

Tiger Claw nodded, pacified.

 

Just then a howl came from a nearby building, and they all looked up to see Rahzar leap down and kneel before the Shredder.

 

"Master Shredder," he said. "The Foot-Bots have sent word. Raion and Iyasa are not far from here. They are falling right into our trap."

 

"Excellent," said the Shredder. "Then it is the beginning of the end."

 

_____________________

 

 

"They still there?" Raph hissed as he and Leo crouched behind a corner to hide from the numerous Foot-Bots.

 

Leo slowly peeked around the corner, and immediately drew his head back. "They're still there," he confirmed.

 

Raph scowled. The two had been fighting for what felt like hours, leaving them both exhausted and there seemed to be no end in sight. Not to mention, the cold was starting to get to the turtle, but thankfully there was so much adrenaline currently in his system, that he was still fully alert and able to keep going for now.

 

"Where's Nee-chan and Metalhead?" the mutant asked as that thought occurred to him. "They knew where we were, and we left a clear trail of busted Foot-Bots behind us, they should have caught up by now."

 

Leo glanced back at him, worry evident in his face. "The entire city is in chaos, Raph. She probably got too caught up with the Kraang to come after us."

 

Seeing the look on his brother's face, Raph said in a reassuring tone, "She'll be fine, Bro. Sis is the most terrifying fighter among us, and Metalhead has who knows how many weapons in him to watch her back. They'll be fine, in fact, if anything we should feel sorry for the Kraang."

 

Leo gave him a weak smile, and glanced back around the corner. He then paled at the sight and grabbed Raph's wrist and pulled him into a run. "They've spotted us,  _RUN!"_

 

Raph yanked his hand free, but continued to run alongside his brother as he heard the Foot-Bots chase after them once again.

 

One popped out of nowhere and swung its mace at their heads, but both were able to duck, and Leo slashed through its stomach with a sword.

 

Raph then had to use his sais to deflect a hail of arrow that were shot their way from a near by rooftop, and the two teenagers took off running once again.

 

"I am really getting sick of this!" Raph yelled as they ran.

 

"And here I thought you liked fighting," Leo said sarcastically.

 

"Fighting, yeah," Raph said, glancing back at the pursuing Foot-Bots. "This isn't a fight, this is overkill!"

 

Leo nodded, as he had to agree with Raph on that.

 

Just then two more Foot-Bots caught up to them, and Leo deflected the shuriken they threw at them, while Raph swerved around and stabbed his sais into the two's heads.

 

Pulling his blades free, he turned to see Leo signal silently for them to go and hide at a fenced in construction site while they caught their breath.

 

Easily slipping into the area, Leo and Raph kept all their senses alert for any sign of more Foot-Bots as they took a short rest in their hiding place.

 

By now Leo had long since grown used to seeing his brother's eyes turn milky white when he was angry or focused, and didn't even blink as the eerie gaze turned in his direction.

 

"You realize we're probably walking right into another trap," the turtle whispered softly to his older brother, shivering slightly from the cold as snow fluttered down around them

.

Leo nodded, his breath coming out in visible puffs. "I know," he replied. "But I don't see any way out of it. This whole place is crawling with Foot-Bots, and I can't see anyway past them. Can you?"

 

Raph's eyes narrowed as he thought, but sighed in defeat and said, "No, not without losing our heads in the process."

 

Leo nodded, he had been expecting to hear that. "We'll keep going, and watch each other's backs. That's all we can do right now."

 

With that, he got to his feet, and Raph stood up beside him. With only a silent hand signal, the two continued onwards.

 

As they moved through the wooden fences of the construction site, the two froze as they heard the mechanical sounds the Foot-Bots made as they moved.

 

Ducking out of sight, the boys waited until the Foot-Bots were in just the right spot, before leaping from their hiding places and cutting the robots down swiftly and silently.

 

Knowing it would only be a matter of time until more arrived, the boys hurried onwards and kept their eyes peeled for the next attack.

 

Or rather the next several, as a rain of throwing stars came down at them, followed by seven more Foot-Bots jumping down from a scaffolding above.

 

The two fought them off, but the sounds of their fighting only attracted more and more Foot-Bots to their location.

 

The two brothers exchanged glances at the number of robot that surrounded them now, before diving back in and taking those out too.

 

_____________________

 

 

Slash barely contained a growl of frustration.

 

When he volunteered to help Jason and Malachi rescue their families, he had expected their troubles to come in the forms of Kraang armies, and maybe their families freaking out about his and Malachi's mutant appearance.

 

What he was not expecting was ungrateful humans to be added to the list.

 

After a close call at Malachi's old apartment, the three of them were able to drag the sparrow mutant's shell-shocked parents out of the building with out too much trouble (mostly due to them being too flabbergasted to do little more than be tugged along while Slash kept an eye out for Kraang). Fortunately, though the aliens had been closing in, they hadn't reached Malachi's old apartment home yet.

 

Once they were relatively safe in the sewers, Sir Malachi told his parents everything.

 

To say they were shocked was an understatement, but once it sank in that this was really their son, they started hugging him and refused to let go for a full five minutes. They were still freaked out that Malachi (or Martin, as they kept calling him) now had feathers, but they were so relieved to have him back that for the moment they didn't really care.

 

Even so, it was clear the full situation still hadn't sunk in for them, and they didn't have time to wait for it to do so.

 

So Jason (who'd had a wistful look on his face during Malachi's reunion) began leading them towards his house to save his parents next.

 

When Jason's parents caught sight of their son, it was almost the same sweet reunion scene as with Malachi and his parents. But then his parents caught sight of Slash and Malachi, and Jason mentioned that that  _had_  been him who was the giant gecko mutant they kicked out, and the two humans immediately became far less pleasant.

 

Jason's father immediately went for a handgun he kept in the house, and his mother began screaming her head off at a pitch that would make opera singers jealous. But just as the two were threatening the mutants to get out of their house, as well as their own son for a second time, the Kraang burst in and started shooting at them all.

 

Realizing that going with Jason was probably the lesser of two evils, his parents quickly changed their tune, and followed their now reluctant rescuers down to the sewers to relative safety.

 

But now that they were no longer in danger of getting their heads blown off by the Kraang, Jason's parents had returned to their previous unpleasant personalities as they trudged through the sewers back towards the Lair.

 

Even now, from the corner of his eye, Slash could see Jason's father eyeing the back of his shell and fidgeting with the gun he still carried, even though he had already used up all of his bullets on the Kraang. Next to him, his wife was complaining every five seconds on everything from the smell of the sewers, to the nerve of those Kraang for trying to attack them.

 

Poor Jason looked mortified to even know them, much less be related to them.

 

Malachi's parents were also far from impressed by their fellow humans, and made sure to stand between them and Malachi to protect their son in case the man got trigger happy again.

 

Needless to say, it was a miserable procession they made through the sewers.

 

"You sure you want to take those two to your home?" Slash had to ask the teens quietly, eyeing Jason's parents with annoyance.

 

Jason winced, and said, "Not without leaving them to the Kraang," he whispered back. "I know they're being mondo jerks right now, but we can't just leave them for whatever those freaky brain squids are planning."

 

Malachi also nodded, looking annoyed. "Friend Jason has a point, despite thine parents being of the unpleasant sort, there is no such safe haven elsewhere to ensure their protection. Unless, thou knoweth of one, Sir Slash?"

 

Slash rubbed his head, and was about to answer a negative when his elbow bumped against a brick on the wall. Instantly the brick slid inwards, and with a grinding screech, a hidden door rattled open, revealing a large opening.

 

Exchanging surprised looks with the two teenage boys with him, Slash stepped forward into the opening and gaped at what he saw.

 

Inside the secret door was a massive egg shaped room alit with blue crystals hanging from the walls, and equally blue ancient looking designs carved into every flat surface. There were doors all around the place, no doubt leading to other rooms, making the main one feel bigger than it was. And to complete the picture, a small pond of water lay in the center of the space, and from Slash's sense of smell, he could tell that it was clean enough to drink from. The entire place spoke of some advanced and ancient race, but definitely not one of Kraang origin. It also had clearly not been used for decades at least.

 

Picking his jaw off the ground, Slash sent a grin back at the doorway where Malachi, Jason, and their parents were peering in after him. "Hey Jason," he called, "I think I found the perfect place to put them."

 

_____________________

 

 

The Shellraiser screeched as it turned a sharp corner, and narrowly avoided crashing into a Kraang Walker stomping through the streets.

 

As the souped-up subway car passed, Mikey shot a sewer lid at the Walker's knee joint, making the war machine crash to the ground.

 

Donnie paid very little mind to this, his attention completely focused on the van in front of him.

 

"Get in position, Mikey," the genius ordered. "On my signal."

 

Mikey snapped a salute, and jumped from Raph's seat to Miwa's to begin aiming with the garbage cannon.

 

Corralling the van just where he wanted it to go, Donnie yelled, "FIRE!"

 

"Booyakasha!" Mikey yelled as he sent a ball of compressed garbage at the spot Donnie told him to hit.

 

The van swerved to try and avoid the shot, but Mikey's aim was true. It hit the van with enough force to make it spin out of control and crash into a streetlight.

 

"Please be okay, April," Donnie said frantically as he leapt from the Shellraiser and ran towards the crash.

 

"Please  _don't_ be okay, Kraang Subprime," Mikey muttered bitterly.

 

But Mikey's hope was denied, as Kraang Subprime burst out of the back of the van looking pissed.

 

"That's it!" Subprime snarled as saw blades sprouted from between his fingers. "You damn kids have interfered with our plans for the last time!"

 

Mikey gulped at the sight, but Donnie was staring past the alien into the van. Strapped into a chair in back was April, looking no worse for the ware, other than sitting completely still and staring blankly at the wall of the van as a metal helmet on her head glowed ominously.

 

"APRIL!" he called trying to get her attention, but April didn't even flinch.

 

Turning a hateful glare at Kraang Subprime, he leveled his naginata at the alien, and snapped, "What did you do to her?"

 

"Oh, her," said Subprime, glancing back at April cockily. "We just needed to borrow her brain for a bit. After all, that and the mutagen is what we had her made for."

 

Now both Donnie and Mikey were seeing red, and they threw themselves at the hulking android.

 

But Kraang Subprime was tougher than your average Kraang. In fact he was tougher than even the Kraang Biodroids. No matter what Mikey or Donnie hit, the alien had a weapon or move to counter them, and all the while the Kraang taunted them about the things he was going to do to April, Irma, and the rest of the world once he was done with them.

 

But Kraang Subprime made one mistake, he underestimated Donnie's ability to think ahead.

 

The alien blinked in surprise when the two ninjas suddenly went from attacking him with everything they had, to suddenly bolting away from him like he had a disease.

 

But Subprime didn't have to wait for long to find out what happened, as the unmanned Shellraiser suddenly sent a sewer lid flying in his direction. The metal disk imbedded itself into the androids body just above where Kraang Subprime sat, and sent the entire hunk of metal flying into a wall.

 

"Looks like your time delay thingy worked, D," said Mikey brightly as he took in the sight of the metal monster totaled. "That was for Irma, you cheap Tin Can!" he shouted, shaking his fist at Subprime.

 

But Donnie paid him no attention as he darted quickly into the van, and disconnected the helmet from April's head. "April," he said, patting her cheek softly as the girl seemed to come back to awareness. "Can you hear me?"

 

April groaned, and slowly focused on him. "I think my brain is about to explode," she said woozily, "but otherwise… meh…"

 

Donnie gave her a relieved smile, and hugged her close before unhooking her from the chair, and began helping her out of the van towards the Shellraiser, Mikey following after.

 

But before any of them could set foot on the vehicle, a missile shot past all of them (narrowly missing Donnie's head) and exploded against the Shellraiser, making the subway car tip over, too damaged to use.

 

Donnie paled at the sight, and screeched, "MY  _BABY!"_

 

They all wheeled around to see Subprime getting back to his feet despite the damage his android had suffered.

 

"You dumb kids aren't going anywhere," he snarled angrily.

 

As if to emphasize his words, more Kraang began coming out of the nearby alleys to surround them all, their laser blasters set to fire.

 

Donnie and Mikey both opened their mouths to chew Subprime out, but were beaten to the punch by April.

 

"I HAVE  _HAD IT!"_  the redhead bellowed furiously.

 

The boys and the Kraang all looked at April speechlessly, and the redhead stormed over to Subprime, her finger pointed accusingly in his direction.

 

"I have absolutely  ** _had it_**  with you stupid Kraang slime balls!" she raved. "You experimented on my mother, kidnapped my father and then brainwashed him, kidnapped my friends, kidnapped  _me_ I don't know how many times now, sent a killer robot lady to my school, tortured Leatherhead so much that he goes berserk at the mention of your name, created that stupid goo that mutated my friends and innocent people, teamed up with the Shredder and his brand of awefulness, crushed a city block with your stupid Technodrome, cloned me, brought giant ugly earthquake-making worms here from your crazy dimension, made a brainless brain-switching machine, replaced one of my best friends with one of  _you_ , and  _now_ you're invading  ** _my_**  home like you own the place!" she shouted, listing all the horrible things that the Kraang were responsible for while the entire crowd watch with wide eyes.

 

Her eyes then narrowed dangerously, and she pinned the surprised aliens with the most hateful stare she could muster. "Well, let me tell you something, Kraang!" she said furiously. " _YOU CAN ALL GO TO **HELL!** "_

 

The second April yelled the last word, a shockwave of energy erupted from her, blowing Subprime off his feet, and short circuiting all the Kraang androids nearby.

 

The three teenager stared in surprise as several squealing Kraang scrambled away from their now useless robot bodies, including a vengeful looking Kraang Subprime.

 

"You go girl!" said Mikey pumping his fist in the air at the amazing thing April just did.

 

April turned to give Mikey a weak smile, before slumping forward in a dead faint, Donnie diving forward to catch her.

 

Holding her securely in his arms, Donnie turned to Mikey and said, "Come on, Leo said to meet back up at her house. They're all probably already there waiting for us."

 

Mikey nodded in agreement, and took April as Donnie examined the Shellraiser for anything salvageable. Finding that the Stealth Bike was still functional, he detached it, and the two climbed aboard, keeping April secured between them.

 

Without another word, the three drove off through the city to find the others.

 

_____________________

 

 

"Faster!" shouted Miwa as she Metalhead and Casey scrambled to get away from gigantic Kraang that was chasing them.

 

"You cannot run, Earthlings," Kraang Prime snarled as he stomped after them, and tried to hit them with his mutagen blaster.

 

They avoided it, but the mutagen instead hit a kid from their school, who had been cowering behind a dumpster.

 

"Your entire planet will transform!" Kraang Prime continued as he blasted everything in sight with his mutagen supply.

 

Metalhead paused long enough to send another missile at Kraang Prime, but it did about as much damage as the last one, and only served to make the massive alien angrier.

 

The robot flew along side the two teenagers and let out a series of alarmed sounding beeps.

 

"Nice try, Metalhead," said Miwa to him. "But save your ammo, it's useless against him."

 

Metalhead let out a disappointed sounding whine, but did as she said.

 

As the three hurried through the streets, they caught sight of several Kraang surrounding a cluster of humans, all of whom were looking terrified and trapped.

 

"We gotta help those people!" Casey shouted, grabbing a hockey stick from his bag.

 

Miwa nodded, and pulled out some throwing stars, and Metalhead brought his laser pistols out to shoot.

 

But before they could even get close, an arch of mutagen flew over their heads, and landed right on top of the frightened crowd and their Kraang keepers.

 

Miwa and Casey both stopped short in horror at the sight. The ooze didn't affect the Kraang who had been guarding the people, but the entire crowd of humans was now a pack of screeching Kraang hybrids like the others splashed before them.

 

Metalhead had to grab the two teens by the collars of their shirts and fly off with them before they could suffer the same fate, as a puddle of mutagen landed right where they had been standing seconds before.

 

"Thanks, robo-dude," Casey said in relief when he saw what nearly happened.

 

Metalhead let out a whirring sound, before setting the two back down to run, as they were too heavy to fly long distances.

 

"That must be why the Kraang were pulling all the people out of the buildings!" Miwa said, glancing behind her as she ran. "To make it easier to slime them in big groups, rather than pick them off one by one!"

 

"That's messed up!" Casey shouted back, and Metalhead beeped in agreement.

 

"WATCH OUT!" Miwa cried suddenly, and she tackled Casey to the ground to avoid a car that was aimed directly for his head. Apparently Kraang Prime had grown tired of chasing them, and thought that chucking cars would be a good way to slow them down.

 

The two teens curled up behind a large van as more cars came raining down around them, and only looked up when enough time had passed between the crashing sounds they made on impact.

 

Miwa opened her eyes to find that Casey had grabbed her in a tight hug and was simultaneously trying to shield her with his eyes squeezed shut. "You can let go now," she said dryly.

 

Casey's eyes snapped open, and he jerked away from her like he'd been burned. "Sorry, Babe- er, uh, I mean… Hey, where's Metalhead?" he said, quickly changing the subject, and turning so she wouldn't see his red face.

 

In response to his question, there was a loud beep coming from under one of the cars. Hurrying over, the two saw that the small robot was sprawled on the asphalt of the street with his arm pinned under one of the wrecked cars.

 

"You still with us, Metal-dude?" Casey asked.

 

Metalhead gave them a thumbs-up with his free hand, before trying to pull his pinned one free.

 

Casey and Miwa moved to stand beside him, and managed to tilt the car just far enough that Metalhead could pull his arm free, though it now hung uselessly from its socket, and occasionally let off electrical sparks.

 

Just then a shadow loomed over their heads, and they looked up to see Kraang Prime smirking down at them as he pointed his mutagen blaster at them. There was no way for the teens to escape in time, and no way for them to dodge.

 

"Goodbye, lower life-forms," said Kraang Prime smugly as his blaster hummed and got ready to fire.

 

But just then, a force rippled out from across the city and came at them all like a wave.

 

Kraang Prime paused in his attack to look back at it in confusion. His eyes then widened as the wave passed through him, and made his entire endoskeleton seize up, and then collapse to the ground.

 

Miwa and Casey also jerked back as Metalhead seemed to go haywire for a minute, before falling face first to the ground.

 

"Metalhead?" asked Miwa, poking the robot to see if she got a reaction, but none came.

 

Casey rolled the robot over, and they saw that the glow in his eyes was out, and he appeared to be shut down.

 

"I think that… whatever it was made him short-circuit," Casey said.

 

Miwa nodded, she then spied a motorcycle with a sidecar that was still in decent shape and jerked her head towards it. "Help me get him into that thing. Donnie'll kill us if we leave him."

 

"Plus he's been saving our necks all day," Casey added as he grabbed the robots legs as Miwa lifted his arms. "It wouldn't feel right to just leave him."

 

The two teens loaded the robot into the sidecar, but when Casey moved to climb onto the bike, he saw that Miwa was already sitting there hotwiring it.

 

"What are you doing?" he asked.

 

She shot him a deadpan look. "I'm getting us a ride out of here, so get on." She jerked her head at the portion of the seat behind her, and finished hotwiring the motorcycle, making it roar to life.

 

Casey scowled and crossed his arms. "Casey Jones does  _not_ ride bitch."

 

"Well, Casey Jones will just have to suck it up, or squeeze in with Metalhead," Miwa snapped back, looking unimpressed. "Don't be such a baby, and get on."

 

Casey opened his mouth to protest again, but was cut off when he heard a loud screech of metal behind them.

 

Turning to look back, both teens were horrified to see Kraang Prime slowly rising to his feet, looking angrier than ever.

 

The alien lifted his arm to no doubt shoot them again, but before he could do so, a missile launched from a bazooka smashed into the back of his metal plated head, and effectively distracted the creature.

 

"What!" screeched Kraang Prime, turning to see the army moving in to surround him, all their weapons pointed directly at the alien.

 

While the massive Kraang was distracted, Miwa snapped, "Get on the damn bike!"

 

This time Casey had no protests. He swung onto the motorcycle behind Miwa, and they took off down the street to April's house, leaving Kraang Prime to turn his fight to the army.

 

_____________________

 

 

Leo and Raph were still fighting for their lives against the Foot, and barely noticed as the wave passed them, unfortunately, doing nothing to the robotic ninjas.

 

But unbeknownst to them, the Shredder and his mutants observed the battle from above, the ninja master watching the two with interest.

 

"Master Shredder, if I may," said Fishface. "I thought you wanted to make Tang Shen's children your own. Why are you endangering them if that is the case?"

 

Shredder's eyes narrowed as he glared down at Leo. "Tang Shen's children should have been mine," he said harshly. "But because of Hamato Yoshi taking her from me, they have all been tainted by him. That one especially."

 

The hench-mutants glanced down at who he was looking at. "Raion?" asked Rahzar as he observer Leo slice through a Foot-Bot's arms, then kick the rest away.

 

"Yes," said the Shredder. "Every time I look at that boy, I see nothing but his father's treachery staring back at me. Even before I knew he was Yoshi's son, his leadership of the others has been a thorn in my side for far too long. Were it not for his interference, Tang Shen would have not fallen into the mutagen, and I would have coaxed her and Karai to my side months ago."

 

"And what about the other one?" asked Fishface, glaring down at Raph. "The turtle has been nothing but trouble from the start."

 

"I am aware of your rivalry with Iyasa," said the Shredder dismissively. "But I see potential in that one."

 

He watched as Raph ruthlessly stabbed a Foot-Bot in the chest, before using the robot as a battering ram to take down another four.

 

"You see yourself in him," Tiger Claw commented.

 

"Yes," said the Shredder. "His ruthlessness and rage would be a valuable asset to me. And the loyalty he shows to the others would be unparalleled if only it was turned in the right direction. Karai has many similar aspects, and is as deadly a fighter as ever there was."

 

"And what of the other two?" asked Rahzar, thinking of Mikey and Donnie.

 

"They are of less interest to me," the Shredder admitted. "But they would still have their uses. It has been reported Tenshi has a gift for manipulating Kraang technology, and if Stockman's claims are to be believed, Gifuto may be the key for creating a retro-mutagen for Shen and the turtles, rather than our initial theory that the Kraang had created it. Perhaps under the correct guidance they would be even more useful for me."

 

Tiger Claw cast a glance at Shredder. "And if they do not wish to follow you?"

 

Shredder's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Then I will  _make_  them do so."

 

There was a moment of silence as the villains went back to observing Leo and Raph's battle against the army of Foot-Bots.

 

"They fight bravely," Tiger Claw remarked.

 

"They are both young, overconfident, and foolish," said Shredder.

 

"What do you expect, they are teenagers after all," said Fishface.

 

Down below, Leo and Raph stood back to shell as they fought off their opponents one by one.

 

Leo tossed one of his swords like a javelin to impale a Foot-Bot throwing shuriken at them, then flipped over its fallen body to retrieve it while simultaneously taking out two more Foot-Bots.

 

Raph, meanwhile, was fighting just as fiercely, but he was being more and more affected by the cold, and it was slowing him down considerably.

 

Seeing this, Leo knew they had to end this fight now, or Raph could drop off, and not awaken until Spring. As he decapitated another Foot-Bot, he drew back to be nearer to Raph, and searched desperately for a way out.

 

Up above, Rahzar said, "Do not take chances with them, Master. We should destroy Raion quickly, and capture Iyasa while he is paralyzed with grief."

 

Shredder turned to the Foot-Bots on the roof next to him. "Archers."

 

At once, the robots drew back their bowstrings and took aim.

 

Just as Leo took down the last Foot-Bot on the ground, the Shredder yelled, "Fire!"

 

Knowing Raph would be too slow to dodge, and unwilling to leave his brother, Leo positioned himself between Raph and the arrows, and deflected each one with his swords.

 

Raph gritted his teeth at needing to be protected, but he could feel the drowsiness creeping into his mind, and knew he was in danger of collapsing. Still, he refused to back down and let Leo fight alone.

 

Just as he brought his sais up to help Leo deflect the arrows, he noticed one coming from a different angle that Leo hadn't yet seen.

 

"Watch out!" he yelled, throwing himself in front of Leo to block the shot with his body.

 

Leo sent him a horrified look as he heard a loud thunk as the arrow landed in Raph's back.

 

But the turtle merely gave him a tired smile, and said, "I'm okay. I'm the one with the shell, remember."

 

Leo glanced over his brother's shoulder to see that the arrow wasn't that deep in his hard shell, but the fact it was still sticking out like that made him uncomfortable. Reaching over to pluck it out, he said, "Right, let's not push our luck."

 

Raph sent him a smirk, then turned to glare at the Shredder and his lackeys on the rooftop. "Still hiding behind your Foot-Bots?!" he yelled. "Are you too scared to face us?!"

 

The Shredder's eyes narrowed, and he sent a signal to one of the Foot-Bots still on the ground.

 

A length of chain shot out of the shadows, and wrapped around Raph's torso, pinning his arms to his sides, and dragging him away from Leo until he was hanging from one of the walls of the construction sight with his toes barely grazing the ground. Despite this, he yelled his head off, and struggled hard against the chain even though the metal was digging into his scales and ripping his already ruined coat even more.

 

"Iyasa!" shouted Leo, running after his brother, but before he could reach him, another Foot-Bot jumped between the two, and Leo threw his sword at its head to take it down.

 

But it distracted Leo long enough that the Foot-Bot who had chained Raph managed to pull the cursing turtle over the fence and out of sight.

 

Seething in rage, Leo hopped the fence yelling, "Give me back my brother!" He didn't even bother to go back for his sword, leaving it where it was impaled in the Foot-Bot.

 

But the second he hopped the fence he got a brief glimpse of Raph bound, gagged, and held at sword point on top of a large exposed pipe, before another hoard of Foot-Bots jumped between the two of them, blocking the turtle from view.

 

With only one sword left, and no back up from his brother, Leo gave it his all to fight his way through them.

 

But the terrain had taken a turn for the treacherous, as where he now fought was where the construction for the sewer lines was being done, leaving a solid drop from their battle ground into the icy waters of the sewers.

 

Despite this, Leo continued to fight towards Raph to the best of his ability. He sliced, kicked, stabbed, and punched any Foot-Bot that got in his way, leaving them scattered like corpses behind him.

 

One Foot-Bot who was particularly hard to take down had Leo stabbing into one of the fences, leaving his sword imbedded in the wood too deep for him to pull out in time to take out the next robot running at him.

 

Pulling a concealed knife from inside his sword's hilt, Leo turned fast and stabbed the Foot-Bot in the chest, before kicking it down to the sewer below.

 

As he watched fall, breathing heavily from exertion, he failed to notice a Foot-Bot on the ground still had some life in it, and it grabbed his ankle and tossed him down into the sewers as well.

 

Leo screamed as he fell towards the icy water, but before he could go far, a large green hand caught him around his wrist, halting his descent.

 

Looking up in surprise, he saw Raph holding him there. Despite looking injured, frozen, and one cold breeze away from hibernation, his hotheaded younger brother still had a firm grip on his wrist, and began pulling him back to solid ground.

 

"Got t-tired of waiting for you to c-come get me," he snarked with a slight stutter as he helped Leo up, and pressed one of his sais into Leo's hands. "You can b-borrow this for awhile, b-but if there's one s-scratch on it later…"

 

Leo sent his brother a grateful look, and turned to once again lock eyes with the Shredder. "Let's finish this," he said firmly.

 

"You r-read my m-mind," agreed Raph, despite his shivering.

 

The Shredder stared down at them impassively, and his hench-mutants let out growls of anticipation.

 

" _Now_  you may finish him," said the ninja master, and the three mutants launched themselves at the boys, thirsty for blood.

 

With a battle cry, Leo and Raph rushed forward to meet them, but even so the three were able to land some hits on the two in their exhausted states.

 

But when Fishface decided to dangle Raph over the frigid water by his jacket, that was when something in Leo snapped.

 

With an enraged cry, he launched himself at Rahzar slashing him across the face before landing a furious kick on the canine mutant, throwing him into a pipe and knocking him out cold.

 

This distracted Fishface long enough for Raph to grab him by the water tube he used to breathe, and toss him over to join the dog, knocking him out as well.

 

The two then double-teamed against Tiger Claw. Leo rolled along the ground to kick him low, and Raph followed it up with a jump kick to the head, knocking the tiger flat, then used both of Raph's sais to pin him there.

 

The two paused for an instant to catch their breath, and Raph started to slump forward from the cold.

 

"Iyasa!" Leo said, catching his brother before he hit the ground, and straining under his weight.

 

"I-I'm s-s-so t-tired," Raph muttered into his shoulder as Leo hugged him against his chest to keep him upright.

 

Leo's brow pinched with worry, and he said quickly, "I'll get you out of here, It'll be okay, little brother."

 

Raph slowly raised his head to respond, only to freeze in terror at what he saw.

 

In a flash of lightning the Shredder had appeared too fast to give any warning.

 

Leo glanced behind him, but before either boy could do anything, the Shredder used Leo's own sword to stab him through the back, the tip of the blade going completely through him and into the upper left corner of Raph's plastron.

 

As Raph felt the pain blossom in his chest and the warmth of his older brother's blood mix with his own, a rush of horror and adrenaline coursed through his veins, waking him more than anything else possibly could, and putting all hints of hibernation at bay for the moment.

 

"Leo!" he yelled, falling to his knees as his brother seemed to slump against him.

 

With a yank, Shredder pulled the sword out of Leonardo, making the teen shudder in pain as Raph clutched him to his chest.

 

"And now you see what happens to those who defy me," the Shredder said with a stony expression on his face as he watched Raph stare helplessly at his brother.

 

That made Raph's eyes snap up to meet his. Rage burning behind his green eyes, and held back only by the weight of Leo in his arms.

 

But before Raph could find some way to get Leo to safety and rip the Shredder's head off, his brother was torn from his arms by a recovered Tiger Claw, and tossed by the hood of his shirt carelessly into the pit below as if he were something unpleasant.

 

" _LEONARDO!"_  shouted Raph as he scrambled to the edge and watched helplessly as he fell, heedless of the villains surrounding him.

 

Leo slammed onto the dirt surrounding the hole to the sewer, and began rolling towards the water, knocking loose all sorts of dirt and debris as he did so.

 

Including, much to Raph's horror, one of the canisters of mutagen that he and his siblings had failed to recover.

 

" _No!_ " he shouted, launching himself from the platform despite Tiger Claw's attempts to stop him. He skidded down the incline, and tried to catch up with his older brother before he hit the water.

 

But he wasn't fast enough. Leo fell with a splash into the cold sewer water, and the mutagen canister smashed against the edge of the pool and filled the water with a green glow.

 

"No," Raph whispered again helplessly as he stopped himself at the edge of the mutagen filled water, and crouched next to it peering into the glowing depths, heedless of his own blood still dripping from his wound and mixing with the green liquid.

 

Just as he was about to give up hope, a green three-fingered hand burst from the liquid, and Raph found himself catching it and yanking its owner up before even realizing what he was doing. With a tremendous pull, another turtle similar to how he and Mikey looked and wearing the tattered remains of Leo's clothes was dragged from the frigid depths, coughing and wheezing as he went.

 

"Leo?" he asked softly as he looked into the new turtle's face for any recognizable features.

 

Leo's blue eyes looked back at him for a minute and he seemed to be trying to tell him something, before the eyes drifted closed and he went completely limp, not even seeming to breathe.

 

"Wake up!" Raph said, hugging his brother to his chest. He then shuddered as his brother's new green scales came in contact with his own through his ripped coat. Leo's skin was like ice, and if Raph's own systems weren't running purely on adrenalin it might have been enough to make him drop off himself.

 

When Leo didn't wake up, Raph desperately pressed his ear to Leo's chest. For an agonizingly long moment he heard nothing, but then-

 

' _Thuh-thump.'_

 

Raph breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of Leo's agonizingly slow heartbeat, and sat there listening to it for a full minute before finally pulling away.

 

Only to remember where he was, and just who had currently surrounded him during his moment distraction.

 

"The boy still lives?" said the Shredder as he glared down at the two turtles. "Pity, then I suppose we will have to put him out of his misery."

 

Raph clutched his brother tightly to his chest despite the cold, and let out an animalistic sounding hiss at the villains surrounding him. There was no way he was letting them touch Leo again. They would have to pry him from Raph's cold dead hands first.

 

But then to everyone's surprise there was an answering hiss from above.

 

The Foot members all jumped back in surprise and alarm as Tang Shen suddenly dropped down to wrap her tail around Raph and Leo protectively, snarling at Shredder as she did so.

 

"Myyyy Babiessss!" she hissed, her nest of hair whipping wildly around her face as she sent a poisonous glare at those who had hurt her sons. Then some of the snakes in the nest seemed to arch back then stretch themselves from Shen's head to snap at the hench-mutants, making they jerk away in alarm.

 

" _Shen?!"_  said Shredder, his eyes widening in surprise at the sight of her.

 

Tang Shen only snarled in reply, and covered her sons as best she could.

 

Sensing another presence, Shredder turned around to see Yoshi standing at the edge of the hole, looking down at him with a glare that was just as poisonous as Shen's.

 

"Iyasa," said Yoshi, not taking his eyes off the Shredder. "Take your brother and Shen and go."

 

Raph looked up at his father with wide eyes. "But-!" he stared to say.

 

"Now!" Yoshi snapped.

 

Reluctantly, Raph patted his mother's scales to let her know he wanted her to let go. She, with equal reluctance, uncoiled herself from around him, and allowed him to shift Leo into a piggy-back. Once he was secure, Raph dropped down a smoke bomb, and the three reptiles vanished from sight.

 

The Shredder's eyes narrowed angrily, and he snapped at his hench-mutants. "Follow them! Bring me those I want alive, destroy the rest!"

 

"Yes, Master Shredder," all three chorused, and they took off.

 

Yoshi's eyes hardened when he saw this, but trusted that Raphael would be able to lead them away safely. Right now, he had something else to take care of.

 

"You have hurt my family for the last time, Shredder," Yoshi said, his voice darker and harsher than it ever had been before.

 

Shredder threw back his head and laughed. "I have not even begun," he replied, indifferent of all that he had done.

 

Yoshi's eyes narrowed to slits, and he threw himself down the hole at Shredder, and the armored man leaped up to meet him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know there was not mutagen there in the show, but for all we know there could have been some buried under the dirt, and this Leo just knocked it free. A lot of stuff happening at once in this chapter. Leo mutating with Raph watching, Miwa and Casey getting chased by Kraang Prime, Donnie and Mikey getting April back, Slash, Jason, and Malachi saving the latter two's parents. The secret room Slash finds in the sewers is the Lair from the 2003 series that Master Splinter finds in the first episode. I won't acutally bring in the Y'Lyntiansthough they will get a mention later. I needed a place to put those people, and that version of the Lair fit the bill.


	36. When it All Falls Apart Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang reunites, but with some of their members down for the count, they're far from safe.

When April, Donnie, and Mikey reached April's house, they found her father passed out on the floor of her living room.

 

April quickly grabbed a glass of water, and splashed it onto her father's face, making him wake up instantly.

 

Sighing in relief at the sight of his daughter, he sat up and said, "I just had the worst dream. The Kraang were trying to invade, and they were knocking on our door."

 

Mikey gave Mr. O'Neil a wide grin. "Don't worry Mr. O'Neil. Reality is way worse than your nightmare. Well, 'cept for the knocking part."

 

Mr. O'Neil paled as he realized it hadn't been a dream, and Donnie smacked Mikey on the head for freaking him out, but before he could berate him, Miwa, and Casey walked in lugging Metalhead between them.

 

"Everyone okay," Miwa asked.

 

Mikey beamed at them and ran over to hug Miwa, April nodded in reply to her question, Mr. O'Neil cowered in a corner, but Donnie was looking at Metalhead with a scandalized expression. "What'd you do to him?" he asked, hurrying towards his robot.

 

"It wasn't our fault," Casey protested as he and Miwa set the robot on the ground. "There was this wave thing that passed through the city. It knocked Kraang Prime on his ass, and shut Metalhead here down."

 

Donnie exchanged a glance with April, and she looked sheepish. "Sorry, Donnie."

 

Donnie waved her apology away. "I can fix him, don't worry. And what you did saved our lives, don't apologize for that, April."

 

April smiled back at him.

 

"I'm sensing there's a story behind this, but we don't have time for that right now," Miwa said, getting down to business. "We need to get out of here. Kraang Prime may have been knocked over by… whatever it was April made, but he was still able to get back up, and he was stomping this way last we saw him. The army was distracting him, but I get the feeling it won't last long."

 

"Yeah," agreed Casey. "He doesn't like us all that much."

 

Donnie looked towards the door, and noticed who was missing. "Where are Leo and Raph? Are they keeping watch outside?"

 

"Yeah, I thought they'd be with you?" asked Mikey.

 

Miwa and Casey both paled as it hit them that they'd forgotten all about the signs that Leo and Raph had been chased off by the Foot.

 

"Oh no," said Miwa, but before she could explain, there was a slamming sound from downstairs, and everyone hurried out to investigate.

 

Collapsed in the front hall of the O'Neil apartment was none other than Raphael, shivering and bleeding from a gouge in his plastron, holding another mutant turtle in his arms, and being fussed over by a serpent Tang Shen.

 

"Raph!" shouted Miwa, Donnie, and Mikey in unison, rushing down to him.

 

"I-I'm alright," Raph said between his chattering teeth. "H-help L-L-Leo."

 

His siblings paled as they took in the sight of their oldest brother, but had no time to freak out.

 

Donnie and Casey lifted Leo from Raph's arms, and Mikey braced himself at Raph's side to help him up the stairs.

 

This left Miwa alone in the front hall with Tang Shen, who was staring at her daughter unblinkingly.

 

Miwa hesitated, and said, "Uh, Mother…?"

 

Tang Shen stared at her for a second longer, before shifting into her more human form, and hugging Miwa to her chest.

 

"Sh-she m-m-missed you-u," Raph called over his shoulder at the sight.

 

Miwa stood ridged in her mother's arms, before slowly reaching out to hug her back. "I miss you too, Mother."

 

Tang Shen nuzzled her daughter's head, and let out a happy sounding hum.

 

When the two finally broke apart to head back upstairs, she found Raph with his chest bandaged and buried under a pile of blankets, and Donnie examining Leo as the red wearing turtle told his story.

 

"-And then Shredder just-just stabbed him in the back," Raph said, his rage at the events overcoming his need to stutter. "I tried to- but Tiger Claw just tossed Leo away from me down the pit. There was a mutagen canister buried down there, and Leo… he knocked it loose. It went into the water with him and-" Raph broke off to wave his hand at Leo vaguely. "Then Father showed up with mother, and told us to leave."

 

That was when Miwa really took a chance to look at her immediate younger brother. He was a turtle about the same height as Raph, maybe taller, as it was hard to tell with him lying down. His head was rounder than Raph, but without the chubby cuteness of Mikey's face. Strangely enough, despite the green scales, she could still see Leo in his face (or she could just be getting used to the idea of her brothers being turtles), but with him lying so still and hearing from Raph what had happened, she felt worry for him begin to grow in her chest.

 

"It may actually be a good thing the mutagen went in with him," Donnie said reluctantly. At the other's curious stares, the genius explained, "From the looks of things, Leo was stabbed really badly if the amount of his blood on your coat was any indication, Raph. But the mutation, the complete reconfiguring of his entire genetic code, seems to have mended the wound enough that he'll live."

 

To prove his point, the genius pointed at the spot on Leo's plastron where Raph said he'd been stabbed, but all they could see was a sword wound sized scar instead.

 

"Then why won't he wake up?" asked April, who was looking at Leo with a stricken expression.

 

"I think he's hibernating," Donnie said solemnly. "The shock of his injury, the mutation, and the cold was too much for him all at once, and his body shut down to its most basic instinct in response to cold."

 

"Then that means he won't wake up for months!" Miwa yelled in horror.

 

"I'm afraid so," said Donnie, hanging his head. "If he wakes up at all. With how badly he was hurt, and his mutation afterwards, there could be internal damage we're just not seeing."

 

There was a moment of silence as that sunk in. Then Raph surged to his feet, threw off his blankets, and stormed towards the door.

 

"Raph, where are you going?" asked Casey.

 

"I'm going back to that construction site, and I'm helping Father rip Shredder's fucking head off," he snarled in reply, throwing the door open.

 

"No you're not!" Donnie called after him, jumping to his feet to stop him, but Shen was faster. She shot forward, shifted to her Medusa form (earning a yelp of surprise from Mr. O'Neil) and wrapped around Raph so fast that he could move except to fall flat on his face.

 

"Thank you, Mother," Donnie said as he and Mikey dragged them both back into the room.

 

Raph squirmed in his mother's grip, but she refused to let him go. "What the hell, Donnie?" he demanded.

 

"You're not going anywhere, Raph," Donnie said firmly. "Your body temperature is dangerously low, and if you don't keep warm you'll end up like Leo. We can't have two brothers down for the count."

 

Raph scowled at that, but one glance over at Leo kept him silent.

 

"Yoshiii fiiine," Shen hissed softly to him. "Wiiith Leatttherrrheaddd."

 

"Leatherhead?" Mikey asked in surprise.

 

"Well that's something at least," Miwa said. Then she remembered their situation, and said, "But we can't stay here. Like I said before, Kraang Prime is out for our blood, and with the Kraang pulling people out into the streets, it's only a matter of time 'til he finds us. We need to move, now."

 

"But where can we go?" asked Casey.

 

Before anyone could answer his question, a shot blasted through April's window, and they heard Tiger Claw's voice echo from outside.

 

"Come out, Hamato Clan!" called the tiger. "We know you're in there!"

 

Raph growled at the sound. "Donnie, there's no way you're making me stay out of this one."

 

Donnie scowled as he peeked out the curtain and saw Tiger Claw flanked by his fellow mutants, and Foot-Bots surrounding the apartment, ready to break in. "As much as I'd like to see you wail on these creeps," he said. "Leo takes priority right now. We can't risk a fight while he's down like this, it's too risky."

 

Raph's face was thunderous, but he had to admit he was right. "Then here's what we're going to do…"

 

Just as Tiger Claw was about to signal for the Foot-Bots to bust in, they heard a shout of, "THIS IS FOR MY BROTHER!"

 

They looked up at the window Tiger Claw had shot through. Before any of them could dodge, a couch came flying out the window, smashing the glass further, and landed smack on top of Rahzar.

 

In the confusion, the apartment's occupants (Raph carrying Leo on his shell, and Casey and Miwa lugging Metalhead) burst out the door, and began running down the street.

 

Enraged, Tiger Claw began shooting after them, but Donnie chucked a smoke bomb at the feline's face, creating a smoke cover for them to escape in.

 

As they ran, Mr. O'Neil took the lead, and ran towards a van parked by the apartment. "Hurry, this way!" he called, eager to get his daughter to safety.

 

The teens and Tang Shen all stopped to stare at the van that Mr. O'Neil stopped in front of. It was an old van from the 80s that was bright yellow, and had all sorts of vibrantly colored hippie symbols painted on the sides.

 

"W-what the h-heck is th-that?" Raph asked, he could already feel the cold starting to affect him once again as his teeth chattered.

 

"It's my old party wagon," Mr. O'Neil said proudly. "From back in my hipster days. Groovy-"

 

But before anyone could blink, mutagen fell from the sky and landed right on top of Mr. O'Neil, soaking him in the ooze.

 

As Mr. O'Neil started screaming in pain, Kraang Prime stepped out from behind a building with a laugh.

 

They ooze melted away, and Mr. O'Neil was left looking like all the other Kraangatized humans. With a screech, he lurched at them with his tentacle-covered arms reaching out.

 

" _ Daddy! _ " shrieked April as she jerked away from him in horror.

 

But her father was beyond reason, and only continued to reach for her, screeching as he did so.

 

Donnie grabbed his girlfriend by the wrist and yanked her away from her mutated father, and they and the rest piled into the party wagon and Casey in the front seat floored it.

 

Mr. O'Neil tried to climb onto the van as they drove off, but a flick of Shen's tail knocked him away.

 

Casey had to use some crazy driving maneuvers to escape, as Kraang Prime was determined to have them all join Mr. O'Neil as Kraang zombies.

 

Finally, the vigilante managed to make a sharp turn into an alley too narrow for Kraang Prime to follow, and they heard him growl after them, "I'll get you all!"

 

_____________________

  
  


Leatherhead crouched in wait as he watched Yoshi fight against Shredder. It was only out of respect for Yoshi that he stayed hidden for now. He knew that the father of his friends wanted to enact this fight alone, but should the need arise the alligator wouldn't hesitate to come to his a

id.

As he watched, Leatherhead's thoughts were cast back to Jason and Malachi. He dearly hoped the two of them were now safe in the Lair with their families, and that perhaps Slash had had better luck finding the other three Hamatos than he'd had.

 

He also hoped that Raphael and Leonardo had reached safety as well. The two had been in bad shape when he'd seen them leave, but he knew Tang Shen would protect them, and he did not want to leave Yoshi without backup.

 

As he watched the fight, he could hear the taunts that Shredder was hurling a Yoshi along with his fists. "You grow tired, and your skills have grown  _ weak!  _ Yet I am stronger than ever! Fueled by anger. By  _ Rage! _ "

 

Leatherhead growled from his hiding place. Yoshi was tired from spending days worrying over Tang Shen's condition. A condition she wouldn't be in if it hadn't been for the Shredder.

 

Not for the first time, Leatherhead wanted to rush from his position and bite the monster in metal's head off. Tang Shen was a dear friend of his. She had been able to calm his temper better than anyone else, and had helped him contain it enough until he felt confident about letting others get close to him, leading to him allowing Jason and Malachi into his sewer home. But now, unless it was during Shen's moments of clarity, the serpent within her could only see Leatherhead as a predator, and would show him nothing but hostility whenever he drew near. The sight of which made Leatherhead's heart ache every time he saw it.

 

But his urge to join the fight was satisfied for a brief moment when Yoshi struck out with both fists, and slammed them into Shredder's chest sending him flying several feet and sprawled across the ground.

 

"Rage is the fuel that burns quickly," Yoshi snapped as he glared down at his former friend.

 

"Always the wise one," Shredder snapped back as he threw several kunai at Yoshi, which he was able to dodge, but doing so distracted him from a punch Shredder aimed at his chest.

 

Taking advantage of that punch, Shredder followed it with several more, before throwing Yoshi against a crane. Before the man could recover, the load of pipes the crane had been carrying fell from above, and straight towards Yoshi.

 

Yoshi dove forward to dodge, but one of the pipes landed on his ankle, pinning him to the ground.

 

As he strained to get free, Yoshi looked up to see the Shredder towering over him. With rage burning in his eyes, Shredder reached down and grabbed Yoshi by his beard, and aimed the retractable blade of his gauntlet at Yoshi's face.

 

"What wisdom do you have now?" snarled Shredder. "Knowing that your death shall allow me to claim what was always meant to be mine."

 

Yoshi only glared back at him, and Leatherhead knew that the time of waiting was over.

 

As Shredder brought his blade down towards Yoshi's face, Leatherhead burst from his hiding spot, destroying the wall he was hiding behind, and taking the madman completely by surprise.

 

Before the Shredder could react, Leatherhead crashed down on top of him, clamping his powerful jaws around his torso, and biting down with enough force that he would have snapped the man's back if not for his armor.

 

Leatherhead bit down again and again, shaking the Shredder from side to side as his instincts told him to tear the metal monster apart. He then lifted Shredder up and slammed him to the ground repeatedly before throwing him into a nearby scaffolding.

 

Satisfied that the man was taken care of, Leatherhead hurried over to where Yoshi still lay trapped.

 

"My friend," he asked, "are you hurt?"

 

But Yoshi was focused on something behind him. "LOOK OUT!" he shouted.

 

Leatherhead was too slow to react, and Shredder leapt onto his head from behind.

 

The alligator roared and thrashed, finally managing to throw him off, only to be assaulted the Shredder's fists, each one hitting a pressure point that seemed to make Leatherhead's body lock up and become more difficult to move.

 

Once Leatherhead was down, and almost immobile, the Shredder unsheathed the blades of his gauntlets, and slashed Leatherhead across the back. The sharp metal cut through his thick skin, and made Leatherhead roar in pain.

 

Desperate to fight back, the alligator surged back to his feet, only to be kicked down the same hole that Leo had been, and splash into the water below.

 

Fortunately for him, the mutagen had since been washed away, making it no more dangerous than regular sewer water. But with Leatherhead's joints still locked up, there was little more the alligator could do but feel himself be pulled along with the current away from Yoshi and Shredder.

 

When Yoshi saw the Shredder take out yet another person dear to him, another member of his clan, he felt a surge of fury course through his veins. With strength he hadn't known he'd possessed, he threw the pipes pinning him off, and charged the Shredder in a fit of rage.

 

Not expecting his old rival to use such tactics, the Shredder was ill prepared to block him as Yoshi tackled them both down the hole after Leatherhead, and into the icy depths below.

 

_____________________

 

Finally free of the giant Kraang on their tail, Casey pulled the party wagon to a stop a block from the construction site where Yoshi and Shredder had been fighting.

 

"What now?" Casey asked, glancing back at all of them.

 

As one they all looked down at the unconscious form of Leo. With their leader out of commission, they were unsure of what they should do next, and there was no one who wanted to make the decision for them.

 

But wanting to or not, this was a decision that had to be made.

 

Raph gritted his teeth, and hopped out of the van. "We gotta find Father," he said, turning to the others.

 

But the second he stepped foot out of the vehicle, a cold wind blew past, making Raph start shivering all over again.

 

"I agree, Raph, but you need to sit this one out," said Donnie, climbing out beside him. "You're hurt, and still in the hibernation danger zone, and you know what will happen if we don't keep you warm."

 

Raph scowled at that, but with a quick glance at his slumbering brother, he reluctantly climbed back into the heated van.

 

"What about Leo?" asked Mikey, who was still crouched next to his oldest brother.

 

"We shouldn't move him," said Donnie. "Doing so might only make him worse."

 

"Do you even think Father is still at that place?" asked Miwa. "What if-"

 

"Don't even go there, Mi," said Raph firmly, refusing to believe anything else. "Father and Leatherhead will kick Shredder to the curb, but we still gotta get to them."

 

He frowned, and then added, "You guys go to the site and try and find them. Me and Casey'll keep Leo in the van, and go back to the dojo to get supplies."

 

"Supplies?" asked April.

 

"The Kraang have invaded, Donnie's Turtle Mech isn't anywhere near finished, and we are two down, and completely outnumbered," said Raph, looking more defeated with each word he uttered. "No matter how you look at it, this isn't a fight we can win, so we have to get out of the city."

 

There was a stony silence following Raph's words as they all exchange glances. Hamato Raphael, the one of them to always  _ hate _  the very idea of retreat was telling them they should run away.

 

It was a clear testament of just how bad things were, and they all knew it.

 

They all slowly nodded, and Mikey, Miwa, and Tang Shen climbed out of the party wagon to follow Raph's plan.

 

"When you get to the dojo, I want you to grab these for me," said Donnie, and he rattled off a list of chemicals and supplies. "We'll need them to care for Leo, and keep working on the retro-mutagen wherever we go," he said when he finished.

 

"And don't forget Ice Cream Kitty," said Mikey desperately, worried about leaving behind his mutant cat.

 

"I'll get her, don't worry," Raph assured him as he shut the van door.

 

As Casey started up the party wagon to pull back out onto the street. Glancing at his best friend in the rearview mirror. "We're stopping by my place before we go to yours," he stated firmly. "If we're leaving town, we're taking my family with us."

 

Raph nodded in agreement, and they drove through the deserted streets in silence.

 

_____________________

 

Struggling fruitlessly against his own body, Leatherhead tried to regain control and swim back to aid Yoshi. But every attempt was useless. All he could do was hold his breath, and hope he regained use of his limbs before he ran out of air.

 

He didn't know how many tunnels he was washed through, but just as he felt he was about to burst from lack of oxygen, a large hand reached into the water and hauled him out.

 

"You okay, Leatherhead?" said the gravely voice of Slash above him as the giant turtle peered down at him.

 

Leatherhead struggled to move, but all he was able to grate out was, "Pressure… points…"

 

Slash's eyes widened in understanding, and he reached over to prod Leatherhead in the chest.

 

After a few more prods, Leatherhead felt his body snap free of its invisible restraints, and he pushed himself to his feet.

 

"Living with ninjas all your life can be very informative," said Slash when Leatherhead looked at him questioningly. "I saw Master Yoshi do that sort of thing I don't know how many times."

 

That reminded, Leatherhead of what he'd been doing, and he quickly turned to head back to the construction site.

 

"Where are you going?" Slash asked in surprise as he saw the alligator take off.

 

"Yoshi was fighting the Shredder," Leatherhead said over his shoulder. "I have to go back and help him."

 

As if on cue, a Kraang walker that had been stomping around too much crashed through the ceiling from the street above, and blocked Leatherhead's path back.

 

With a snarl of rage, the alligator smashed his fist through he glass roof of the Walker, and pulled the disoriented Kraang from its seat, and used his tail to smack the squealing alien down a tunnel into the dark sewers.

 

Slash looked at the damage, and then turned to the angry alligator and said, "C'mon, I was about to go to Casey's place to check on his family. You should be able to get back to where you were from there."

 

Leatherhead glanced at him, and nodded gratefully.

 

As the two mutants made their way through the dark tunnels, Leatherhead asked, "Where are Malachi and Jason?"

 

"Safe, as are their parents," Slash replied. "We found a big place hidden here in the sewers to put them.

 

"Why not simply take them back to the Lair like we planned?" asked Leatherhead.

 

Slash glanced over his shoulder and gave the gator a dry look. "If you met Jason's parents, you'd understand. They're some of the most ungrateful and intolerant humans I've ever seen. Trust me, you don't want them in your house."

 

Leatherhead decided to take his word for it for now, but he would rather make up his own mind later. If they were related to Jason they couldn't be that bad, right?

 

But then Leatherhead remembered that Jason would rather continue to live in the sewers with him and Malachi than to go back home to the two of them, which lent more weight to Slash's words than he would have liked.

 

"I also tried at April's place," Slash continued. "No one seemed to be home, so I moved on. But with how paranoid Mr. O'Neil is, it's possible that he was just hiding from me, and has been preparing for something like this for months."

 

A few minutes later, Slash found a ladder to a manhole, and the two mutants climbed out.

 

Only to arrive just in time to see the Kraang start marching through the streets right for Casey's apartment.

 

Seeing this, the two mutants exchanged glances. Both knew that Leatherhead wouldn't be able to get past that many Kraang back to the construction site, and Slash would likely need all the help he could get to save Casey's family from the Kraang.

 

"Come on!" said Slash as he ran to the apartment building that Casey lived in, Leatherhead right behind him.

 

As they hurried through the building to where Casey lived, Leatherhead caught sight of several terrified eyes staring at him and the turtle through cracks in their doorways as they passed.

 

"The Kraang are coming this way!" he shouted, making those staring jump in surprise. "Hiding will do you no good! If you do not run now, you will end up mutated monsters like us!"

 

The only response he received was for the cracked doors to slam shut as their occupants cowered in fear.

 

"Nice try," said Slash as he came to Casey's door. "But maybe you shouldn't have used the word ' _ monster _ '. People are less likely to trust your words if you describe yourself as one."

 

Leatherhead hung his head, and cast a regretful glance at the doors holding frightened humans.

 

Slash, meanwhile, knocked on Casey's front door. "Mr. Jones! Shadow! Come out! You gotta get out of here, now!"

 

There was a frightened squeak from a little girl on the other side of the door, but it didn't open.

 

With a growl of frustration, Slash kicked the door in, and immediately had to bring his hand up to block a bat swung at his head.

 

"Get out of my house!" snarled Mr. Jones, as he brought the bat back up to swing again. The man looked a great deal like his son, dark haired, tall, and using one of his son's own bats as a weapon. But where Casey was scrawny and clearly still growing into his body, Mr. Jones was solid muscle and every bit of it was determined to protect his daughter, a small, blond haired girl who was cowering behind the couch, watching them with wide, frightened brown eyes.

 

As Mr. Jones brought the bat down at Slash again, the turtle caught it, and wrenched it from his grip.

 

Slash frowned at the bat in his hands, and then held it out of Mr. Jones reach. "I'm try to help you here!" he snapped.

 

The man's eyes widened when he found himself weaponless, but he refused to budge from standing between Slash and his daughter. "I said  _ Get Out!" _  the man demanded, standing strong.

 

Slash rolled his eyes. This was wasting too much time, and the Kraang would be there any minute.

 

"Mr. Jones, it's  _ me _ , Spike," he said trying to reason with the man. "Remember? Raphael used to bring me over all the time."

 

That got both of the Jones family staring at him with wide eyes. "You're Raph's pet  _ turtle? _ " Shadow asked in disbelief.

 

"Bullshit!" shouted Mr. Jones, looking like he'd been clubbed over the head with a trout.

 

"It's true!" Slash insisted earnestly. "It's a long story, but the aliens who made the stuff to turn me into this are coming, and they won't hesitate to mutate you too. You have to get out of here now!"

 

"Prove it," said Mr. Jones, his eyes narrowed.

 

Slash sent an embarrassed glance at Leatherhead, before heaving a sigh and saying, "When I was still small and Raphael brought me over, Shadow used to… to stuff me in her dolls' dresses and call me Princess Spiky, no matter how many times Raphael told her not too."

 

There was a long silence after that as Mr. Jones gaped at him and Shadow's eyes lit up as she remembered that.

 

"Spiky!" she called brightly, coming out of her hiding place to run over to the giant turtle. Looking him up and down, she said, "I'm going to need to get you bigger dresses."

 

Slash caught sight of the look on Leatherhead's face, and glared at him, daring him to laugh.

 

To his credit, the alligator stayed silent, but there was an unmistakable smirk on his face.

 

"H-how-?" Mr. Jones asked as Slash handed him back the bat, deeming it safe enough to give to him, then he glanced Leatherhead. "And-and who's he?"

 

"Later," the turtle said. "Like I said, we need to go before the aliens get here."

 

On cue, the Kraang kicked in the entrance to the apartment building, and began dragging people from their homes to join the groups to be mutated outside.

Leatherhead immediately snarled and launched himself at the alien, ripping any he could to pieces, and allowing the people to escape.

 

Slash jumped to join Leatherhead, and the two were able to beat back several of the Kraang, and barricade the door.

 

"Everyone out the back!" Slash yelled to the terrified people in the building. "Try to escape into the sewers! There aren't as many there!"

 

The people only stared at the mutants in fear until a voice rang out among the crowd. "Do what he says!"

 

The crowd all turned to look in surprise at Mr. Jones.

 

"Arnold?" asked an elderly woman in surprise.

 

"We should do what he says," Mr. Jones repeated, hugging Shadow to his side, and the baseball bat over one shoulder.

 

"Why?" asked a freaked out looking man.

 

"Because we know him, he's Raph's pet turtle," Shadow piped up, making all the people stare at her and start muttering amongst themselves.

 

Slash sent the two a grateful nod, before addressing the people. "Listen to me. Those aliens out there," he said, pointing at the barricaded door, which was shaking as the Kraang tried to break back in. "They're the ones created the stuff that turned me from a regular turtle into this. And now they're planning to drag you all out onto the street and pour the same stuff on you. And trust me, you don't want that to happen. But if you follow me, I promise I can take you somewhere safe."

 

"And why should we trust you?" shouted a fat ugly man in a stained white wife beater.

 

"Because I'm trying to help you. It's  _ your _  choice whether you take it or not," Slash replied firmly, with a hint of anger in his voice. "But my friend here and I are getting out of this place before those Kraang break back through. If you want to come, then come."

 

With that the mutants made their way through the crowd, and the people hurried to part and let them pass.

 

As they walked past Mr. Jones, the man fell into step behind them, Shadow's hand held tightly in his.

 

Seeing this, several more people hesitantly followed the mutants out of the building, but unfortunately, the majority continued to give Slash and Leatherhead mistrustful and fearful looks, and went to barricade themselves back in their apartments.

 

"I don't care what those dumb aliens do, so long as they don't mess with my TV," the ugly fat man said rudely as he went back to room.

 

Leatherhead stared back at those who refused to come with them, but knew if he tried to force them to come, they would only see him as a monster, and the fragile trust they had with the bunch that had agreed to come with them would be broken. So with great reluctance, he turned and helped Slash make sure the coast was clear, before leading the people to the nearest manhole.

 

As the people climbed down into the sewers, Mr. Jones turned to Slash and said, "What about Casey? We can't just leave him!"

 

Slash hesitated, but Leatherhead spoke up, "I believe your son is with the rest of the Hamato Clan. I know my friends will protect him with their lives."

 

Mr. Jones blinked at Leatherhead owlishly, and Shadow asked, "You know my brother?"

 

Leatherhead crouched down to look the girl in the eye, and said fondly, "Yes, Casey Jones is a good friend of mine. My name is Leatherhead, little one."

 

Mr. Jones stared at him, before asking, "Wait, you're that LH character that Casey's been mentioning?"

 

"My friends have been known to call me by that," Leatherhead replied.

 

Mr. Jones looked like he was convinced that all this was a crazy dream he would wake up from any second, and in a daze he and the rest of the humans followed the large mutants through the tunnels to safety.

 

Back in the apartment building, the Kraang succeeded in breaking down the barrier, and dragged all of the remaining people out into the streets to be mutated, leaving the building vacant of all life.

 

Not long after they left, the party wagon holding Casey, Raph, and Leo pulled to a stop in front of Casey's apartment building.

 

The vigilante paled at the sight of the busted down barricade, and bolted from the van and into the building without a second thought.

 

Pausing only to wrap a blanket around his shoulders, and make sure Leo was safely locked in the car with the nonfunctioning Metalhead, Raph hurried out after him.

 

He found Casey standing in front of his kicked in door looking pale and drawn.

 

"No, no, no, no,  _ No! _ " he heard Casey say, before darting into the apartment.

 

"Dad!" Casey yelled as he searched each room. "Dad! Shadow! Answer Me,  _ Please!" _

 

But the apartment was empty and silent.

 

Overcome with grief on the conclusion he'd come to at the sight, Casey slammed his fist into the wall hard enough to make a dent, and stood there breathing heavily as he tried to keep from breaking down.

 

Feeling terrible for his friend, Raph reached out and put a hand on Casey's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Case."

 

"Don't apologize," said Casey as he glared darkly at his abandoned apartment. "Just promise me that we'll get the Kraang for this."

 

Raph's face darkened as well, and he said, "Trust me, Casey. When we're done with them, the Kraang will wish they'd never even heard of Earth."

 

Nodding in satisfaction for the moment, Casey turned and headed for the door.

 

"Come on," he said, refusing to look at Raph (who was pretending not to notice the vigilante wiping his eyes roughly). "Let's go get those supplies, and get out of here."

 

Raph silently followed after him, and they drove off towards the dojo.

 

_____________________

 

Tang Shen led the teens the rest of the way to the construction site, only to find it utterly devoid of Yoshi, Leatherhead or Shredder, and only the trashed Foot-Bots littering the area were the sign that anything had even happened.

 

"Father!" called Miwa, as she hurried through the construction site to where Raph said he'd last seen him.

 

But all that met her call was silence.

 

"Leatherhead!" shouted Mikey, searching for his gator friend. "Where are you?"

 

Donnie searched the area as well, before glancing back to see April with her finger's pressed to her temples.

 

"They're not here," she said as she put her hands down. "I don't sense either of them."

 

As Miwa continued to walk through the site, she found one of Leo's swords sticking out of a Foot-Bot near the perimeter. Following the trail of sliced Foot-Bots back into the site, she found Raph's sais stuck into the ground, along with Leo's other sword which was still coated in its owner's blood.

 

Picking up the sword and wiping it clean as if that would undo what had happened, Miwa whispered to herself, "What kind of monster does something like this?"

 

Donnie, Mikey, and April exchanged glances, not knowing how to answer, and Shen shifted back to her human form to hug Miwa again.

 

Suddenly, April froze up and her eyes went wide as images flashed before her eyes.

 

"April?" asked Donnie in concern, but his girlfriend barely heard him. All she could see and her was flashes of Shredder and Yoshi fighting, and it was making her head feel like it would explode.

 

"Ah, my head!" she yelled, clutching it in pain.

 

Instantly Donnie was at her side, looking her over for what was wrong. "April, what is it?" he asked.

 

"Master Yoshi," she said, her hands still pressed to her temples. "I can sense him." She finished with a scream of pain at a blow she saw her sensei take. Her eyes snapped open, and she started hurrying from the site. "He's close!" she shouted as she led the way.

 

The others didn't hesitate to follow.

 

April took them to a nearby manhole, and quickly climbed down it to the sewers below. After several twists and turns, she came to a halt in front of a barred off opening, showing an open room with a large pool of drainage in the center of it beyond it.

 

April gripped the bars tightly as she stared into the room, and the two fighting within it, barely noticing as the others crowded next to her.

 

"Now I will tear you to pieces," came the dark voice of the Shredder, and they watched in horror as Yoshi barely dodged Shredder's strikes with his blades.

 

"Dad!" shouted Mikey as he gripped the bars desperately, and shook them trying to find one loose enough to slip through.

 

But Yoshi barely cast a glance at his family, and he shouted, "Go! Leave this place!"

 

"Fitting that your children are here to see you fall," snarled the Shredder, barely looking at them as well.

 

It was clear to those who watched that the two ninja masters were both exhausted, and injured. It was only sheer willpower keeping them going, and it would not last much longer. Then it would only be a question of who fell first.

 

As her children watched this in horror, Tang Shen also searched the bars for a weak spot, eventually finding one that wiggled slightly, and began tugging at it with all her strength.

 

"You can do it, Master Yoshi!" shouted April encouragingly as Yoshi took a knee to the gut, and doubled over in pain.

 

"Father, end this!" shouted Miwa next to her.

 

But before their eyes, Shredder pulled out a capsule of blinding powder, and threw it in Yoshi's face.

 

His eyes stung from the dust, but Yoshi immediately focused on his hearing, and as he heard the Shredder coming to strike, his fingers shot out at the optimal points to strike first and with the most damage.

 

The Shredder was thrown back through a wall with great force, and Yoshi turned his attention to his family.

 

"Now, quickly," he said. "We must find a way to get out of here."

 

But before anyone could even blink, the Shredder was back and he lashed out a devastating blow to Yoshi's neck, sending the man sprawling to the floor.

 

Shredder only paused long enough to spin a valve to make the drainage start rush out, creating a whirlpool in the basin of water.

 

Then as Yoshi, weakly started to get back up, Shredder rushed at him again, intent on finishing what he started fifteen years ago.

 

As the teenagers cried out in horror, Tang Shen managed to yank the bar aside just far for her snake-like flexibility to squeeze through, and bolted towards the Shredder.

 

" _ NO! _ " she shouted diving between Yoshi and Shredder, protecting her husband from the coming blow.

 

For the two ninja masters, it was the fight from fifteen years ago all over again. Shredder attacking, Yoshi injured, and Shen between them ready to take the blow in her husband's place.

 

For an instant, it was as if time stood still for the three involved as it sank in that this was really happening again.

 

Eyes widening in horror, Shredder activated the mechanism in his gauntlet to sheath its blades, but was otherwise unable to stop the blow from coming. With a powerful punch, the Shredder's fist slammed into Tang Shen's chest, knocking her backwards into Yoshi, and sending them both crashing hard into the far wall, then tumbling into the raging whirlpool.

 

" _ MOTHER! FATHER!  _ **_NO!_ ** _ " _  shouted Mikey, Donnie, and Miwa practically in unison while April stood next to them, speechless with horror.

 

Shredder, realizing what he had done, stood motionless at the edge of the whirlpool, and could only watch helplessly as his mutated beloved and his hated enemy sank beneath the water and out of sight.

 

Desperate, Miwa dove for the opening Shen had created, but lacked the flexibility to squeeze through it the way her mother had.

 

Pulling herself back in frustration, she threw herself at the bars and howled in rage. "YOU, Shredder!" she screeched. "If it's the last thing I do, I WILL  _ END _  YOU!"

 

The Shredder glance back at her blankly, before turning and walking away, hunched over in pain from the injuries he'd received, and the realization that he had lost the woman he loved once again.

 

Miwa screamed in fury at the back of him, but the scream soon turned to a sob as she slumped to the floor in tears. Mikey dropped to his knees next to her, and brought her into a hug, his eyes equally tearful.

 

April, feeling numb from what she'd just seen, only had enough thought process to reach over and bring a shell-shocked Donnie into her arms.

 

"We should go to the Lair, then find Casey and Raph," Donnie said as if in a daze. "We need to get out of here now…"

 

With nothing else they could do, the other teenagers nodded, and made their way out of the sewers and back to the surface.

 

_____________________

-

When Raph and Casey got a text on where to meet the others, they hurried over there in hopes that they had good news.

 

They were not expecting to see four distraught teenagers and no sign of Shen, Yoshi, or any of their other friends.

 

In concern, Raph threw the van's doors open for them to climb in, and said, "What happened?"

 

Mikey slipped into the van, and hugged tightly Raph before they could tell him the terrible news.

 

Raph stared at his brother with an uncomprehending expression, before looking at the others in confusion. "What-?"

 

"Raph," said Donnie quietly. "Mother and Father, they-" He broke off and looked away as it was too painful to say.

 

"Shredder threw them down a drain," Miwa said, her voice bitter with grief. "We saw them sink, and we couldn't- we couldn't do  _ anything! _ " She slammed her fist against the wall of the party wagon, before curling up on herself, as if shutting out the whole world.

 

Raph felt like the floor had just dropped out from under him, and if it hadn't been for Mikey's grip on him, he'd likely have flown into a rage where he'd hurt someone (most likely himself). But as it was, he could only sit there rigid, and hoarsely ask, "And the others?"

 

"We didn't see Leatherhead with Father. And we went to the Lair to look," said Donnie, his eyes fixed to the floor of the party wagon. "But they were nowhere in sight. I think they might have…" he didn't need to finish the sentence, as Raph could fill in the blanks.

 

Raph felt a warm wet on his chest, and looked down to see that tears were streaming from Mikey's cheeks and into the cracks of Raph's bandaged plastron as the youngest pressed his face into his older brother for comfort.

 

Raph wrapped his arms around Mikey and squeezed his little brother tighter to him, before turning to a stricken looking Casey in the front seat. "Get us out of here, Case," he said dully. "There's nothing else we can do."

 

Casey shook himself, and turned back around to start the van, and pull out onto the street.

 

They drove in silence for a few minutes, before Casey suddenly slammed on the breaks throwing all of them forward, and making Raph reach forward to catch Leo before his sleeping form could be jostled by the movement, and Donnie doing the same for the still shut down Metalhead so that he wouldn't fall on anyone.

 

"Casey, what-?" April started to ask, but cut herself off as she caught sight of what had made the vigilante stop so suddenly.

 

Standing at the end of the road looking murderous was Kraang Prime once again.

 

"This time I've got you," the giant Kraang snarled at them.

 

At a signal from their leader, several more standard Kraang came out of the alleys and along the edges of the rooftops to point their weapons at the van. Kraang Walkers and Stealth Ships reared up, and pointed their lasers at the party wagon as well, leaving the teenagers with an entire army between them and safety.

 

"Oh man," said Casey nervously at the sight of the sheer number of Kraang surrounding them.

 

"Get us out of here, Hockey Boy!" Miwa snapped.

 

Needing no further prompting, Casey grabbed the gear shift, and put the party wagon into reverse, before flooring the pedal and sending them screeching backwards.

 

Knowing Casey would have a hard enough time driving away from this many aliens, to say nothing of doing it backwards, Mikey popped himself up in the back, and kept an eye on where they were going.

 

"LEFT!" Mikey yelled, as they came to a turn.

 

Casey yanked the steering wheel in that direction, and the van jerked left, before Casey could switch back to drive, and shot forward now that he could go in the right direction. But it was of little help, as the Kraang were still on their tail.

 

"What can we do, Donnie?" Raph yelled, holding Leo to his chest to keep the unconscious turtle from being jostled.

 

Donnie sent his older brother a panicked look. "I don't know!" he shouted. "This thing doesn't have any weapons, and I have nothing on me to take out that many Kraang at once!"

 

Miwa peered out the window beside them, and saw where they were going. Glancing down at the remaining Boom Stars in her belt, she pulled herself into the front seat next to Casey, and said firmly, "I do."

 

The others glanced her way, before nodding. Agreeing to follow her plan, whatever it was.

 

"Take a left," Miwa said as they came upon the next intersection. "Now right."

 

Casey followed her directions while constantly having to swerve the car to avoid getting shot by the Stealth Ships' lasers.

 

Miwa strained her eyes to see what she needed to, and once she spotted it, she pointed out the window and shouted, "There! Turn in!"

 

Casey did as she said, but blinked in surprise as he found himself turning into a gas station. "Uh, Babe?" he said, knowing they had only a minute or two until the Kraang caught up. "This thing's got a full tank. What are we doing here?"

 

Miwa pulled out her last five Boom Stars, and held them up for the others to see. "Fire in the hole," she said, mimicking Donnie's cry from earlier.

 

The others' eyes widened as they caught on to what she meant, and Donnie said, "You realize that what you are suggesting is highly dangerous, and will most likely kill us all."

 

Miwa simply nodded, her face resolved.

 

The others exchanged glances, before opening the van doors to implement her plan. "So long as you know," Donnie said as he went to work on the gas pumps.

 

The teenagers did their work quickly, then piled back into the party wagon and waited for the perfect opportunity.

 

As the Kraang closed in, Casey started the car, but kept his foot on the break. "Remember," said Donnie as he pressed himself at the back of the van to watch the aliens grow closer. "We can't go until they are at just the right spot."

 

"I know, man," Casey hissed to him, keeping an eye on the Kraang from the side mirrors. "But it doesn't make it any easier when they're pointing giant lasers at you."

 

Seeing them parked at the gas station, Kraang Prime let out a laugh. "Finally you see that there is no running from your fate," he taunted.

 

"Steady," said Donnie, keeping his eyes glued on where the Kraang needed to be for this to work.

 

"So why not have Kraang put you out of your misery," said Kraang Prime as he grew closer, his mutagen blaster pointed directly at their vehicle, and the rest of the Kraang forces drawing back to let their leader do his work.

 

"Steady."

 

"The Kraang have been waiting a long time for this moment," Kraang Prime continued to gloat. "It was Kraang who found your planet millions of years ago. It was Kraang who used mutagen on the monkeys, turning them into lowly humans. And it is Kraang who now transforms your world, and puts the meddling kids in their place." He stepped closer and powered up his mutagen blaster, a look of malicious glee on his face.

 

"One more step," said Donnie as the others grew nervous about how close the giant Kraang was.

 

"And Kraang has had enough games," Kraang Prime said. "Goodbye, lowly insects."

 

With that, the giant alien took that last step, and Donnie roared, "NOW!"

 

"Booyakasha," Miwa said darkly as she tossed an activated Boom Star out the window towards the nearest pumping station.

 

The star beeped shrilly as it was thrown through the air, and landed in the dripping trail of gasoline that the teens had let flow freely from the pumps.

 

The second it landed, Casey floored the pedal, and the party wagon took off like a shot.

 

With a shout of rage, Kraang Prime tried to run after them, only for the Boom Star to explode, setting fire to the trail of gas, and making the pump explode, which set off a chain reaction to the other Boom Stars stuck to the other pumps, making the whole gas station go off like a giant bomb.

 

"THIS IS SO METAL!" shouted Casey gleefully as he used all his driving skills to outrun the explosion. The rest of his friends screamed in the back seat as it looked like the flames would catch them any second.

 

Kraang Prime screeched as he was caught in the blast. His body was thrown back, crushing his own troops, and the metal endoskeleton ejected its giant passenger. The Kraang leader scrambled away from the burning wreck, but was unable to avoid being burned by the flames.

 

Howling in pain, Kraang Prime searched furiously for those who had caused it, but the party wagon and its occupants were already out of sight, making him roar in outrage.

 

Meanwhile, the teenagers drove through the New York streets, which were now crawling with Kraang hybrids, and other signs of the Kraang's invasion. The high from their victory had quickly dissipated at the sight of all that they had still lost.

 

Now that there was less chance of Leo getting tossed around, Raph lay him back down, and wrapped a blanket around him to keep him warm. "I'm sorry, Leo," he whispered to his brother. "I should have watched your back better."

 

But Leo lay still and silent.

 

"What are we gonna do now?" asked Mikey, looking miserable.

 

April glanced around at her friends. "I have a place we can go upstate," she suggested. "My old family home. We used to go there every summer. We can stay as long as we want, no one's around for miles."

 

"Upstate, huh," said Casey, not taking his eyes off the road. "Sounds good to Casey Jones."

 

The vehicle fell silent as the teenagers tried to do their best to take comfort in each other. But one fact was looming very clearly over all of their heads as Casey turned them onto the interstate.

 

They had lost…

 

_____________________

 

In the rushing water, Yoshi had gone limp in Shen's coils, as the serpent woman tried to find a way for them to swim to safety.

 

Just as she was certain that she would not be able to hold her breath any longer, an opening appeared above their heads, and Tang Shen swam towards it, dragging Yoshi along with her.

 

She pulled herself out of the water, and lay her beloved down on dry land. Nuzzling his face, but receiving no response, she hissed, "Yoshiii?"

 

Yoshi took a shallow breath, but otherwise was unresponsive.

 

Shen stared down at him. She could feel her humanity slipping away from her once again, but she desperately held on to a single thought through the feral haze engulfing her mind.  _ 'I must protect him!' _

 

The serpent mutant blinked her green eyes, and surveyed her surroundings. Spotting a rat scurrying nearby, one of the serpents on her head shot out with a lightning fast strike. It then curled back, and dropped the dead rat into Shen's mouth, where she swallowed the creature whole.

 

Hunger satisfied for now, she glanced back at the unconscious man next to her, and turned to leave him where he was.

 

' _ I must protect him! _ '

 

Shen stopped at the thought, and glanced back at the man, who's shallow breathing was the only sound in the sewer chamber aside from her hissing snake hair.

 

Slowly, Shen coiled around Yoshi, hoping to warm him as she waited for him to regain consciousness.

 

' _ I must protect him!' _

 

' _ And I will.' _

 

_____________________

 

At a museum in Chinatown, Ho Chan let out a sigh of aggravation from within his dagger prison. His powers of foresight had been telling him that today was the day he would be set free to spread his might across the land once again.

 

But then the idiot gangsters who had been supposed to steal his dagger and free him had been snatched up by some strange metal people with brains in their stomachs, and turned into brainless brain-creatures with no interest in setting him free.

 

Ho Chan sighed, and tried to make himself as comfortable as a ghost trapped in a dagger could be.

 

Maybe he would be set free  _ next _  millennium.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nd there you have it. The Kraang have invaded, the teens are fleeing, and the future Mighty Mutanimals have started setting up shop for their hero team. I hope I did well with this. Also, I couldn't resist adding that end joke to show why I skipped Chinatown Ghost Story.
> 
> On another note, my sister is graduating college this week, so I'm traveling out to see her. Unfortunately, that means I'll be using my travel computer, and I don't have the chapter files for this fic on it. I will be updating my Kindom Hearts/Epic Micky fic on Wednesday as usual, but I'm afraid this fic won't be updated again until I get home next week. See you all then.


	37. The Stories We Share

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They made it out of New York, but a new environment doesn't change what happened.

It was a long, and mostly silent car ride to Northampton before the Hamato Clan teenagers arrived at April's country home.

 

But finally, the party wagon turned into the dirt driveway past a rusted old mailbox that still said 'O'Neil' in faint, scratched paint.

 

As Casey pulled to a stop in front of the house, Miwa looked out the windshield skeptically at it. "This it?" she asked.

 

April opened the back door of the party wagon, and hopped out to take in the sight of her family's old farmhouse. "Yup, this is it, guys." she said.

 

"What a dump," Casey blurted out, making Miwa elbow him in the gut.

 

April took a second glance at the farmhouse, and noticed that since her last time there when she was six, the place had become very worn down. Some windows were cracked, and the paint had peeled off several parts of the building.

 

"It looks haunted," Mikey whimpered behind her as he looked out.

 

Raph slapped Mikey on the back of the head for that.

 

"It's not haunted, bonehead. April would know if it was," Miwa added dryly.

 

Mikey shot April a desperate look, and the redhead replied, "It's not."

 

Mikey let out an audible sigh of relief at that.

 

Donnie, who had been monitoring Leo's vitals the entire trip, looked over at April and said, "Is there more than one bathroom?" he asked. "We'll need to put Leo in a place that will keep him hydrated until he wakes up. Regular turtles burrow into moist ground to hibernate, but…" Donnie trailed off and glanced down at the latest of his family to mutate. "I don't think any of us want to bury Leo alive. So if we can let him constantly soak in lukewarm water, it should be fine."

 

The rest of the group exchanged uneasy glances at that thought, and nodded in agreement.

 

"Yeah," said April. "There's two bathrooms in the house. One upstairs and one down. We can keep Leo in the upstairs one. If I remember right, its bathtub is bigger. We just need to make sure the water still works."

 

Donnie sent her a grateful nod, and Raph and Mikey moved to gently lift Leo from the van, and carry him into the house. Fortunately, while Raph had been gathering supplies at the dojo, he and Casey had managed to get Leo onto Donnie's x-ray machine, and fire it up, saving the image on Donnie's laptop. Thanks to that, the genius was able to conclude that Leo was not suffering from any prominent internal damage, and other than hibernating he should be fine.

 

But what he didn't share with the others was his concerns of what Leo's mutation could have caused. Mikey and Raph had both been mutated with pure mutagen straight from the canister. Leo, by contrast, had been dunked in sewer water mixed with mutagen, and until he awakened it was unclear what problems that could cause, both mentally and physically.

 

The genius privately vowed to create an elixir that would repair any damage the diluted mutagen could have done, as well as do his best to make more retro-mutagen to help his family, and the rest of the city.

 

The second they stepped inside, the entire group started coughing as ten years of dust kicked up around them.

 

"Looks like an early spring cleaning is on our list of things to do," Miwa said, pulling her scarf over her nose to avoid breathing in more dust.

 

Unable to do anything without dropping Leo, Mikey and Raph had to suffer through their sneezing fits as they carried the hibernating turtle up the stairs after April to the bathroom.

 

Fortunately, when April tried the faucet she found it worked, and the tub was soon filled with lukewarm water.

 

Mikey and Raph lowered their brother gently into the tub, and Donnie worked to position him to ensure his head never slipped below the water.

 

There was a moment of silence as everyone stared down at the turtle in the tub, and everything that had happened once again sank in.

 

Then slowly they trickled out of the room, unable to bare the silence any longer.

 

All, that is, except Raphael.

 

"You coming?" asked Casey when he saw his best friend lingering next to the tub.

 

Raph glanced his way, then shook his head. He silently reached over to grab a stool in the bathroom (no doubt once used by a child April to reach the sink), and sat down upon it, almost never taking his eyes off his brother the entire time.

 

"Suit yourself," said Casey with a shrug as he followed the others back downstairs.

 

The truth was he was starting to get concerned for the red wearing turtle. Raph had fallen silent after they had left the city, and hadn't spoken a word since.

 

When Casey reached the bottom of the stairs, he saw that the others were all opening the windows, despite the cold, allowing all the dust to waft out.

 

"We should clean before anything else," April explained when she saw him. "Just because there isn't snow outside right now, doesn't mean it'll stay that way. We should try to make this place livable while the weather is still good."

 

She then glanced at the stairs behind Casey and asked, "Where's Raph?"

 

Casey glanced back behind him, and shrugged. "I think he wants to keep an eye on Leo for now."

 

"You think?" asked Miwa.

 

Casey gave her a helpless glance, and shrugged again. "He didn't say anything."

 

The others glanced at each other at that.

 

"It's weird," said Mikey, looking concerned. "Raph's usually not this quiet."

 

"I think he's in shock, Mikey," Donnie admitted, also looking worried. "The trauma of what he saw happen to Leo, along with the rest of all that happened finally caught up with him now that the adrenalin in his system is gone, and going silent is some sort of coping mechanism. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if we all start showing signs of trauma after what happened. We just need to coax Raph back out of his shell, so to speak. Say things that encourage him to answer, and he'll start talking again…"

 

The ' _I hope'_  was not said, but they all heard it anyway.

 

Miwa slammed a window open and glared at what she saw out it. "He saw the Shredder stab our brother with his own sword, and then mutate into a half-dead turtle. If he's traumatized, I don't blame him," she said bitterly.

 

There was an uncomfortable silence that followed that remark.

 

Feeling awkward, Donnie gave a cough, and said, "So, April, where'd you keep the cleaning supplies around here?"

 

_______________

 

The cleaning of the farmhouse lasted all day, and served as a good distraction for those involved. By the time night fell, a person could walk through most of the house without gagging on dust, and the place no longer smelled as musty. Donnie had even managed to get the old heating system working, and Casey and Mikey had double-teamed cleaning the fireplace so that they could use it later, so the whole house started feeling toasty, especially in the living room

 

But throughout it, Raph never left Leo's side in the bathroom, and did little more than stare silently at his sleeping brother the entire time. At April's prompting, he had dully accepted some offered cleaning tools for the bathroom, but other than that a quick scrubbing of the entire room, he had not moved from his stool.

 

"It's like both of them are hibernating," Mikey whispered to Donnie and Miwa as the three siblings peered into the bathroom to spy on their brothers.

 

Even though there was no way Raph hadn't heard what Mikey said, he didn't give any indication of doing so.

 

Miwa shot Donnie a look over the youngest's head, and the genius winced as he realized what it meant.

 

Leaving Mikey to continue his spying, the two made their way down the hall where into the room April was sharing with Miwa to talk in private.

 

"You're thinking about that conversation we had a few months ago, aren't you," Donnie said. "The one we had after Mikey mutated."

 

"How can I not?" Miwa asked. "It's looking like it'll come true more and more."

 

Donnie shook his head. "Just because you saw us as turtles in other dimensions, doesn't mean it'll happen here. It doesn't mean  _I'll_  be turning into a turtle next, Mi. And even if I do, first thing I did when coming here is tack the recipe for retro-mutagen to the fridge, and told everyone where it is. Even if, by some chance, I  _do_  mutate, and am unable to make a retro-mutagen myself, I trust that you guys will be able to follow those instructions and help me. Whatever happens, we can fix it."

 

Miwa crossed her arms, and nodded grudgingly. "Just promise me you'll be careful, Donnie," she said. "You haven't said anything, but I can tell by how you act that you're worried how Leo will be when he wakes up."

 

Donnie refused to look at his sister as the guilt and frustration he felt at not having answers welled up in him once again. "Like I said, we'll fix it," he said shortly as he walked back out of the room.

 

"Yeah, I thought so," Miwa said as he shut the door behind him.

 

_______________

 

The next day was far too bright and sunny for the gloomy mood that was hanging over the O'Neil farmhouse.

 

Mikey, unable to sleep from nightmares, had risen unusually early and made breakfast for everyone. Thanks to the supplies Casey and Raph managed to grab, he was able to cook up a diverse (if unhealthy) spread.

 

With all the food piled onto the table, he nodded in satisfaction, threw his head back, and bellowed at the top of his lungs,  ** _"BREAKFAST IS ON! COME AND GET IT!"_**

 

There was a series of bumps and swears, as Mikey's shout had no doubt startled at least more than one teenager out of their bed and onto the floor.

 

Slowly, the rest of the house emerged from their rooms and took their place around the table.

 

"Morning!" Mikey chirped, trying his best to be cheerful enough for all of them.

 

What he got in response was a series of groans and mumbled replies.

 

Laughing slightly at how bedraggled they all looked, Mikey paused when he noticed one place at the table was still empty. "Is Raph still sleeping?" he asked the others.

 

Casey yawned and shook his head. "Nah, I saw him as I was coming down. He never left Leo last night. I don't think he even slept."

 

Instantly all eyes were drawn to the door to the upstairs bathroom and the two turtles within.

 

Unable to take the silence, Mikey snatched up his plate, and reached over to grab Raph's. "I'll take his food up and eat with him," he said, though this time his cheer was a lot more forced. "He hasn't eaten since before the- before we left, so he's gotta be hungry by now."

 

The youngest didn't miss how the others exchanged glances at his suggestion, but he ignored it and hurried up the stairs.

 

Pushing the bathroom door open, he spotted Raph still parked on his stool, his eyes glued to Leo's face.

 

"I didn't want you to miss breakfast, bro," the orange wearing turtle said, shoving the plate of food into Raph's hands. "It's the most important meal of the day."

 

He then reached over to close the lid of the toilet and sat himself upon it. "I'll stay and eat with you," he continued, as if not noticing Raph's silence. "I just made it all fresh, so eat it while it's hot."

 

Raph made no response, but to Mikey's relief, he picked the fork off the plate, and mechanically began eating the food.

 

Releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding, Mikey beamed at his brother. At least he was eating, even if he didn't seem to be enjoying it at all. In the back of his mind, Mikey couldn't help but wonder if he could have given Raph cockroaches to eat, and the turtle would have given the same response.

 

Remembering what Donnie had said about trying to get Raph to talk, Mikey said, "Nice place April's got here, right?"

 

Raph just swallowed a bite of food, and scooped up another.

 

"I mean, we've never been to a farm before," Mikey continued as if that hadn't bothered him (even though it did). "Closest we've ever been is the petting zoo."

 

Silence.

 

Mikey tried not to let this discourage him, and he racked his brain for more to say.

 

Glancing over at Leo, Mikey's eyes lit up, and he said, "Remember that time when we were eight, and I really wanted to pet that goat even though it was off limits. If it hadn't been for Leo, I'd probably be in a wheelchair right now."

 

That got a response. Raph set his fork down, and turned to give Mikey a questioning look, clearly having no idea what he was talking about.

 

Grinning at the reaction, Mikey set his plate down to tell the story. "It was a dark and stormy night-"

 

At Raph's deadpan expression, Mikey's grin widened, and he amended, "Okay so it was really just a regular day at the petting zoo…"

 

_______________

 

_It was a sunny summer day in New York City, and Yoshi and Tang Shen had decided to treat their children to a trip to the zoo._

 

_All five were delighted for various reasons. Miwa and Raphael wanted to see all the ferocious carnivores the zoo had to offer, and argued loudly between themselves over which of their favorites would win in a fight._

 

_Donnie was eager to learn everything he could about the multitude of creatures, and spent most of his time there pestering the zookeepers and tour guides with various difficult questions that they had a hard time answering._

 

_Mikey just wanted to name every animal that he saw, regardless if the zoo had already given them names or not (besides, the names the zoo had given them were inferior to the sheer awesomeness of the names Mikey had picked)._

 

_Leo never said why he had wanted to go to the zoo, but he had enjoyed the day nonetheless. Especially when they stopped by the lion pen, where he was ecstatic to see his namesake._

 

_But finally, after a long (and exhausting) day of walking through the zoo, the Hamato family came to a stop at the petting zoo before leaving._

 

_Raph immediately went over to the handler with the baby crocodile, and he and Miwa got into another argument over if it was actually a crocodile or an alligator. The handler would have set them straight, but he was currently too busy being distracted by Donnie's insistent questions._

 

_Mikey, on the other hand, was determined to pet and name every animal in the petting zoo, and Leo trialed a ways behind him to keep him out of trouble._

 

_Mikey managed to get to every single chicken, rabbit, duck, sheep, pony, and even the llama in the penned in area, and was about to call it quits when he heard a bleating sound in the colorful barn that the animals slept in at night._

 

_Ignoring the 'Keep Out' sign, Mikey snuck into the barn and looked around. "Hello?" he called._

 

_There was another bleat, and the sound of a hoof pawing the ground._

 

_Grinning at finding another animal, Mikey followed the sound to a paddock holding a big goat with large horns._

 

" _Hi!" said Mikey brightly to the goat. "I think I'll call you…" he paused as he thought hard about it. "Little Big Horn," he declared triumphantly._

 

_The goat only blinked in response._

 

_Seeing as he hadn't pet this animal yet, Mikey wasted no time climbing over the paddock gate, and into the stable with the goat. As he came closer to the animal, he failed to notice how agitated it got with every step he took._

 

_When he was close enough, Mikey reached out to stroke the goat's muzzle, only to pull back his hand with a cry of pain._

 

_Looking at the bleeding bite mark on his head, Mikey barely noticed that the goat had brought its head down, and was running at him. But at the last second he saw it coming, and ducked out of the way, making the goat crash into the wall of the stable, shaking the entire structure._

 

_That only seemed to make the goat angrier, so it turned so that its horns were pointed at Mikey again, and it pawed the ground as it prepared to charge again._

 

_Not waiting for it to do so, Mikey bolted for the gate and safety. Behind him, he could hear the goat gaining on him, determined to ram the boy with its horns._

 

_Mikey managed to reach the gate, but when he tried to climb up it, the bite on his hand flared in pain, making him let go and drop back into the goat's path._

 

_The little boy squeezed his eyes shut as he waited for the animal to crash into him, only to open them in surprise when he felt someone grab the collar of his shirt, and yank him upwards._

 

_Looking around wildly, he saw Leo with his legs braced against the top of the gate so that he could reach down and haul Mikey to safety._

 

_Leo had just managed to tug Mikey up to the top of the gate when the goat crashed into it, sending them both tumbling off it as the door shook._

 

_Fortunately, they fell away from the goat, and back into the barn._

 

_Mikey felt tears well up in his eyes, both from the scare he'd just had, and the fact that his still bleeding hand was throbbing in pain._

 

_The fact that Leo was standing over him looking furious didn't help matters._

 

" _Are you crazy, Mikey?" Leo demanded, waving his hands in the air for emphasis. "I know you have a hard time reading, but the sign had pictures that said not to come in here! If it wasn't for me, that goat would have turned you into a pancake!"_

 

_Mikey let out a hiccup, then burst out crying, making Leo stop his rant and really look at him._

 

_With a sigh, Leo reached into his pocket for some tissues he kept there, and pressed them to Mikey's injured hand. "Don't scare me like that. Okay, Mikey."_

 

_Mikey nodded tearfully, and allowed Leo to lead him out to their now frantic parents._

 

_______________

 

"- Mom and Dad wouldn't let me watch any TV for a week when they found out, and I had a ton of extra training when my hand was better," said Mikey as he finished off his story. "But if it wasn't for Leo looking out for me, who knows what would have happened. He's always looking out for us, you know?"

 

Raph had been listening silently to the whole thing, and shook his head in what looked like amusement at the tale.

 

Seeing that, Mikey scowled, "Hey, that goat was vicious I tell you! VICIOUS!"

 

Raph sent him a look that clearly said _, 'If you say so.'_

 

Mikey huffed, and scooped up his now cold plate, and took Raph's empty one from him. Casting one last look at Leo, he felt the good mood he'd gotten from sharing the story falter.

 

Then he felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked over to see Raph standing next to him. Raph gave his shoulder a little squeeze, before turning to sit back on his stool and resume his watch on their oldest brother.

 

Mikey sent him a grin, before heading back downstairs with the plates. Hopefully April's microwave still worked, and he could finish his meal.

 

_______________

 

When Mikey reported what had happened with him and Raph, Donnie felt that it was a good sign. Though he still hadn't said anything, he was still responding to those around him, and paying attention to the present.

 

Still, the genius was a little uneasy as he stood outside the bathroom with his first aid kit in hand. He had given all their injuries treatment on the ride to the farmhouse, but now it was time to check them again.

 

Taking a deep breath, Donnie knocked on the door, before pushing it open and stepping inside.

 

Raph was staring up at him curiously, but didn't voice any questions.

 

Donnie let out a nervous chuckle, and held up the first aid kit. "I want to look Leo over again," he said. "Make sure I didn't miss anything."

 

Raph nodded, and silently helped Donnie lift Leo out of the tub so the genius could get a better look at him.

 

The process only took a few minutes, and Donnie declared that Leo had no new injuries, and the two gently put him back in the tub.

 

With that done, Donnie looked over at Raph, and said, "Now it's time to change your bandages," he said. "In fact, it's overdue time to do that, but with yesterday…" Donnie trailed off and waved his hand vaguely, unable to find the words to describe it.

 

Raph nodded in understanding, and sat at his stool at an angle that would allow Donnie to get to his shoulder wound without trouble.

 

That unnerved Donnie far more than the silence had. When it came to injuries, Raph was one of the worst patients there were. He would always either insist that he was fine, or that he could take care of it himself, even if he actually couldn't. Seeing Raph act so  _complacent_  just wasn't right.

 

Biting his tongue to keep from voicing this, Donnie busied himself with unwrapping the bandages around Raph's shoulder to reveal the lightning bolt shaped chunk missing from his plastron and the puckered and raw scaled flesh beneath it.

 

Looking at the missing chunk, Donnie couldn't suppress a shudder at the thought of how Raph had received it. Leo's wound had closed during his mutation, so it was easier to ignore, but it was clear Raph would always bare the scar of what had happened that day.

 

Of just how close they'd come to loosing their oldest brother…

 

Raph saw that reaction and patted Donnie shoulder awkwardly, but offered no words of comfort.

 

Swallowing his distaste at the thoughts in his head, Donnie focused on cleaning the wound, and wrapping a fresh set of bandages around it.

 

"There," he said as he tied the last knot. "Any discomfort?"

 

Raph rubbed the bandages, but shook his head in reply.

 

"Right," Donnie said awkwardly.

 

A part of him was sorely tempted to just leave Raph to his vigil, but he knew he had to do his part to help his immediate older brother out of his slump.

 

Taking a leaf out of Mikey's book he blurted out, "Remember back when Vernon Fenwick was picking on me in grade school?"

 

The look Raph gave him made it clear the turtle was questioning his sanity.

 

Donnie coughed and started again. "Maybe you don't. It wasn't like Vernon was beating me up or anything. It was what he said that got to me back then."

 

The look on Raph's face darkened, and Donnie got the feeling that if Vernon wasn't currently a Kraang-hybrid trapped back in New York, he would likely have been finding himself getting his teeth punched out by a vengeful turtle.

 

Donnie smiled at Raph's protectiveness, and continued, "It was back when the school finally decided to let me skip third grade and instead start the fourth early…"

 

_______________

 

_Donnie waved his hand wildly in the air, wanting the teacher to call on him to answer the question on the board._

 

_The teacher, a kindly old woman named Mrs. Morrison, smiled at him and said, "Yes, Donatello, what is the answer."_

 

_Donnie beamed as he rattled off the correct answer to the question, before sitting down feeling very proud of himself._

 

_It had become clear practically since kindergarten that Donnie was a gifted student. His ability to soak up knowledge like a sponge always shined through in an academic setting, and his perfect grade point average was solid proof of that._

 

_Unfortunately, his intelligence often left him bored in the classes with kids his age, and because of that he often got convinced to go along with whatever hijinks Mikey, Raph, or (on the rare occasion) Leo would come up with. Hijinks that more often than not ended with trouble._

 

_So Donnie was utterly ecstatic when the school finally allowed him to move up a grade, and begin more challenging classes._

 

_The first few days of school were awesome in Donnie's opinion. He was finally learning things he didn't already know, and the challenge of learning it was great. He was in a different class than Miwa, but he didn't mind that too much._

 

_But a week after school started that year, Donnie began noticing things he hadn't before._

 

_Whenever he raised his hand to answer questions, he would hear the soft sound of people snickering around him._

 

_Unsure of whether or not that he was the cause of the quiet laughter, he started paying more attention to when other people answered the questions. But he never heard it for them, it was only when he rose his hand that the giggling started._

 

_Determined to find the source of the laughter, Donnie made sure to pay attention to the students around him the next time he rose his hand._

 

_There!_

 

_From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Vernon Fenwick leaning over to whisper in the ear of the boy in front of him. The boy let out a snicker at whatever Vernon said, and Donnie was so engrossed in paying attention to them, that he almost failed to answer the question._

 

" _Donatello?" asked Mrs. Morrison, prompting him back to the present._

 

_Jerking his attention forward, Donnie said, "Oh, uh, forty-seven, ma'am."_

 

_That time he didn't have to pay attention to the other students, as the snickering they all did at his expense was perfectly audible._

 

_Mrs. Morrison didn't notice it, and instead gave Donnie an encouraging smile. "Correct," she said, writing his answer on the board, and explaining how Donnie had solved for that._

 

_Later that day at recess, instead of going to meet with his brothers and sister like he usually did, Donnie subtly followed Vernon and his gaggle of friends as they went to a corner of the playground._

 

" _-And did you see the look on his face," Vernon was saying in a snooty tone of voice as Donnie got close enough to hear. He began dancing around and waving his hand in the air mockingly. "Ooh, ooh, pick me, Mrs. Morrison, I'm such a boring bookworm that I know everything."_

 

_Vernon's friends laughed, and Donnie felt his heart sink as he realized they were making fun of him._

 

_Vernon stopped his act, and let out a snort. "What a loser," he said. "I bet he tries so hard to get the teacher's attention 'cause he can't get it from anywhere else. Suck-up Teacher's Pet."_

 

" _Yeah," agreed one of Vernon's friends. "He's got, like, three brothers and a sister. I bet he studies so hard because they think he's too boring to hang out with."_

 

" _Poor kids, having to put up with that," laughed another._

 

_Donnie practically wilted at what he was hearing. His siblings didn't 'put up' with him. Did they?_

 

_Unbidden, he remembered all the times his siblings made jokes about him being a nerd, or them saying they didn't want to hear his technical explanations for everything. Had he really been that much of a bother for his siblings at those times?_

 

_It was like a train wreck. Donnie hated what he was hearing, but at the same time he couldn't turn away. He spent the rest of recess sitting and listening in on all that Vernon and his friends had to say about what a dull nerd he was. It wasn't until he reflected back later that he realized that the entire time he was eavesdropping, the group of boys would subtly glance in his direction as though to check if he was listening._

 

_He went back the over the next week to hear much of the same thing. He never heard Vernon and his crew mock anyone else. It was just him that got the treatment, and he felt awful for it._

 

_After that Donnie rarely raised his hand in class, and he ignored the worried glances Mrs. Morrison shot him at the change in his behavior. That same day when he went home, he shut himself in his room to study so he wouldn't be a bother to his siblings._

 

_He did the same the next day, and pretended not to notice the concerned looks everyone in his family was giving him, or how Mrs. Morrison pulled him aside to offer an open ear if he needed it._

 

_But he didn't say anything to anyone, and continued to keep his insecurities to himself. He likely would have continued to do this if it hadn't been for one roadblock in his misery._

 

_Leonardo._

 

_On the third day of his self-imposed isolation, Leo dragged Donnie aside, and said, "Okay, what's wrong."_

 

_Donnie opened his mouth to say something along the lines of, 'Nothing,' but Leo held up a hand to stop him before he did._

 

" _And I **know**  something is wrong, so don't say it isn't. I notice these things," he continued. "You've been locking yourself in your room, and Mom got a call from school that you've been acting weird in class. So what's wrong?"_

 

_Donnie stared at his feet. "Leo…" he said quietly. "Do you…?"_

 

" _What?" Leo prompted._

 

" _Do-you-think-I'm-a-boring-nerd?" he blurted out in a rush._

 

_Leo looked at him in surprise, then he frowned. "Did Raph say that?" he demanded._

 

_Donnie shook his head quickly, not wanting to start another fight between his brothers. "No, Vernon did."_

 

_Leo's eyebrows climbed up his forehead in surprise. "Who's Vernon?"_

 

_Donnie went back to studying his feet. "A guy from my class," he muttered._

 

_Leo frowned angrily, but he put a hand on Donnie's shoulder and said firmly. "Listen to me, Donnie. You are about as far from boring as a person can get."_

 

_Donnie looked at his brother in surprise, but Leo continued, "You're smarter than all the rest of us, and we're all proud of that (even if we don't tell you that much). Who else knows how to keep Mikey entertained by making chemistry kits blow up, or taking apart the toaster to make it work better. Not to mention the fact you, me, and the others are going to be **ninjas**  someday. That's about as far from boring as you can get."_

 

_Donnie was studying his feet again, but this time out of bashfulness rather than shame._

 

" _So I don't want to hear any more about you being all weird and avoiding us," Leo concluded, trying to mimic their father when he lay down the law._

 

" _Okay," said Donnie, still bashful._

 

_Leo nodded in satisfaction, and turned to head for the living room. Space Heroes was about to come on, and he didn't want to miss it._

 

" _Leo," Donnie called after him, making him pause. "Thanks for noticing."_

 

_Leo glanced back at him and grinned. "Anytime, little brother."_

_______________

 

"-After that I went back to being my usual self, to heck with what others thought," Donnie said as he finished his story. He then sent Raph a grin and added, "Strangely enough, the next day Vernon and his friends all showed up with black eyes and bruises, and didn't laugh at me anymore. I  _wonder_  how that could have happened."

 

Raph snapped his fingers as if he had just remembered something, and Donnie felt his grin widen.

 

Packing up his first aid tools, he made his way towards the door. Pausing at the threshold, he said, "Raph, you know you can talk to us if something's bothering you. Right?"

 

Raph glanced his way and nodded, but still didn't say anything.

 

Feeling that was as good as he was going to get, Donnie nodded back and walked out the door. He still needed to fix Metalhead, and April said he could set up a lab in the barn…

 

_______________

 

As the morning wore on Donnie got help from April in moving his meager lab supplies into the barn, as well as the still non-functioning Metalhead. As he did so, he told her about his and Mikey's excursions into the bathroom, and how they both had told Raph old stories from their childhood about Leo, and how he seemed to be listening if nothing else, and showing signs of being more animated even if he still wasn't talking. Either way, it was a vast improvement to the lifeless stillness that Raph had displayed yesterday.

 

So when lunch rolled around, April took that as an opportunity to give it a shot herself.

 

When Raph didn't come down for lunch either, April grabbed the sandwich Mikey had made for him, and volunteering to take it up.

 

Walking into the bathroom, she slapped on a look of false cheer and practically chirped, "Hey Raph, want some lunch."

 

Needless to say, Raph was looking at her like she was crazy.

 

Wind taken out of her sails, April let the grin fall from her face, but still managed to keep a polite smile and hold out the plate of food.

 

Still eyeing her, Raph reached out and took the sandwich from her and started eating it.

 

April saw that he was still staring at her expectantly. With a small laugh, she said, "Are you expecting me to tell you a story about Leo too?"

 

Raph nodded slowly.

 

"Do you want me to?" she had to ask.

 

Raph gave her a half shrug that seemed to say,  _'If you must.'_

 

April let out another laugh at that, and looked over at poor Leonardo in the tub, her face falling slightly at the sight.

 

"You know, I haven't been friends with you guys for very long," she said to start. "We didn't even talk to each other before Dad was-" she broke off as the memory of what happened to her father flashed through her eyes.

 

She saw Raph looking at her in concern, and she quickly buried her own pain and waved a hand at him. "I-I'm fine," she said with a smile that was more than a little watery. "It just feels like I just got my Dad back only to loose him again, you know."

 

Raph glanced over at Leo, and nodded in agreement.

 

Swallowing her tears, April focused her gaze on Leo, and said, "But anyway, just because I haven't known you guys for all that long, doesn't mean I don't have a story to tell…"

 

_______________

 

_For April O'Neil, her life was on cloud nine, and she couldn't be happier for it._

 

_She had her Father was back! And Donnie. Sweet, brainy, and caring Donatello had braved an entire Kraang facility to bring him back to her. April was torn at being horrified of the danger they'd been in, and thinking that it was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for her._

 

_She had absolutely no regrets about accepting Donnie's invitation to go out on a date. To be perfectly honest, she had been waiting for him to ask her for a while now, but had wanted to see if he could get up the nerve to ask himself._

 

_And now, on the night of her date, she was currently digging through her closet in the guest room of the dojo to find something to wear. Donnie had told her he would be by her room to pick her up in two hours, and knowing him, she expected him to be there exactly on the dot, if not earlier._

 

_So when she heard a knock on her bedroom door, she had hurried over to open it expecting it to be him._

 

_Imagine her surprise when it was Leo who stepped through her door instead, looking slightly embarrassed at pretty much inviting himself into a girl's room._

 

" _Leo," said April in surprise at the sight of him. "What are you doing here? Did something happen?"_

 

" _No," Leo said quickly to reassure her. "At least, nothing bad. Mikey put plastic cockroaches in Raph's cereal and now both of them are grounded, but that's nothing new."_

 

_April had to giggle at the mental picture she got of how that must have gone down and lamenting having missed that, before turning her attention back to the matter at hand. "So if nothing's wrong, why are you here?" she asked curiously._

 

_Leo looked down and twiddled his thumbs. "I, uh, I came here to talk to you about Donnie," he said hesitantly._

 

_April frowned. Did he disapprove of their date, or something? "Donnie?" she asked._

 

_Leo nodded and took a deep breath. "In the time honored tradition of older siblings, I am here to warn you that if you **ever**  hurt my brother, the consequences will be extremely severe."_

 

_He said it with such a stiff and serious expression that April didn't know if she should take him seriously, or burst out laughing at the look on his face._

 

_Seeing that she was leaning towards the latter, Leo's shoulders slumped and he frowned at her. "I'm serious, April. You don't know what you'd do to him."_

 

_That brought April away from her hilarity, and she looked at Leo with a curious expression. What could she possibly do to hurt Donnie? She was only just getting into her training as a kunoichi, and if Donnie wanted to he could no doubt beat her with his eyes closed and both hands tied behind his back._

 

" _I mean emotionally," Leo said, as if reading her mind. "As I'm sure you know, Donnie has had a crush on you for awhile now."_

 

_April felt a fond smile spread across her face at that. "It was pretty obvious," she said fairly._

 

" _But you don't realize how big of a crush he has," Leo continued. "Not to put any pressure on you, but my brother pretty much adores the ground you walk on. Heck, he has plans to build a rocket within an hour on the off chance you ever want to go to the moon."_

 

_April stared at him with wide eyes, but the lead ninja paid her no mind as he continued on. "I mean, look at all he's done without you two even dating. He promised you we'd get your father back the day we practically met you, and just the other day he broke into a Kraang prison all on his own just to keep that promise. You are nothing short of his dream girl, April, and if you break his heart he'd be devastated."_

 

_April opened and closed her mouth a few times in shock, before managing to say, "He-he can't possibly like me **that**  much!"_

 

_Leo shook his head. "No, he does. Trust me. When you're not around, most of the stuff that comes out of his mouth is how nice you are, or how he thought you looked cute despite the fact you'd just come out of training with Father as a sweaty mess, or what he can do to get you to have fun even though you're stuck hiding here for your own safety. He's crazy about just about everything about you, good, bad, or otherwise."_

 

_Once again April felt herself feeling torn between thinking that this was all too much, or that that was the sweetest thing she'd ever heard._

 

_Leo looked at her sternly as he said his final piece. "I'm not saying that you should lead him on even if you don't feel the same. That would be unfair to both of you, and would only lead to broken hearts in the end. All I ask is that you keep this stuff in mind and don't hurt him. With all that he's done for you, that is the least you can do."_

 

_With that, he stepped back out the door, leaving April to her thoughts._

 

_______________

 

"… I did a lot of thinking between then and our date after that," April said as she finished her story, feeling a bit more at peace than when she'd started. "But as you know, I decided to go on the date anyway." She smiled fondly at the memory. "And I have to say, it was the best first date I'd ever been on. I may mean the world to Donnie, but Leo helped me realize that Donnie means a lot to me too."

 

Raph looked amused at the idea of his older brother giving love advice, but otherwise he looked thoughtful about it all.

 

April stepped away from the tub, and sent Raph a smile. "He's always looking out for you guys. Makes me wonder what he'll have to say when you get a girlfriend, Raph," she said teasingly.

 

Raph gave her a look that said he was questioning her sanity again.

 

April shrugged. "Hey, you won't be a turtle forever, I'm sure there's a nice girl out there for you somewhere. Though, probably not on  _this_  planet."

 

April's ninja training was the only thing that allowed her to catch the plastic sandwich plate that Raph tried to chuck at her head in retaliation. Laughing at the look on his face, April darted out of the room before he found something else to throw at her.

 

_______________

 

After lunch, and more than a few pointed remarks, Casey found himself trudging upstairs to try his hand a pulling Raph from his funk.

 

Raph looked up as he entered, and looked as though he had been expecting him.

 

Casey hovered by the door when he saw Raph look up, and wondered briefly if he and Raph could make this a 'let's not and say we did' thing.

 

"Casey Jones, if you don't do your part I'll make you be the one who cleans out the chicken coop later!" shouted April from downstairs. "It's my house, I  _can_ make that happen!"

 

Casey winced, so much for that plan.

 

"This is so stupid," the boy groused as he walked farther into the bathroom and plopped down next to Raph, who nodded in agreement.

 

"I mean, do they really expect us telling you stories is gonna help get you talking again?" Casey continued.

 

Raph gave a shrug.

 

Casey sent him a hopeful look. "Hey, maybe if you say something now we can stop doing this, and get on with our lives."

 

Raph frowned, and opened his mouth to say something, only for nothing to come out. After a minute of trying, he gave Casey a helpless shrug.

 

Casey groaned in defeat. "Might as well get this over with, I guess," he said.

 

Raph shuffled to get more comfortable on his stool, and turned his attention to Casey.

 

Casey frowned as he tried to think of a suitable story. Thinking of one, he sent Raph a smirk. "Blue boy'll probably kill me when he finds out I told you this, but remember that little blond girl Shadow likes -" he broke off with a wince at the mention of his sister, but only for a second and amended, "-liked to play with. Maddie, the one who always insisted on having tea parties with her stuffed animals?"

 

Raph nodded thoughtfully.

 

"Well, about a month after you and me became friends, I was stuck over at my house to watching the two of them while my Dad was running some errands. After he left, Leo came over 'cause I left something over at your house that earlier day…"

 

_______________

 

_Casey Jones was currently not in a very good mood. Shadow had her friend Maddie over to play, and he had only just managed to avoid getting dragged into their tea party by claiming he had homework._

 

_Unfortunately, by using that as an excuse he was stuck having to actually **do** his homework, a dull task not made any easier by the fact his history book was had gone AWOL._

 

_As he dug through his backpack for the fifth time (he **knew**  he'd put the book in there before leaving school, dammit) he heard a knock at the front door._

 

_Welcoming the distraction, Casey abandoned his backpack and hurried to answer the door._

 

_He was surprised to see his new friend's brother standing there. While he and Raph were well on their way to becoming best friends, Casey couldn't say he knew too much about his fellow hothead's brothers, or his sister (even though said sister was pretty hot). He knew them all by name, and knew some of Raph's favorite complaints about them, but that was about it._

 

_Leo, however, gave him a polite smile, and held out his missing history book. "You left this at our dojo earlier," he said with politeness that matched his smile. "I think it fell out of your bag."_

 

_Casey managed to return his grin, and take the book. "Thanks, man. I was looking all over for this," he said._

 

_Leo opened his mouth to no doubt say a courteous goodbye, when there was the sound of something breaking, and a high-pitched shriek coming from Shadow's bedroom._

 

" _CASEYYY!" wailed Shadow as she came running out of her room, tears streaming down her cheeks. She held out her hand to him, and Casey saw that there was a long, but, fortunately, not very deep cut across her palm._

 

" _M-my tea cup b-broke and cut m-my hand!" Shadow hiccupped as Casey looked over her bleeding hand. "It h-hurts!"_

 

" _It's okay, Shadow," Casey said in as gentle a voice as he could. "I'll put a Band-Aid on it, and it'll be all better."_

 

_He then turned and started to go to where they kept the Band-Aids and other medical supplies, but froze as he remembered he'd just used up all the bandages to patch himself up after a particularly brutal hockey practice the day before._

 

_Wincing, he turned back to his sister and said, "We'll need to go borrow some from Old Mrs. Bridge," he said, taking Shadow's uninjured hand and leading her towards the door._

 

_Remembering Maddie at the last second, he turned to Leo, who had been standing awkwardly in the doorway during the whole affair, and said, "Can you watch her friend Maddie for a few minutes? Mrs. Bridge lives just next door, and we'll try to be quick."_

 

_He quickly led Shadow out the door before Leo could reply either way, leaving the other boy to the tender mercies of Maddie._

 

_A few minutes later, Casey and Shadow returned to see that Leo had taken over Shadow's spot at the tea table, and was wearing a flowery bonnet as Maddie poured him pretend tea._

 

_Casey stifled a laugh as Leo awkwardly raised the cup to his lips, only for Maddie to stop him. "N-n-n-no," she said shaking her finger at him. "You have to hold your pinkie out."_

 

_She then delicately picked up her own cup and demonstrated._

 

_Leo flushed, and quickly adjusted his grip on the tiny cup, and Shadow decided it was time to make their presence known._

 

" _Didn't anyone ever teach you how to drink tea?" she asked as she went over and pulled another chair up to the table._

 

_Leo looked startled to realize they were back, and sent an embarrassed glance in Casey's direction, only to see the other boy shoving his fist in his mouth to muffle his laughter at the sight._

 

" _Er," said Leo distractedly, "Yes, I learned how to drink tea. But I drink it Japanese style as part of my heritage. Tea ceremonies are very traditional to my family's culture."_

 

_Both Shadow and Maddie let out 'Oooh's' of admiration at that, and Leo attempted to get up from the table and make his leave._

 

_But Maddie grabbed his hand and pulled him back down. "No, it's bad manners to leave a tea party 'til it's over. You gotta stay."_

" _And you can tell us about Japan tea parties, pretty please," begged Shadow._

 

_With both little girls looking at him with pleading looks, Leo caved and agreed to stay for a while longer._

 

_And that was when Casey beat a hasty retreat to avoid getting roped in next._

 

_______________

 

"…Funny as it was, Leo spent the rest of the afternoon playing tea party with them, and didn't once get impatient," Casey said. He sent Raph a look and added, "And you know with my sister, that's no easy feat."

 

An amused looking Raph nodded in agreement, remembering what a handful Shadow could be when she wanted too.

 

"So moral of the story, your brother's a nice guy. Feel like talking yet?" Casey asked, looking at Raph expectantly.

 

Raph frowned, but opened his mouth again, only for nothing but silence to come out.

 

Casey gave a sigh, then shrugged. "Worth a shot."

 

Raph rolled his eyes, but still nodded in agreement.

 

_______________

 

Despite the fact that everyone else had come to say their part, Raph hadn't really been expecting Miwa to come take a crack at it. As much as he loved his sister, this really wasn't the type of thing she tended to do, especially when it was something she'd rather avoid.

 

So it was a great surprise when she showed up that evening with his dinner in hand, and a scowl on her face.

 

"The others won't stop nagging me until I do this, so listen up because I'm not saying anything twice," she snapped, shoving the plate into his hands.

 

Despite that declaration, she caught sight of Leo's sleeping form and fell silent for several minutes, just staring at him with a look of regret.

 

When she finally spoke again, it was in a much softer tone. "You know, I always hated being the oldest growing up."

 

Raph stared at her in surprise, but Miwa didn't seem to notice.

 

"I never wanted the responsibility," she admitted. "Sure it was nice to boss you all around, but when it came to the heavy stuff, I wanted no part of it."

 

She let out a bitter laugh. "Remember when Father was about to pick a leader, and you were all looking at me to do it? That  _horrified_  me. I couldn't stand the thought of being leader, and I wanted nothing to do with the position. So when Father let it slide when I said no, I was relieved. More than that, I was ecstatic. If someone else was leader, that meant I wouldn't have to be as much of the responsible one for being the oldest, there would be someone else to carry that weight instead. And when Father picked Leo, I knew he was way better for the job than me."

 

For the first time since she first entered the room, Miwa turned to glance at Raph, who was staring at her in shock. The Miwa he knew never spoke like this, and the fact she was only spoke volumes of how messed up their recent loss had made them.

 

"Thing is, I knew Leo was better at being responsible than I was for a while before that," Miwa continued. "It was back when Mikey was sick and the two of us were stuck babysitting…"

 

_______________

 

_A preteen Miwa scowled as Tang Shen and Yoshi worked to make sure Raph and Donnie had everything they needed to go to martial arts summer camp. The parents were also attending the camp as counselors, and had been planning to do so for months._

 

" _Why do I have to stay home," she moaned. "I wanted to go too."_

 

_Shen gave her daughter a sympathetic glance. "I'm sorry, my dear, but we have to ask you to stay and watch your brother today. I'm worried about that cold he has, and I wasn't able to find someone to watch him in time. You can go to camp tomorrow, I promise."_

 

" _But why me?" Miwa complained._

 

" _Because you are the oldest, my daughter," said Yoshi kindly but firmly. "You have a responsibility to watch out for your brothers."_

 

_Miwa stomped her foot and pouted. "But Leo already said he'd stay and do it. Why can't I go and he stay?"_

 

" _Leonardo has **volunteered**  to stay and help you," Yoshi said sternly. "He is staying to help, but caring for Michelangelo is a big job and I would rather have both of you do it, rather than just one."_

 

_Miwa scowled, and shot a glare in the direction of Mikey's bedroom. Through the door she could already see Leo sitting by their brother's bedside and making sure he drank a glass of water before lying down to sleep._

 

" _But-" she tried to say again, but a look from her parents quelled her protest._

 

_So as the girl sulked, Tang Shen and Yoshi took Raph and Donnie and left her and Leo to look after the sick Mikey._

 

_Leo walked over to her after taking care of Mikey. "He drank the whole cup," he said. "And now he's sleeping. I don't think he'll wake up anytime soon."_

 

_Miwa threw her hands into the air in annoyance and said, "Great. I'm gonna go watch TV or something. At least that's not as boring as sitting around all day."_

 

_Leo blinked at her in surprise. "Wait, but shouldn't we be looking after Mikey?"_

 

_Miwa waved his concern away. "He'll be fine," she said dismissively. "You just said all he was gonna do was sleep. We can have some fun while he does that."_

 

_Leo cast a worried glance back at Mikey's room. "But-"_

 

" _I'm watching TV," Miwa snapped at him, making him stare at her with wide eyes. "If you're so worried you can sit in there with him, but I'm not."_

 

_Leo frowned at her. "But Mother and Father said-"_

 

" _Well they're not here right now, and I'm the oldest," Miwa said with a note of finality in her voice. "So there."_

 

_She then stormed away to the living room, leaving Leo behind in the hallway looking disappointed, before walking back into Mikey's room and sitting down next to his bed._

 

_The next few hours passed with Miwa letting herself fall into a stupor while watching television. At first, Leo tried for a few times to drag her away, but he quickly gave up and went back to Mikey. Not even Space Heroes coming on the TV distracted him from his task._

 

_Miwa knew she was being a brat about the whole thing, but at the moment she didn't care. She had been looking forward to going to martial arts camp all summer, and to show everyone just how good the students at the Renaissance Dojo were. To be told she couldn't go after waiting for it for so long made the girl more than a little bitter at her youngest brother._

 

" _Of all the days he had get sick," she griped to herself as she watched an old show called Crognard the Barbarian come on the TV. She wasn't that interested in the show, but was currently feeling to lazy to change the channel._

 

" _MIWA!" came a sudden shout from Leo._

 

_Miwa was so surprised that she leapt a foot in the air, and landed next to the couch in a heap._

 

_Before she could get back to her feet, Leo was rushing into the room with a look of panic on his face. "Mikey's forehead's really, really hot!" he said. "And he's coughing really bad now!"_

 

_Her earlier ire vanished, and Miwa bolted for Mikey's bedroom with Leo at her heels. Once there, Miwa grabbed the ear thermometer and stuck it into Mikey's ear. She'd have gone for the mouth one, but as Leo had said, the youngest was currently coughing up a lung, and she doubted he could keep it in his mouth._

 

_When the thermometer beeped, Miwa looked at the readings and paled. "One O' Eight," she said, exchanging a concerned look with Leo. "Donnie said anything over a hundred is really bad."_

 

_Leo looked aghast at that, and Miwa felt herself starting to panic. What was she supposed to do? Mikey was in trouble, but she was coming up with a blank on how to help him._

 

_Next to her, Mikey's body shook as another coughing fit burst out of him, and Miwa could do nothing but rub his back and rack her brain for something she could do to help._

 

_She was brought out of her panic by the sound of Leo's voice._

 

" _Nine-One-One?" he said as he held the hallway phone to his ear. "My brother's really sick, and we need help."_

 

_Miwa stared at him blankly as Leo rattled off Mikey's symptoms and listened carefully to the instructions the voice on the other end said. He then shoved the phone into Miwa's hands and told her to call their parents._

 

_The next few minutes passed in a blur as Leo told Miwa what they should do, and the two prepared for the ambulance that Nine-One-One was going to send, or for their parents to return home. Whichever came first._

 

_It turns out that worried parents beat an ambulance any day, as Shen and Yoshi burst into the dojo and immediately began doting on their ailing son. Not long after, the ambulance arrived, and a frantic Shen climbed in the back with Mikey to go have a doctor check him out._

 

_Yoshi left not long after that to fetch Donnie and Raph from camp, leaving Miwa and Leo alone again._

 

_Once what happened sank in, Miwa shuddered, and looked over at Leo with wide eyes. "If you hadn't been with him…" she said as the horrifying truth dawned on her._

 

_Leo reached over and patted her on the shoulder. "Mikey'll be alright, Sis," he said reassuringly. "Don't think about it."_

 

_But Miwa did think about it for a long time after that. That was the first time that she really wished that Leo had been born the oldest instead of her._

 

_______________

 

Miwa fell silent as she finished her tale. Then, refusing to look at Raph, she turned on her heel and walk out of the room without another word.

 

Raph set down his now empty dinner plate, and looked out the window to see the moon hovering in the sky. He hadn't even realized how late it had gotten until he saw it.

 

Glancing back down at Leo, he saw that his older brother looked the same as he had the entire day, still and silent as the grave.

 

"Bet you loved that, didn't you?" he muttered aloud without even realizing it. "Hearing everyone sing your praises all day. Maybe it's good that you are asleep, or else your swelled head wouldn't fit inside the house."

 

Leo said nothing. But he didn't need to as Raph realized he'd been speaking on his own.

 

"The hell…" he said as that hit him.

 

He then sent an annoyed look in Leo's direction. "I bet you want me to tell you some story about how great you are too, don't cha."

 

Silence.

 

Raph let out a sigh of regret. "To be honest, I don't have one that wouldn't just be a something you already know." His gaze lowered, and he began studying the tiles of the bathroom floor. "You protect us from getting hurt, and not just when it comes to the physical stuff, you always notice when something's bothering us, you're nice, you're responsible. I got nothing that wouldn't just be a repeat of all that."

 

He dragged his eyes back up to Leo's sleeping face. "But I can tell ya a story about what'll happen if you don't wake up. I-we can't do this without you, bro."

 

Leo only lay in the tub peacefully.

 

Raph took a deep breath to start. "Remember that time we were fighting over you being leader. The night Snakeweed was snatching people off the streets, and Shredder was out looking to recruit Mi? You and her ran off after that fight, and I don't know if anyone ever told you what happened with the rest of us…"

 

_______________

 

_For Raph, being angry was nothing new. But being cheated out of getting to kick Snakeweed's butt because of Leo's lame plan was making him more steamed than usual, and he made sure to say as much to his 'leader'._

 

_Leo wasn't any happier about Snakeweed getting away, and had the gall to blame Raph for slowing them down instead._

 

_Finally in frustration, Leo said, "You know what, Raph? If you think you could do better, why don't **you** lead?"_

 

" _First good idea you've had all say," Raph snapped in reply._

 

" _We'll compromise," said Mikey, suddenly popping up between them. "I'll lead."_

 

_The withering glares the two sent him were enough to make Mikey back away without further protest._

 

_Leo turned back to Raph and said scathingly, "Fine, Raph. The team's yours. I'm out of here."_

 

_With that he turned and stomped off into the night._

 

_Raph couldn't help but feel smug about winning the argument. Plus, now he got to be leader of the team, and they could actually get stuff done._

 

_He was brought off his high horse when Mikey let out a disappointed groan of, "I can't believe he's gone."_

 

_Raph frowned, but Donnie sent his little brother a sympathetic look. "Aw, don't worry Mikey. Leo, uh, he just needs some space," said the genius._

 

_Mikey turned to give Donnie a dry look._

 

_Remembering who had just been snatched up by Snakeweed, Donnie smacked his forehead and said, "You meant the pizza guy, didn't you," he asked rhetorically._

 

" _Yeah," said Mikey wistfully._

 

_Raph rolled his eyes, and waited to hear the sarcastic comment he knew Miwa was about to dish out._

 

_Only for it to never come._

 

_Looking around, Raph finally realized that their sister was absent from the roof._

 

" _Where's Mi?" he asked in confusion._

 

_Donnie and Mikey both sent him unimpressed looks. "She took off while you and Leo were yelling at each other," said Donnie._

 

_Mikey snapped his fingers, and added, "Speaking of which, she wanted to know who won." He quickly pulled out his cell phone to send his sister a text to give that answer._

 

" _Should we call her back?" Donnie asked._

 

_Raph thought about it for a minute, then shook his head. "Nah, so long as she lets us know if she spots Snakeweed she'll be fine." He pulled out his own hone to text that order to his sister, then turned and gave his brothers a wicked smirk. "Now let's get to work."_

 

_Raph's brilliant plan to find Snakeweed turned out to be giving Donnie a map, and having him (okay, forcing him under threat of pummeling) figure out where all the people had been taken from and calculating where Snakeweed could be because of it._

 

_Finally, Donnie said, "I think I figured out where he is. The radial pattern of recent Snakeweed sightings indicates his lair is at the epicenter of Forty-Seventh and Broadway."_

 

" _Then what are we waiting for?" Raph asked._

 

_Mikey tapped his chin as though thinking about the answer to that, but Raph shoved him to get him moving. "It was a rhetorical question, bonehead. Let's go."_

 

_Donnie's discovery led them to the sewer tunnels under that location. As Raph led the way through the tunnels, Mikey had to complain, "Man, it really stinks around here."_

 

" _It is a sewer, Mikey," Raph deadpanned to him._

 

" _But is it always this bad?" Mikey said pinching his nose. "Where does all this stuff come from anyway?"_

 

_Raph and Donnie exchanged glances, before Donnie leaned over to whisper into the youngest's ear._

 

_Mikey paled and jerked away from the stream of water flowing past their walkway with a shout of, "GROSS!"_

 

" _Keep it down, guys," snapped Raph, knowing that if they kept this up Snakeweed would hear them coming a mile away._

 

_Mikey and Donnie looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "Wow, you sound just like Leo," Donnie said in surprise._

 

_Raph wheeled around and snarled, "You say that one more time, and I'll shove your head in this sewage."_

 

_Donnie winced, and said, "And now you sound like you again."_

 

_Finally, the tunnel opened up to a big room under the city that was alit with large glowing tube-shaped plants that were full of a nauseating yellow liquid. It was definitely Snakeweed's lair._

 

_Peering into one of the tube like plants, Mikey yelped in alarm to see the pizza guy's face looking up at him from it._

 

_Donnie and Raph hurried over to see, and gasped as well._

 

" _He's growing humans," Mikey squeaked._

 

" _He's not growing them, idiot, he's holding them captive," Donnie hissed to his little brother._

 

" _For what?" Raph asked as he looked around at the other people filled tubes. "He's a plant. He can't eat them."_

 

" _He's probably turning them into fertilizer," Donnie whispered back._

 

_Mikey made a noise of disgust. "Is that really where fertilizer comes from?"_

 

_Donnie looked uncomfortable, and once again leaned over to whisper the answer into his ear._

 

" _WHAT!" Mikey squawked. "Is there anything that doesn't come from that?"_

 

" _Enough," Raph snapped. "Let's cut 'em loose."_

 

_The red wearing teen began slicing through the tube plants, allowing the people to drain out along with the liquid. Mikey and Donnie quickly hurried to do the same with the others._

 

" _What now?" Mikey asked as the people lay at their feet and started coming too._

 

" _Now," Raph said, making things up as he went along. An idea struck him, and he tugged off his mask, but kept his hood pulled low over his face. "Now we help these people out of here. Then we come back and turn Snakeweed into chopped salad."_

 

" _But our clothes," Donnie said worriedly as he and Mikey pulled off their own masks and hid them in their pockets._

 

" _It's dark down here," Raph said, "They won't be able to tell. And if they do, we say we were snatched on the way home from martial arts practice, 'r something like."_

 

_Mikey and Donnie looked reluctant, but the point was moot as around them the people started getting up and looking around in confusion._

 

" _Wha- happened?" asked the pizza guy in a groggy voice as he pushed himself to his feet._

 

_The brothers exchanged glances, and Mikey hurried over to help. "You don't wanna know, dude. Trust me," he said as he slung the pizza boy's arm over his shoulder and more people began to come too._

 

" _Everyone!" called Raph in as loud a voice as he dared. "Let's get out of here, come on!"_

 

_Slowly, the people started moving after him, still too groggy to wonder why a strangely dressed teenage boy was apparently in charge._

 

_At least until a blond woman happened to look behind them and started screaming._

 

_Instantly wide-awake, everyone else turned to look and the rest of the civilians started screaming too._

 

_Rearing up above the tube plants was none other than Snakeweed, and he did not look happy. "My fertilizer!" he snarled as he saw the people out of their pods._

 

_The civilians all looked sick as they realized what he was talking about._

 

_Mikey, meanwhile, leaned over to whisper to Raph, "What now, Boss?"_

 

_Raph shot a glance at the terrified people, then looked over at where Snakeweed was drawing closer by the second._

 

" _You people run!" shouted Raph, pointing at the exit, and they needed no further prompting. Looking at his brothers, he said, "We gotta cover them. So give Snakeweed all you've got!"_

 

_With that the brothers quickly drew their weapons and charged the weed monster, only to promptly get thrown back by the mutant's superior strength._

 

_Snakeweed snarled at their attempts, but in seeing the escaping people, he leapt over their heads to block the exit, snapping at them with his claw like leaves._

 

_The people screamed and scrambled back, searching frantically for another exit as the ninjas hurried to get between them and the mutant. The three ninjas did their best to fight Snakeweed off, but every hit they gave had them being tossed aside like ragdolls, and the people behind them getting more scared by the second._

 

" _Wow, we're totally loosing!" shouted Mikey as he was smacked away once again._

 

_Raph snarled under his breath and said, "Really, I hadn't noticed!"_

 

_Mikey scowled, missing his sarcasm. "Then get your head in the game, Bro! You're supposed to be the **leader!"**_

 

_Donnie managed to jump high and aim a blow for Snakeweed's head, as he had been doing for most of the fight. But the plant blocked the attack and threw Donnie at his brothers' feet._

 

_They and the civilians then had to scramble away as Snakeweed's thorny vine came shooting towards their position._

 

" _Get back in there!" Raph yelled as he tried to attack again._

 

" _And do what?" Donnie asked frantically._

 

" _Go for the head!" Raph called back as he blocked a vine from getting a cowering civilian._

 

" _I just did!" Donnie squawked in reply._

 

_Raph tried to think of a better tactic, but between fighting the vines and keeping the innocent people safe he was coming up empty. "Do it better!" he yelled finally._

 

_Donnie rolled his eyes at that suggestion. "Oh great! Four times in a row, he'll never see that coming!"_

 

_But despite his protests, Donnie shot forward and tried for the head a fourth time, only to be smacked aside before he even got close._

 

" _Now what, Chief!" Mikey yelled next to Raph, who was looking more and more stressed by the second._

 

" _Go for the head," he said weakly, still unable to come up with anything else._

 

_Mikey shrugged and readied his nunchucks, "Fifth time's the charm!" he shouted as he rushed forward._

 

_But Snakeweed snagged the youngest by the ankle and swung him around, before sending him flying into a wall. Mikey's head cracked hard against the cement wall, and he fell to the floor in a crumpled heap._

 

" _TENSHI!" shouted Raph, running over to his brother, and barely noticing the terrified civilians following after him for protection._

 

_Slicing his way though the vines, Raph rushed over to his baby brother, and was utter relieved to see that he was still breathing. Donnie hurried over to join them, and looked Mikey over with a critical eye while Raph blocked the people's view of the youngest's face._

 

" _Concussion. He'll live," said Donnie._

 

_Raph nodded weakly, his eyes still wide and horrified at from the sight of Mikey collapsed on the ground._

 

_Donnie suddenly shoved their brother into Raph's hands as he jumped up and blocked another reaching vine from getting the civilians. "So what do we do now, Iyasa!" he called as he struggled to keep the vines at bay._

 

_Raph frantically looked down at the unconscious Mikey, to the terrified people they were trying to protect, to Donnie barely keeping Snakeweed away from them._

 

_The weight of the pressure on him reached an all time high, and to Raph's horror, he found himself freezing up, unable to even say anything, much less lead them out of there._

 

" _Iyasa!" Donnie called again._

 

_But Raph was too busy panicking to answer._

 

" _I'll smash you rotten brats!" snarled Snakeweed down to Donnie as he tried to pry the teen's bō from his grip. "Into the ground!"_

 

_Donnie wrenched his staff free and dodged as Snakeweed tried to crush him with his leaf claws. With a bit of quick thinking, he launched himself across the room and managed to tie the mutants vines to a nearby pipe to buy them some time, and he hurried back over to his brothers._

 

" _Iyasa!" Donnie said, trying to snap his brother out of his funk by grabbing his shoulders and shaking them. "We don't have much time before he grows back. Let's grab Tenshi, and get these people out of here!"_

 

_Raph shook his head to clear it, and immediately reached down to scoop Mikey up. Then they hurried to lead the civilians to safety._

 

_When they reached a manhole back to the surface, the people thanked the three of them profusely before climbing to the world above._

 

_But Raph barely heard it. All he could think about was the fact that he's failed to protect his brothers._

 

Raph sighed as he finished telling his tale.

 

"That's why you've gotta get better, Leo," he said. "None of us can be the leader you are. We can try, but no one could do it half as well as you."

 

He glanced over at Leo's sleeping form, and tried to think up what his brother would say if he was awake right now.

 

He couldn't think of anything that Leo would say, but he got a hunch on what he was supposed to do anyway.

 

"But it looks like I gotta try anyway, don't I," he said regretfully. "Mi and Mikey want nothing to do with the responsibility after their last tries, April and Casey don't have the training, and Donnie'll be too busy trying to fix everything to even give it a shot."

 

Raph's eyes hardened in resolve, and he said, "I'll try to lead for now. But just until you get better, Leo. It's your job, and like everyone's been saying all day, you're the best one for it. And from the sound of things, you've been at it even before we needed a leader."

 

With that resolution in mind, Raph got to his feet and left to find a sleeping bag he could unfurl in the bathroom. Just because he'd decided to shoulder the responsibility of his family didn't mean he was giving up his vigil on Leo either. Like in Miwa's story, he had to be there just in case Leo got worse before he got better.

 

But as Raph left the bathroom for the first time since their arrival, he failed to notice something resembling a smile gracing Leo's lips for a brief instant, before vanishing as the turtle slipped even deeper into his winter slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm back. Sorry that took so long. To start off, I do have permission from Andrea O'Down to call the tea party girl Maddie. Those who don't know what I'm talking about should read her fic My Mr. Turtle, it's really cute. As you probably tell, this chapter was homage to Tales of Leo from the 2003 series, but with my own spin on it. I can see Raph getting traumatized by what I put him through the last few chapters, but lucky for him his family won't let him stay that way. Though, they all have their own traumas to work through as well. Now the aforementioned Maddie reference has been pointed out, but I made a lot more references in the names of the people I used in this chapter. Let me know what you caught.


	38. The Great Hockey Heist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Casey manages to score tickets to Super Slam Hockey, the boys have no idea that they're in for a crazy night.

Being at the farm took some getting used too.

 

While everyone was ecstatic when Raph came down the third morning once again able to speak, it only solved one of the many problems they'd had.

 

Not that they didn't  _try_  to solve them all. With Raph talking again, he did his best to keep the promise he made to Leo, and look after his family and friends, all while keeping a close eye on their hibernating brother. He kept Casey and Mikey from getting too down about their situation, and he set up a training regiment for them all to follow and keep in shape. He led them through it every morning for as long as the cold would allow, and made sure they didn't slack off. No one was excluded from it, no matter how much they complained.

 

Miwa was the only one not to complain about training. The fall of New York and the absence of their family members took their toll on all of them, but with her it showed the most. The kunoichi threw herself into training with more fervor than she had ever shown before. Every minute of the day when she wasn't busy with something else, she was outside in the yard practicing with her tantō.

 

Donnie, meanwhile, threw himself into his projects with a fervor to help him bury the emotions left over from the Invasion. Without the Turtle Mech to fuss over, Donnie set about repairing and rebooting Metalhead. Soon enough the little robot was up and moving again, and helping Donnie in his barn lab as he worked both on an elixir to aid Leo when he woke up, and a batch of retro-mutagen to help the people of New York.

 

Casey also tried to bury himself in projects, and spent a good deal of time in the barn after finding an old roadster in there. Despite the decrepit condition the car was in, the vigilante believed he could get it up and running again with enough work. It gave him a project to work on, if nothing else. When he wasn't working on the car, he would go into town to do odd jobs. As one of the few still human looking members of their team, he took it on himself to make sure they'd have enough money to get by.

 

April also did odd jobs on occasion, and was often seen writing in a journal to pass the time, but mostly she worked around the house, and made sure they all didn't self-destruct from their situation. She spent a lot of time with Donnie and Miwa, trying to do her best to be supportive, and while Donnie was receptive to her attempts, Miwa didn't seem to care either way, which worried April.

 

Mikey, while he loved being able to wander around in the open again without fear, the isolation of the farm quickly bored him, and he more often then not was left looking for something to do. To help with that, he started doing a lot of chores around the house, from cooking all the meals, to helping Ice Cream Kitty settle in to her new freezer, to feeding the chickens that April brought home one day from the market.

 

But even with all of them keeping busy, there was no way to deny that a cloud of gloom was hanging over all their heads at the farmhouse.

 

Then, one day Casey believed he found a solution to cheer some of them up.

 

"Guys!" he said, rushing into the farmhouse one snowy day after coming back from the town with a backpack on his shoulder and a grin on his face. "You're never gonna guess what I got!"

 

With a wide grin, he held up a hand full of tickets. "There was this contest in town today to see who could score the most street hockey goals, and I won," the hockey nut said proudly. "The prize was four tickets to the Super Slam Hockey Tournament in the next city over! It's tonight, and we so gotta go!"

 

"Super Slam Hockey?" Mikey asked in confusion.

 

"It's an extra violent version of the regular sport," said Miwa with disinterest. "Loads of things like obstacles on the rink, and the players using extra padding and weapons to make it more extreme."

 

She then realized that the others were all staring at her for knowing that.

 

"What? Playing that is the excuse he always gives when going out in public with his gear," Miwa said, jerking her thumb at Casey.

 

Casey shot her a grin, "So does that mean you wanna go?"

 

Miwa made a face, and said, "Pass, I have better things to do," before heading out to train some more.

 

April sent Casey an apologetic smile. "Thanks, but I'm not that interested either."

 

Casey shrugged, and sent his grin at his fellow males. "So I guess it's just the four of us, awesome."

 

Raph frowned. "I'm all for violent sports, Case, but I think you're forgetting something here," he said gesturing to him and Mikey.

 

Donnie nodded in agreement. "He's right, how would you expect to sneak in a pair of giant turtles? Unless one of the teams is actually  _called_  the Turtles (which I doubt), there's no way no one would notice."

 

Mikey's eyes lit up, "Oh, I know!"

 

"I am  _not_ putting on a dress to cover up, Mikey," Raph snapped, having seen Mikey's idea of disguises before.

 

Casey laughed at the thought of that, but reached for his backpack. "No worries, man, I've already got you covered."

 

He the pulled out some oversized sweat suits, and hockey masks big enough to cover the turtles' faces. "It's a hockey event, so it wouldn't be too weird if you guys came wearing hockey masks. If you cover up, no one will be able to tell the difference."

 

"And our feet?" Mikey asked as he looked at the clothes Casey had brought.

 

Casey froze as he hadn't thought of that.

 

But April looked down at the round feet of the turtles, and said, "I think my grandmother's old ugg boots might fit you," she suggested. "She always did have big feet."

 

Raph made a face at the thought. "But those are girl's shoes," he protested.

 

"No one will be able to tell," April assured him. "And they're the only shoes I can think of that could fit your feet as they are."

 

After another few minutes of convincing, (and assuring them that April and Metalhead could handle looking after Leo and Donnie's science projects respectively) it was agreed that the boys were going to Super Slam Hockey.

 

_____________________________

 

During the tournament, Casey was having the time of his life cheering the teams on. The others weren't enjoying it quite as much as he was, but they were all still having fun. Being out of the farmhouse for a while was doing wonders for all of them.

 

After one team scored on the other, Casey let out a rousing whoop. "Super Slam Hockey's gotta be the best sport known to man!"

 

"Giant muscleheads beating each other senseless on ice," said Donnie dryly. "Yeah, I can see how it would appeal to you."

 

"Donnie, the violence is what makes it awesome," Raph said, looking happier than he had in months. "What do you think, Mikey?"

 

The youngest looked up in surprise. "What the huh?" he asked, his mouth full of the pizza he'd bought from a concession stand, and his hockey mask pushed up on his forehead. It was obvious he'd been so caught up in his snack that he hadn't even been paying attention.

 

As Raph shoved Mikey's mask back down on his face, Casey noticed Donnie send his brothers a wry look, but shook his head, and didn't say anything.

 

"What's with that look, D?" Casey asked softly, having recognized Donnie's expression as the one where he was holding something back for his brothers' own good.

 

Donnie made sure Raph and Mikey were too caught up in their own antics to pay attention, before leaning over to say, "I was just thinking that coming out here was a really good thing for Mikey and Raph. Just, not for the reasons you'd think."

 

At Casey's clueless look, Donnie explained, "Neither of them have been to a public event since they mutated. They've both had to hide for months from regular people, and while they haven't said anything, it's been taking its toll on them both. Neither one of them is made for isolation, Mikey especially. But being here, among people again, I think it's doing them a world of good."

 

Casey grinned, "Another reason why Super Slam Hockey is the best."

 

Donnie rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "It's not the hockey, meathead. They could be watching a ballet recital and still be happy. It's the fact they can be out in the open around other people that makes it worth it."

 

Casey made a face at that comparison, and it caught Mikey's attention. "What'cha guys talking about?" he asked curiously.

 

Spotting the warning look from Donnie, Casey pointed across the rink to where the trophy for the winning team was sitting. "I was just telling Donnie how that trophy is so going to belong to Casey Jones someday."

 

They all looked over at the golden trophy sitting in the glass case across from them.

 

"The trophy belongs to the team, not the individual players," Donnie said with a roll of his eyes. "Plus, they wouldn't let that trophy stay just anywhere. It was handcrafted for Frederick Henry, a prince in seventeenth century Holland. He played a variation of an old Dutch game called kolven, which some believe to be an early version of ice hockey."

 

Donnie then realized that the others were staring at him with bewildered expressions. "How the heck do you know this stuff?" Raph asked, sounding astonished.

 

"It was in the pamphlet they gave us when they let us in," said Donnie simply, holding said pamphlet up.

 

"You actually read that?" Mikey asked, his mouth once again full of food, but this time he'd ducked down to so no one could see his face.

 

"Well, unlike the rest of you, I actually  _like_  reading," Donnie snarked back.

 

But Casey had stopped paying attention as one hockey team started coming up on the other team's goal.

 

As the player with the puck scored the winning goal just as the buzzer sounded, the rink erupted into cheers, Casey being the loudest one.

 

But as the rink started to clear, and before the trophy could be awarded, a shadow passed overhead, and everyone looked up in surprise.

 

A helicopter was circling the rink purposefully like a shark that had spotted prey.

 

"Is this some kind of show now that the game's over?" asked Mikey, having finally finished his pizza.

 

Donnie frowned, and looked at the flyer in his hands. "It's not mentioned in the pamphlet."

 

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Raph muttered to himself.

 

Suddenly, people with cowboy hats and parachutes jumped from the helicopter, and fell directly towards the rink. As they got nearer, it became clear that they were all holding machine guns, and they began to open fire on the stands as they got close.

 

People immediately started screaming and bolting for the exits. The bullets had been to scare them rather than kill so no one was hurt, but that didn't mean it would stay that way.

 

Instead of running like the rest, the four teenagers ducked down in their seats to watch as the parachuting men landed on the ice, and smirked at the seemingly empty rink.

 

"Hurry up now, fellas," called the cowboy that seemed to be in charge in a deep southern accent. "Before the police get ta sniffen' around here."

 

The goons under the cowboy's employ nodded, and made their way for the pedestal with the golden puck.

 

Taking a minute to admire the golden trophy, the lead cowboy said, "There she is, boys. Now y'all bag 'er n' tag 'er."

 

One of the goons moved forward and smashed the glass on the case, and another reached out for the trophy.

 

But before the goon could lay a hand on it, a hockey puck flew out of nowhere and hit his hand with bone breaking force.

 

As the goon howled in pain, the others looked around to try and see where the puck had come from.

 

Casey, having left their hiding spot to stop the crooks, shot forward on the ice with a bellow of, "GOONGALA!"

 

Before the robbers knew what hit them, the vigilante used the discarded hockey stick he'd found, and knocked another robber flat on the ice, and swerved around to take out another.

 

Not happy that their heist was being interrupted by some kid, the robbers turned their guns on him, but before they could shoot him, a kusarigama chain flew out of the shadows and wrapped around one of the guns, and pulled it and its owner till he smacked into one of the super slam obstacles. While the bad guys were distracted by this, Casey took it as an opportunity to duck for cover.

 

Instantly, the thieves got more on their guard.

 

"Fellas," said the leader. "Looks like some fans don't wanna give up their box seats."

 

He then caught sight of where Casey was hiding, and grinned. "But Ah've got a way to make 'em do it."

 

He then pulled out a grenade, pulled out the pin, and threw it in Casey's direction.

 

The hockey nut paled at the sight of it, and tried to scramble to safety, but only manage to hop the fence of the rink before it went off, causing the bleachers to collapse on top of him.

 

"CASEY!" yelled Raph in alarm, only to have to dodge as a hail of bullets came in the direction of his voice.

 

Thinking that they'd hit Raph, the crooks smirked and turned their attention back to the Golden Puck. They grabbed it just as the helicopter they'd dropped out of landed on the ice and took off after they'd climbed inside.

 

What all of the robbers failed to see, was a small cockroach scuttle into the chopper before it lifted back off the ground.

 

Once the crooks were flying away, Donnie and Mikey burst from their hiding places to help Raph and Casey.

 

Raph, fortunately, pulled himself out of his own hiding place a second later, having narrowly avoided being shot.

 

Casey, however, wasn't so lucky, and the three brothers hurried over to dig him out of the rubble.

 

Once free of the bleachers, Casey was on his feet and hopping mad despite the rapidly forming bruises that now covered him.

 

We gotta go after those maniacs!" He insisted as Donnie and Raph quickly checked him for serious injuries. "They stole the Golden Puck, and they gotta pay for trying to blow me up!"

 

"A few splinters, and those bruises will be sore in the morning, but you'll live," said Donnie after finishing his examination of the vigilante.

 

But Raph had been paying more attention to Casey's words. "And how do you think we should do that?" he asked sarcastically.

 

"Are you saying we should leave it to the police?" Mikey asked his brother.

 

Casey looked livid at the idea, but Raph intervened quickly, "When have we  _ever_  left anything to the police? I just meant that we have no way to track a helicopter." He then shot a glance at Donnie, "Do we?"

 

Donnie looked smug and held up his phone. "As a matter of fact, I sent my spy-roach to climb aboard the helicopter before it took off. We can track it through that."

 

"Whoa, dude," said Mikey, looking impressed. "Way to think ahead."

 

"Then what are we waiting for!" asked Casey running for the exit.

 

The others heard the sound of sirens in the distance, and hurried after him. The last thing they needed was to have to explain to the cops why two mutant turtles had come to a Super Slam Hockey match.

 

_____________________________

 

The four boys followed Donnie's signal until they found the helicopter abandoned in the woods just outside of town. The spy-roach scuttled out of it when they got there, and into Donnie's pocket.

 

Raph sent his brother a disturbed look when he saw that. "You keep those things in your clothes?" he asked in revulsion.

 

"Well, where else am I supposed to keep them?" Donnie asked as he looked at the helicopter's serial number and looking it up on his phone.

 

Raph still looked sick at the idea, but Mikey and Casey were too busy looking over the helicopter.

 

"I don't get it," Casey said as he climbed inside the chopper and looked around. "I can understand leaving a car after a robbery. The bad guys can steal another one, or buy one with whatever money they get from what they steal. But helicopters are harder to buy, and why get a new one if you've already got one."

 

Raph nodded in agreement to Casey's question (thankful for the distraction from the roaches), but Mikey just beamed and hugged the helicopter. "Can we keep it?" he asked hopefully, looking at the rest of them with pleading eyes.

 

"Unfortunately, no," said Donnie looking up from his phone. "I just looked up the serial number of it, and it turns out those cowboys stole it a week ago. It belongs to someone else."

 

Mikey moaned in disappointment, and Casey nodded. "Then that explains why they dumped it," the vigilante said.

 

"So now what?" asked Mikey. "We follow the footprints in the snow?"

 

"Those footprints are heading back to the city, so they won't be much use by the time we get there," Raph pointed out. "Do you have another science doohickey that can help us track them, Donnie?"

 

Donnie shook his head. "Sorry, but since my roach wasn't able to keep on them, I have no way of following them."

 

"Then we do this the old fashion way," said Casey with a grin as he began looking through helicopter again.

 

"Old fashion way?" the three brothers chorused in confusion.

 

Casey looked back at them and grinned. "Detective work," he explained. "Start investigating, guys."

 

Raph smacked his forehead at the idea, Mikey let out an excited squeal, and Donnie looked intrigued at the thought.

 

"Jolly good, my dear sir," said Mikey as he bounced back to the chopper, speaking in his best imitation of Sherlock Holmes (or any stereotypical British person really).

 

"Mikey, if you keep talking like that, I will bury you in this snow," Raph growled as he followed.

 

"I wonder if I can make an app to find clues," Donnie said as he trailed behind, looking thoughtfully at his phone as he did so.

 

Casey had to snicker at their reactions, and they all turned their attention to turning the helicopter inside out looking for clues. Casey and Donnie were both careful not to leave fingerprints for when the police searched it later, but both Raph and Mikey didn't bother. Scales didn't leave readable fingerprints, and no investigator would believe someone had fingers that big anyway.

 

Surprisingly, it was Raph who found their only clue. "Check this out, guys," he said, holding up a matchbox with the words 'The Sierra' printed on the top.

 

"It's a complementary matchbox," said Donnie, looking it over. "Like the ones they used to give out at hotels and other places years ago. Kinda like those chocolates you sometimes find on your pillows in hotel rooms. But not many hotels still do that for matches anymore."

 

Mikey's eyes glazed over and he said, "Mmm, chocolate. Now I want some."

 

"Well, looks like some hotel is old fashioned enough to still do it," said Casey, studying the match box. "This thing looks practically new, so those creeps can't have had it for long."

 

Raph smirked. "Not to mention, I saw a place called the Sierra on the way here. It's a place back in town."

 

"Then our next step is elementary, my good fellows," said Mikey, taking up his British accent again. "We must go to that hotel, and catch these miscreants. The game is afoo-Gah!"

 

Mikey was cut off as Raph tackled him into a snowdrift. "I said knock off that accent, and I meant it," he growled.

 

"SO COLD!" Mikey wailed in reply.

 

Casey rolled his eyes. "Come on, let's go before you both start hibernating."

 

"I'll send the police a tip the helicopter's here, and we should leave the matchbox to for them to find," said Donnie as he put it back where Raph had found it. "Just because we're not waiting for the police, doesn't mean we should keep them from doing their job."

 

"Yeah, yeah, let's just go," said Raph impatiently as he pulled Mikey back up from the snowdrift.

 

_____________________________

 

Arriving at the Sierra hotel, the four boys hesitated in front of it as they tried to figure out what to do next.

 

"There's gotta be, like, a dozen floors on this place," said Raph staring up at the hotel. "How are we supposed to find if those guys?"

 

Casey nodded. "If they're even still here."

 

Donnie frowned thoughtfully. Then he glanced at Casey, and asked, "How good are you at faking a southern accent."

 

"Awesome at it," said Mikey brightly, referring to himself.

 

"He wasn't talking to you," Raph said, elbowing Mikey in his shell.

 

Casey made a face, then said, "Ah reckon I-er-Ah'm rooten' tooten' at it," he said in a painfully bad attempt at the accent.

 

Donnie winced at the sound of it, and shook his head. "Never mind, I'll handle it. Wait out here."

 

With that Donnie walked into the hotel and right up to the front desk. When the receptionist looked up at him, he gave her a friendly smile and said in his best southern accent, "Hello, ma'am, Ah'm supposed ta meet mah uncle here tonight, tall man, cowboy hat, an' an accent like mine. Could ya'll tell me wha' his room is?"

 

The receptionist stared at Donnie for a second, taking in his clearly Asian appearance, and said skeptically, "Mr. Slim is your uncle?"

 

Donnie frowned and pretended to look offended. "Yes ma'am he is. Ah may take more after mah mama's side, but that don't mean that we ain't the same blood. Do ya always ask such nosey questions ta yer customers? Is tha' the kinda place yer runnin' here?"

 

The receptionist turned pink at his rebuttal, and said, "I-I'm very sorry, sir," she said. "He is in room 213. The elevator is on your left."

 

Donnie dropped his offended act, and smiled at her politely. "Thank ya kindly, ma'am," he said before turning to head to the elevator.

 

Once inside, he quickly sent a text to the others which room it was.

 

Outside, Raph got the text, and pulled out his grappling gun and made his way to the hotel's alley. "Room 213, guys. We scale the wall and meet Donnie there."

 

He then noticed the sheepish looks on Casey and Mikey's faces. Realizing why, he gave them a deadpan glare. "You forgot your grappling guns, didn't you?"

 

"Yes," said Mikey weakly.

 

"We were just going to a hockey game," Casey said defensively. "How were we supposed to know we'd need them?"

 

"Rule number two of being a ninja is always be prepared," Raph said pointedly as he shot his grappling gun up, and stepped back to allow the others to climb up first. "Don't let me catch either of you without one again."

 

"I thought that was the Boy Scouts?" said Mikey, looking confused as he started climbing.

 

"Boy Scouts ripped it off from ninjas," Raph said dismissively.

 

Mikey blinked in surprise. "The Boy Scouts are ninjas?"

 

"Just climb already!"

 

Casey moved to climb up after Mikey, and said, "If that's rule number two, what's rule number one."

 

Raph smirked as he followed them up, and Mikey snickered above him. In unison they repeated what they'd heard their father tell them countless times. "The first rule of being a ninja is do no harm. Unless you mean to do harm, then do  _lots_  of harm."

 

Casey grinned. "Now there's a rule I can get behind."

 

The three of them climbed up the second floor, and then scaled along the side until Donnie picked the lock on the room, and opened the window for them.

 

"Coast is clear for now," Donnie said softly as the others climbed in. "We should try to find that puck, and call the police. If they find it here, they can grab those thieves when they come back."

 

"You mean we can't beat them up?" asked Casey in disappointment.

 

"Not if we don't have too," said Donnie. "After what happened in New York, we really shouldn't draw attention to ourselves again."

 

That took the wind out of Casey's sails, and he nodded grudgingly.

 

"Let's just find that trophy," said Raph as he began looking around the room, the others following his example.

 

Only to come up empty.

 

"I can't find it, dudes," Mikey said as he crawled out from under the bed.

 

"They must have put it somewhere else for safekeeping," said Donnie as he finished pawing through the vanity drawers.

 

"At least we know we're in the right room," said Raph dryly as he gazed into the closet, and finding it full of hatboxes, each containing another cowboy hat. "How many hats can one person need?"

 

"So what now?" asked Casey.

 

"We wait until they show up, and we follow them to see where they took it," said Raph with a shrug.

 

"So how long do you think until they get back?" Casey asked.

 

On cue, the door started to rattle.

 

" _Hide!"_  Raph hissed, and the three ninjas vanished. Casey took a few seconds longer, but Mikey reached out from his hiding spot in the closet, and dragged the vigilante in with him an instant before the door opened and the cowboys from the hockey rink stepped inside.

 

"All I'm saying," said one cowboy they didn't recognize, and didn't have a southern accent like the rest, "is that you didn't need to blow up that kid at the hockey rink. He was just a crazy fan, you could have taken him out without killing him."

 

The lead cowboy, Slim, gave a scoff. "Ya'll was always a stick in the mud, Howard. 'S why we had ya flyin' the chopper." He then shot a glare at the Howard. "Ah did what Ah had to, now yer gonna shut yer trap 'r else. We're about ta score the payment of a lifetime, and if ya keep puttin' up a fuss, ya'll be joinin' that dumb kid at the rink. Ya hear?"

 

Howard looked peeved, but he kept his mouth shut.

 

"Jes get what we came for and le's go," said Slim. "The big man himself will be waitin' for us, an' we'd best not keep 'im."

 

Howard's scowl deepened, but he turned to do what Slim said, and made his way towards the closet Mikey and Casey were hiding in. Seeing this, the two hiding there shrank back as far as they could into the closet, and tried to hide themselves among the hat boxes.

 

From their own hiding places of hanging out the window, Raph and Donnie exchanged panicked glances, and Raph climbed his way across to the next window, and climbed through the thankfully empty room.

 

Running from there out into the hallway, he reached over and pulled the fire alarm in the hallway, making a piercing wail fill the hotel, and people started exiting their rooms to leave the building. But before any of them did so, the turtle who pulled the alarm had already vanished back out the window to hide next to Donnie.

 

Back in the room, the cowboy crooks exchanged worried glances as the sound of the alarm hit their ears.

 

"We gotta get movin'," said one of the hat-wearing thugs.

 

Slim nodded for them all to start heading out, and Howard barely opened the closet in his haste to catch up to them, and blindly grabbed a set of keys hanging on a hook in the closet before taking off, not even noticing the two teenagers hidden there.

 

The second the crooks were gone, the four teens came out of hiding, and began scaling back down the rope Raph's grappling gun, and hurried to the party wagon to wait for the cowboys to come out of the hotel.

 

The group came out of the building a minute later and piled into a van before driving off into the night. Casey drove the party wagon after them at a subtle distance (or at least as subtle as a brightly colored hippie van could be).

 

Eventually, the van pulled to a stop outside a broken down warehouse outside of town. The teens parked their own van a safe distance away, and made their way to the meeting spot on foot and crouched behind a large fallen log to not to be seen.

 

The cowboys had gotten out of their van, and seemed to be milling around waiting for something.

 

What they were waiting for became clear very soon, as three fancy looking black cars drove up to the warehouse and parked not too far from the crooks.

 

Various armed guards got out of two of the cars, and out of the third stepped a short, chubby, old man also wearing a cowboy hat. The second he set foot on the ground, the guards moved to flank him, making it clear that he was the boss.

 

The boss gave them a smile that looked like it belonged on a kindly old grandpa, not on a man about to buy stolen property from a bunch of thieves. "Well boys," he said, "ya'll got what I asked ye?"

 

The cowboys moved over to their van, and displayed the golden puck trophy for the man to see.

 

"We got it, Mr. Arboost," said Slim proudly. "But it cost a bit more than we figured. Had to ditch that helicopter we boosted."

 

Mr. Arboost waved his hand to dismiss the problem. "Well, you know me, boys," he said. "Money don' mean a thing. Send me the bill, and let me know when you want me to run interference so you can take another."

 

The cowboys all smirked at that. "Why thank you, Mr. Arboost."

 

Mr. Arboost's smile suddenly took a more greedy turn, and he looked less like a grandpa and more like the Grinch. "Ah can't wait to see the faces on those suits when Ah tell them Ah got their precious golden puck. Wouldn't give me a Super Slam hockey team, said my image was all wrong. Well so what if Ah jes got out'a jail? Ah want mah own team, and Ah got mahself a gold barginin' chip, ain't that righ' boys."

 

The cowboys nodded in agreement, but suddenly a voice rang out over the group.

 

"Are you kidding me?"

 

The Hamato brothers smacked their foreheads as Casey suddenly surged to his feet, and looked at the group of criminals with a scandalized expression.

 

"You bozos stole a helicopter, shot up a hockey rink full of people, stole a priceless historic trophy, and nearly killed me and my friends, just because this  _idiot_  was too lame to be able to buy a hockey team?" Casey shouted at the stunned looking crooks. "You guys are some of the dumbest criminals I've ever seen, and having met the Purple Dragons, that's saying something."

 

There was a lengthy silence after Casey's declaration, before Slim recovered his wits, and yelled at his flunkies, "Well, what r' ya'll waitin' for, shoot him!"

 

Donnie and Raph reached on either side of Casey, and forced him back down and out of the line of fire.

 

Casey, realizing what he just did, winced and said, "Sorry about that."

 

The Hamatos looked annoyed at him, but Donnie said, "Oh no, I quite agree with everything you just said. Their stupidity is astounding, and that Mr. Arboost's plan would never have worked anyway."

 

"But it'd have been better to say all that  _after_ we'd kicked their butts," said Mikey. "Even I know that."

 

"Doesn't matter anymore," said Raph. "Mikey, you and me stick to the shadows, do not let any of these guys see you. Donnie, Casey, while we distract them from a distance, you guys try and get close enough to take them out."

 

The others stared at him strangely, momentarily forgetting that there were killer cowboys with guns trying to shoot at them.

 

"You okay, Raph?" Mikey asked. "You've been acting Leo-ish all night. You keep telling us what we should do."

 

Raph's face turned stony. "Leo's not here," he said bluntly. "And just until he's back, I'll step up."

 

"Why you?" asked Casey in confusion.

 

Raph sent the three of them a dark look. " _You_  want the job?" he asked sarcastically.

 

The three boys grimaced, and shook their heads.

 

"Neither do I," admitted Raph. "But someone's gotta do it, so it might as well be me."

 

Just then, a bullet pierced the log they were hiding behind, and shot past them far too close for comfort.

 

Realizing their cover wouldn't last much longer, Raph said, "Just do what I say, we can argue leadership later!"

 

The other three nodded, and they hurried to follow Raph's orders.

 

Raph and Mikey vanished into the shadow, circling the bad guys among the trees, and pelting them with shuriken.

 

While the cowboys shot wildly into the trees, Casey and Donnie did their best to sneak closer to take them out.

 

But as the two of them found a hiding place close by, they were surprised to see Howard break off from the group, and hide himself behind a tree. Pulling out a cell phone, he hit something on speed dial, and whispered into it, "This is Howard Laird. I'm at the warehouse alongside Eastman street. Send backup."

 

Casey's jaw dropped as he heard that. "Dude," he hissed to Donnie, "he's an undercover cop."

 

"He's probably trying to stop this before they shoot one of us," Donnie said, also coming to that conclusion.

 

Unfortunately, Howard hadn't been quiet enough, and one of the cowboys had heard him.

 

"Hey, Slim!" shouted one of the goons, grabbing Howard on the arm and yanking him from his hiding place and stealing his gun from him as she did so. "Looks like we've got a here spy."

 

The cowboys momentarily forgot about the teenagers, and turned their attention to Howard and the goon.

 

Slim scowled and got up in Howard's face. "'S that so?" he sneered.

 

Howard glared back at him, but knew better than to talk back to the criminals with guns pointed at him.

 

Slim took his silence as an answer, and slugged Howard across the face, knocking him from the goon's grip and into the snow.

 

"Ah'll show ye what happens to people who spy on us," said Slim leveling his gun at Howard.

 

"Now hold on, Slim," said Mr. Arboost, stepping in. "Killin' him would be a waste. Usin' him as a hostage would be a better way to get past that backup he just called."

 

Slim scowled, but grunted in agreement, then nodded at one of his goons to grab Howard again. The undercover police officer struggled against the man pinning him, but wasn't able to get free.

 

From the corner of his eye, Casey caught a glimpse of movement. Looking over, he saw Raph signaling him from behind a tree. As he watched, the turtle held up one of his smoke bomb eggs, and mimed throwing it at the cowboys, then pretended to pull something away.

 

Casey nodded, shoved his hokey mask down over his face, and whispered the plan to Donnie to get him on board.

 

A second later, a smoke bomb burst among the cowboys, and Casey and Donnie darted forwards into smoke. Donnie used his bō to knock the man holding Howard over the head, and Casey grabbed the cop and pulled him along with them out of the smoke. By the time it had cleared, the teens and the cop were hiding again, and the cowboys were looking around furiously.

 

Howard was blinking in surprise at the fact he was no longer being held hostage, but he got over it quickly and glared at his two saviors. "What the hell do you kids think you're doing?" he hissed quietly so as not to draw the cowboys' attention.

 

Casey gave a scoff behind his mask, "You're welcome."

 

"This is dangerous," Howard continued, ignoring Casey's sarcasm. "You two should take your friends and get out of here."

 

Donnie tugged nervously on the hood of his coat to make sure it was covering his face, before saying, "With all do respect, sir, what do you plan to do if we leave. They took your gun, and we at least have things to pass as weapons."

 

That gave Howard pause as he noticed the borrowed hockey stick still in Casey's hand, and the collapsible bō staff in Donnie's. But before he could give an answer, one of the cowboys seemed to catch sight of them, and started shooting in their direction.

 

The boys and cop bolted further into the forest to avoid them, and the cowboys chased after them, leaving Mr. Arboost alone next to the van with the golden puck still sitting inside.

 

Seeing this, Mikey's face broke into a wide grin, and he turned to Raph and said, "I just got an awesome idea."

 

Raph took one look at the smile on Mikey's face, and replied, "That's what worries me."

 

Nonetheless, the red wearing turtle followed after his baby brother as they both shoved their own hockey masks and hoods back on their heads, and bolted towards the van.

 

With a shout of "Booyakasha!" Mikey leaped from the cover of the trees and kicked Mr. Arboost away from the van.

 

Before the old man could recover, Raph and Mikey were already sitting in the van and gunning the engine.

 

Mikey the yanked on the steering wheel, and shot the van in the direction that Donnie and the others had run, and made the cowboys scatter to avoid being run over.

 

Bringing the van up along side the others, Raph shouted, "Get in!"

 

Seeing the cowboys already recovering to come after them again, the three piled into the van, and Mikey swerved it around to get back on the road.

 

"You're the cop," Raph called into the back to Howard. "Where do we go?"

 

Howard, who was looking like he was having a hard time believing a group of kids was practically doing his job for him, managed to say, "Back into town. If we don't meet the backup I called on the way there, we can get help from the police on arrival at the station."

 

"Works for me," said Raph, and Mikey started speeding back towards the city.

 

Glancing out the window behind them, Donnie paled and said, "Tenshi, you might want to step on it."

 

Glancing in the rearview mirror, Mikey instantly saw why Donnie had made that request. The cowboys had all piled into Mr. Arboost's cars, and were gaining on them, determined to get the puck back, and kill the five of them for their interference.

 

Mikey grinned wildly at the sight of them, and floored the pedal to shoot the van forward, and yanked on the steering wheel to pull sharp turn around a corner.

 

"Who taught you how to drive?" Casey yelled from the back seat as the turn had him falling against Donnie in the back seat.

 

"You want pretty, or you wanna get out of here?" Mikey said with a manic grin.

 

Donnie, meanwhile, looked thoughtful. "Now that I think about it, no one's taught him to drive. We never trusted him behind the wheel before. Well, unless you count video games."

 

Everyone else exchanged horrified glances, and scrambled for their seat belts.

 

Just then Mikey had to swerve again as the cowboys started leaning out of the windows and sunroofs of their cars and shooting at the van. The bullets smashed the glass on one of the windows, but thankfully, no one got hit.

 

Not wanting to put up with this, Casey glanced over at Donnie and said, "You got any Boom Stars on you?"

 

Donnie's face broke into a smirk as he caught on to Casey's plan, and pulled out the few he'd made since coming to the farmhouse. He activated them, and tossed them out the broken window onto the street. Similarly, Casey pulled out a few of his exploding hockey pucks, and tossed them out as well.

 

The chasing cars drove over the explosives, but only the last one was slow enough to drive over them as they blew, making the car spin out of control and crash into a tree. The last thing the teens saw before Raph swerved around another corner was the men in the car scrambling to get out of it before the whole thing blew.

 

Howard looked pale as he glanced over the four teenagers he was with. "Who the heck are you kids?"

 

Mikey turned back to grin at him, though it couldn't be seen behind the hockey mask obscuring his green face. "Totally awesome, that's who we are."

 

"EYES ON THE ROAD!" was the unanimous response.

 

Mikey shrugged as he turned back around, then gleefully tossed a shuriken out the window, which punctured the tires of a second car, making it spin out of control too. The angry cowboys climbed out of it once it had stopped and shook their fists at the van as it drove away.

 

Mikey glanced back at the flabbergasted police officer, and whispered dramatically, "Booyakasha."

 

Howard just groaned and leaned his head against the side of the van. "The paperwork for this case is going to be a nightmare."

 

Just then a bump from the back of the van had all of them pitching forward with cries of surprise.

 

The third and final car had caught up to them, and was now ramming the back of the van, trying to get them to loose control.

 

Mikey gritted his teeth and tried to keep the van straight, but one such hit had the vehicle skidding on the icy road out of his control.

 

The occupants of the van screamed as Mikey fought to regain control, in the back Howard yelled, "You kids are  _insane!_ "

 

"Move over!" shouted Casey, unbuckling his seatbelt to lean over Raph (smashing him against the window to make room) and grab the steering wheel. Yanking it from the orange wearing turtle's hands, the van managed to start driving straight again, but it was still skidding dangerously. "Now hit the brakes!" he called to Mikey.

 

Mike was feeling very peeved about being told what to do, but knowing Casey was a better driver than he was he did what the vigilante said, grumbling under his breath the entire time.

 

The van stopped skidding, and began shooting down the street towards the city again with relative safety. Not that that would last long if the cowboys following them had anything to say about it.

 

Mikey tried tossing more throwing stars out the window, but the last car managed to swerve and avoid them, all while still gaining on the van, and trying to ram them again.

 

"Now what?" he asked, glancing back at Donnie, who was trying to calm down Howard (who looked like he was having a panic attack by now).

 

Donnie glanced up, and said, "With how long it took for the explosives to go off, they wouldn't be much use, and if you can't get a shuriken to hit them, then we'll just have to out drive them."

 

"Yeah," grunted Casey, who was still leaning over Raph's seat to drive for Mikey. "That's looking real likely right now."

 

The car rammed their van again, and Casey barely was able to keep them under control.

 

Raph was now thoroughly fed up. He opened his door and balanced himself on the edge of it. He then reached over, grabbed Casey by the collar of his shirt, and plopped him down in the in the shotgun seat to keep them going.

 

"What the hell are you doing?" asked Howard, staring at Raph like he was a mad man.

 

Raph shrugged. "Putting a stop to this," he said matter-of-factly. He then climbed up to the roof of the van, and waited for the perfect shot.

 

Mikey got a wide grin on his face when he realized what Raph was planning, but Donnie grabbed his shoulder and shoved him back into his seat before the youngest could go out and join him. "Not on your life, little brother."

 

From his perch, Raph glared down at the car chasing them, daring them to ram them again.

 

He could see Slim in the front seat looking back at him with a sneer on his face. Seeing the teenager in the mask staring down at him, Slim's face twisted into a smirk, and he sped his car up to ram the van again.

 

That was what Raph had been waiting for, and just as the car hit the van, he leaped down onto the hood of the car, and balanced there in front of the cowboy.

 

Slim only had a moment to goggle at Raph standing there, before Raph pulled out his sai, and thrust it hilt first through the windshield, and drove it straight into Slim's gut.

 

Slim yelped in pain, and hit the brakes of his car on reflex, pitching Raph off the hood and he managed to land back on the roof of the van.

 

Slim's car, meanwhile, lost control and crashed into a tree along the side of the road.

 

Seeing that, Casey pulled the van to a stop, and they climbed out to get a look at the wreck.

 

Slim and his crew in the car were all groaning unintelligibly from the wreck, but they would all live.

 

And at that moment, the sound of sirens hit their ears as the police cars Howard had called finally zoomed around the corner towards them.

 

"Typical," Casey grumbled. "The cops show up  _after_ all the crazy stuff happens."

 

Howard scowled down at the four of them with an extremely disapproving expression. "You four have a lot of explaining to do," he said firmly. "And we  _will_ be calling your parents about all this."

 

If the police officer noticed the four of them finch and look downcast at the mention of parents, he didn't say anything about it.

 

Howard instead glanced over at the approaching officers, before continuing, "To start, I need to get your names and addresses so that we can sort out this-"

 

He broke off as he turned back to see that all four teenagers had vanished without a trace, and not even a footprint in the snow could be seen to indicate where they went. The only thing left was the golden puck gleaming in the back seat of the van, and a discarded hockey mask on the ground.

 

"-Mess," he finished, and rubbed his temples as he felt a massive headache coming on. "The paperwork for all this is going to be hell."

 

Meanwhile, climbing through the trees to not leave tracks, four teenage boys moved quickly on their long cold trek to get back to their own vehicle before Raph and Mikey started hibernating.

 

_____________________________

 

They managed to make it back to the party wagon just as Raph and Mikey started shivering uncontrollably, and the turtles spent the entire ride back to the farmhouse huddled under blankets as Casey had the van's heat blast as high as it could go.

 

Finally, the welcome sight of the O'Neil farmhouse came into view, and the boys hurried inside to finally rest after their wild night.

 

Despite feeling bone tired, Mikey still had a spring in his step and he rushed into the house, and called, "Mi! April! Where are you at?!"

 

There was a beat of silence, before a loud thump came from Leo's bathroom.

 

Mikey grinned, and rushed up the stairs, the others following after him wondering what that thump was.

 

As Mikey hurried to the bathroom, he said, "You two'll never believe what happened tonight! It was totally crazy and-!"

 

He broke off as he entered the bathroom, and caught sight of the girls.

 

Both girls looked like utter messes. Their clothes were singed and ripped, and April's hair had fallen out of its usual ponytail and into a rat's nest. Metalhead stood next to them looking slightly dented, but otherwise unharmed.

 

Miwa gave her baby brother a deadpan glare and said, "Trust me, Mikey, there is no way it was crazier than ours."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a combination of the episode, The Golden Puck from the 2003 series, and The Unmentionables storyline from the Mirage comics (which is mostly where Howard is from). What do you all think? I figured we needed something a little more light hearted after what these guys had just been through. You'll find out what April, Miwa, and Metalhead went through next time.


	39. Portal in the Puzzle Box

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While the boys were chasing trophy-stealing cowboys, the girls and Metalhead had their own adventure.

Several hours earlier…

 

Casey grinned at Miwa for remembering about one of his favorite sports, "So does that mean you wanna go?" he asked eagerly, holding out a Super Slam Hockey ticket.

 

Miwa made a face at the suggestion, and shook her head, "Pass, I have better things to do."

 

With that the kunoichi turned, and walked out of the house to continue training in the yard. As she walked away from the door, she heard April's muffled response of, "Thanks, but I'm not that interested either."

 

Casey didn't sound to disappointed, and replied, "So I guess it's just the four of us, awesome."

 

A few minutes later she saw her brothers (Raph and Mikey both covered in heavy clothing and wearing hockey masks) heading off with Casey in the party wagon for the game.

 

Miwa barely took note of this as she continued to move through her forms with the grace and ease of someone who had done them several times, despite the snow underfoot.

 

But it still wasn't enough. As good as she was now, she would never be able to defeat the Shredder like this. She needed to be better.  _Way_ better.

 

So she kept practicing. Going through the moves, dueling invisible enemies, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't feel the slightest improvement. No matter what she had done with all the extensive training she'd been doing since coming here, she could tell she was still at the same level as she had been at since they day they'd fled New York City.

 

Finally, her frustration hit a breaking point, and she turned her blade on the nearest tree, hacking at it with a vengeance. Several more trees felt the sting of her ire as she slashed her blade through them getting angrier with each blow.

 

She likely would have continued like that all night, if it hadn't been for one tree at the edge of the yard repelling her blade, rather than allowing her to slice through it like the others.

 

Instead of a wooden 'thunk', when she swung her blade at the wide tree, her tantō made a metallic sounding 'clang' and nearly fell from her hands from the unexpectedness of it all.

 

The surprise of this was enough to snap Miwa out of her rage, and she stopped to stare in surprise at the tree. Walking over to it, she wrapped her knuckles against the bark, and heard a hollow metallic sound echo back.

 

Why did the forest outside April's house have a fake tree?

 

Immediately suspicious, Miwa scanned the trunk for some clue about what it was, and why it was there.

 

She finally hit the jackpot when she spotted a set of hinges hidden in the bark, and began running her fingers along the seam to find the rest of the panel.

 

There was a loud click, and a small hidden door on the trunk swung open, nearly smacking Miwa in the face in the process.

 

Peering inside, the kunoichi saw that the small space contained only three things. A strangely shaped puzzle box, an old journal, and several years' worth of dust.

 

Curiosity peaked, the girl reached in and pulled out the former two, brushing off the dust as she did so.

 

The puzzle box was a strange hexagonal shape, and covered in yellow and black triangles with a large green gem on the top. Unable to make heads or tails of it, she turned her attention to the second item. The journal was old, and most of the cover was worn off, but even so, in the dim light Miwa could still make out the words, ' _Property of Augustus O'Neil'._

 

So this stuff must have belonged to some relative of April's.

 

Figuring there was only one way to find out what it was, Miwa slid her tantō into its sheath on her back, and turned to walk back to the farmhouse and ask the redhead.

 

Only to finally realize just how late it was. The full moon was now high in the sky, and it was clear she had been practicing for hours. She shivered as she also realized just how cold she felt. For her work out, she had chosen to only wear sweatpants, a long sleeve shirt, and snow boots, thus allowing her to move more freely than if she was wrapped up in bulky winter clothes.

 

Hoping April was still awake, (and slightly worried at the lack of party wagon signifying that her brothers weren't back yet), the kunoichi hurried into the farmhouse to find her.

 

Upon entering, she made a beeline for the room on the first floor the two of them shared, only to find it empty.

 

"April?" she called into the house, wondering what the other girl was still doing up.

 

"Up here," came the reply from Leo's bathroom.

 

Miwa hesitated for a second at the thought of seeing her brother again, but she shook it off, and made her way up the stairs to the bathroom.

 

She stopped in the doorway and saw April leaning over the bathtub with Leo in it, running a washcloth over his forehead. Metalhead was standing next to her, and seemed to be scanning the turtle.

 

"Is something wrong?" Miwa asked in concern.

 

April glanced over at her, and shook her head. "No, but before they left, Donnie asked me to help Metalhead check him over for any changes."

 

Metalhead gave a beep, and held up a screen for April to see.

 

Her face then fell slightly, and she stepped back to hang the washcloth on a rack. "No change," she said.

 

She shook herself out of her reverie, and walked over to Miwa. "Was there something you needed?"

 

Miwa nodded and held out the journal and the puzzle box. "I found these in a fake tree outside, they mean anything to you?" she asked.

 

April looked at them curiously, then her eyes widened in surprise at the sight of them. "That’s my Uncle Augie's!" she cried in surprise.

 

Taking the journal from Miwa, she hurried to turn on the light over the sink in order to see better.

 

"Who's Uncle Augie?" Miwa asked as April paged through the journal.

 

"Remember my Aunt Robyn, who I stayed with when my Dad was kidnapped," April said. "He's her late husband. This house is from my mother's side of the family, but my Aunt and Uncle are from my father's side, even so they and their son would come visit us here every summer."

 

The redhead then grinned at the old memories. "Uncle Augie was the best, he taught me a ton about math and science, and would make up these puzzles and scavenger hunts for me to solve around the farm."

 

Her face then fell. "But then Uncle Augie disappeared one day out of the blue, and after seven years he was declared dead, and that was eleven years ago. My aunt never wanted to come back here after he disappeared, and not long after that my Mom vanished and Dad took us to live in the city."

 

Both Miwa and Metalhead had gathered closer as April told her story, and Miwa couldn't help but be curious. "So you think that journal could have some clue about what happened to him?" she asked, fiddling with the puzzle box as she asked.

 

April spared her a glance, before going back to paging through the journal. "Maybe," she said, unable to fully quell the hope in her voice.

 

Having finally flipped through the entire book, she paged back to a section that had looked important. "Most of the pages are damaged, that tree you mentioned probably wasn't water tight," she said. "But there's still some clear parts near the end."

 

Stopping at the first semi-readable page, April read aloud,  _"June 14, Today's the day I had my first visit to Kirby at the farmhouse he and his wife live at. Their daughter, April, is a delight. Only three years old, and already she's a little bundle of curiosity. I cannot wait to start teaching her. Unfortunately, She is much too young to be a playmate for my son, but I hope we can have fun nonetheless."_

 

April smiled fondly at that, but then her smile slipped off her face as the read the next part.  _"But despite how welcoming Kirby and his wife, Beth, are, I can't help but think there is something off about this place."_

 

"Beth?" asked Miwa.

 

"My mother's name," April replied, before continuing _. "Specifically there is something off about Beth. Something she is afraid of. She refuses to tell me much about the house, despite the fact that it has been in her family for generations. She also won't tell me much about her family, except that her parents are long dead. Maybe it's none of my business, but I've never been one to leave questions unanswered. I'll try to be as tactful as possible, but I will still try to get to the bottom of this. Beth is family now, and if there is something scaring her, I feel I must put a stop to it."_

 

April frowned, and thumbed through the next few pages curiously. "It looks like my Uncle spent the next few years researching my mother's side of the family whenever the came to visit," she said, looking like she didn't know what to think of that information.

 

"Ironic," said Miwa. "Considering that's about the same as what Casey did to you. Do you think he found out anything about your mother getting experimented on by the Kraang? Or did your mom find out and stop speaking to him like you did?"

 

April's frown deepened at the reminder, and said, "He doesn't seem to mention anything about aliens, but he apparently did find some articles about my parents and great grandparents, and strange things that happened to them." One of the pages crinkled in April's hand as she seethed. "It looks like those stupid brain blobs have been messing with my family for way longer than we thought."

 

Miwa and Metalhead exchanged glances, knowing there was nothing they could say to comfort her about that. So instead, the girl kept silent and continued to work on the puzzle box in her hand.

 

April, meanwhile, took a deep breath to calm herself, and flipped over to the last written page.  _"I may have made a breakthrough in the mystery of Beth's family,"_  she read aloud.  _"While at the local library today, a man approached me, introducing himself as-"_  April sucked in a breath of shock as she read what was next,  _"-as Mr. Kraang. Apparently my investigations had caught him and his associates' attention, and they wish to give me some of the information in their possession. I am to meet them at the edge of the farmhouse property tonight to get it. With any luck this will bring the answers I seek to light."_

 

April closed the book with a stricken expression on her face. "Uncle Augie must have been getting close to whatever the Kraang were planning for me," she said miserably. "That meeting had to be some kind of trap."

 

She then dropped the book to the floor, and looked close to tears. She had had hope that she could find her missing uncle, only to find that she had lost yet another member of her family to the Kraang.

 

Miwa was so busy trying to think of something to say to comfort her that she didn't notice the puzzle box in her hands had given a loud click as its pieces fell into place. At least not until the jewel set into the box started glowing brightly, and began sucking her into it.

 

April's head snapped up as Miwa let out a startled cry, and saw her whole appearance distort as it was sucked into the box in her hands. Without thinking, she grabbed the other girl and tried to pull her free from its grip, only to find herself getting sucked in as well. She barely had enough time to notice Metalhead grabbing her around the knees before there was a final yank, and all three of them were sucked into the box.

 

Without anyone to hold it up, the box dropped to the bathroom floor, the entire process barely rippling the water in Leo's tub as he slept on oblivious.

 

_________________________________

 

Miwa felt herself tumbling through the air, free falling downwards at speeds she didn't want to guess at. She barely registered that April and Metalhead were both falling next to her, before the vortex around them opened up to a pink nightmarish world.

 

The second the vortex vanished, so did the air around her, and Miwa felt herself gagging as she struggled to get oxygen into her lungs.

 

As she fought to breath, she felt a metal hand grab her arm, followed by the sound of rockets as her fall slowed until she was gently set down on a hard surface.

 

"Mi! Miwa!" shouted April next to her, as the redhead tried to figure out what was wrong with her.

 

But then Metalhead appeared on her other side, and opened a compartment in his chest that Donnie had made to carry emergency supplies. Pulling out a box with a long straw attached to it from within his inner cabinet, the robot quickly shoved the straw into her mouth, and Miwa finally felt oxygen flow into her lungs.

 

Clutching the straw, the kunoichi sucked greedily at it until she no longer felt like she was going to pass out from lack of air, barely noticing Metalhead clip the box the straw was attached too to her belt. Only when her head cleared did she notice that April was trying to talk to her.

 

"Mi, what happened? Are you okay?" April asked, concern evident on her face.

 

Miwa took one last deep breath before answering. "It was like I couldn't breathe. There's no air here."

 

But then she noticed that April didn't have a straw in her mouth and appeared to be perfectly fine. "Why aren't you suffocating?" she asked.

 

April opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, Metalhead let out a loud beep to get their attention.

 

Both girls looked over at the short robot, and their jaws dropped as they followed where he was pointing and the sight that met their eyes.

 

"Toto, we aren't in Kansas anymore," said Miwa vaguely, and April nodded in agreement.

 

Before them was a place they had only seen once before, through the portals during the incident with the Kraathatrogons. A vivid pink sky stretched before them punctuated by metallic floating islands and giant crystals that grew like trees from the ground.

 

"Dimension X," said April as her brain caught up to what she was seeing. "We're in  _Dimension X!"_

 

"That explains why I couldn't breathe," said Miwa. "The air here is toxic, remember." She sent an uneasy glance at April, and added. "But I guess you're okay."

 

April scowled at the reminder that she wasn't completely human, but made no comment.

 

"I bet this is how the Kraang got your Uncle," Miwa continued. "They used that box to zap him here, and trap him before he could get too close to the truth. Then they hid that stuff so no one would know."

 

April's face fell as she came to that conclusion as well. "Poor Uncle Augie," she said in despair. There was no way her human uncle would have survived coming here. He'd have suffocated like Miwa had nearly done, and no one would have been there to help him.

 

Miwa gave her a moment to mourn, before vocalizing a very important question. "So how do we get out of here?"

 

April looked up in surprise at the question. "I-I have no idea," she admitted.

 

They both turned to look down at Metalhead to see if he would know, but the robot just shrugged.

 

Helpless as to what else they could do, the girls looked back out at their surroundings, hoping to spot something that could help them.

 

But what they saw wasn't inspiring much confidence. Off on a nearby island was a cluster of Kraathatrogons, the mammoth mother feeding mutagen to several massive babies.

 

Off in the distance, a creature that looked like a pterodactyl flew through the pink void, only to be vaporized by a giant eyeball hovering in the middle of the sky.

 

Just then, Miwa spotted something, and frantically signaled for April and Metalhead to follow her as she ducked behind a crystal tree.

 

Not a second later, a flying scooter shot by with a Kraang riding it, though it did not seem to see them.

 

"This is so not good," said April next to her.

 

"No kidding," grumbled Miwa sarcastically. "We're stuck in Kraang territory with no backup, no plan, and no idea how to get out of here. Did I leave anything out?"

 

"The fact we'll have to find a way back to the farmhouse without the Kraang figuring out where it is," said April dryly.

 

"Touché," Miwa agreed.

 

Metalhead let out an alarmed sounding beep, and the girls ducked once again as another Kraang flew past.

 

Miwa's eyes narrowed at the sight of it and said, "Well, we won't get anywhere if we stick around here."

 

With that she bolted from their hiding place and leapt towards the Kraang on the scooter.

 

But the second Miwa made the jump, she realized that she had misjudged the distance. The gap between her and the scooter was far too wide for her to make, and she fell screaming down into the pink void.

 

"MIWA!" yelled April, running out to see if she could catch her friend. But as she looked down, she saw that the other girl was nowhere in sight. But despite that, she could still hear her screaming.

 

And that screaming was coming from above her, not below.

 

Looking up, April was greeted by the sight of Miwa fall right out of the sky, and land bridal style in the Kraang's arms.

 

It was hard to tell who was more surprised by this, April, Miwa, or the Kraang itself.

 

Fortunately, Miwa recovered first, and with a deft twist she was out of the Kraangs arms, and sending the alien off the scooter into the void below.

 

Only to see the Kraang fly back towards her from out of left field a second later.

 

Miwa managed to grab the controls and dodge it, before flying over to land next to April and Metalhead.

 

Giving the redhead and the robot a bewildered look, she asked, "What just happened?"

 

Metalhead had whirred, and picked a rock up off the ground and threw it off into the distance, only for it to fly past them several times before the robot caught it again.

 

April snapped her fingers. "I get it. Physics! The laws of physics in this dimension are different than those back home. That's why the mutagen didn't work the way the Kraang wanted it to at first."

 

To prove her point April tried jumping into the air, only to go shooting upwards out of sight.

 

Miwa and Metalhead exchanged glances when she didn't come back down. Then the robot seemed to sense something, and hurried to the edge of their island to catch April as she came flying past. With a tug, Metalhead set her back on solid ground, and April winced. "Yeah, remind me not to do that again."

 

"If I have to remind you, then you're probably a lost cause anyway," said Miwa dryly. "Now I got us a ride, we gonna use it or what?"

 

With no other options, April climbed on the back of the scooter, and Metalhead climbed on behind her. The three were soon rocketing through the pink void that was Dimension X, searching for a way to get back to the farmhouse without alerting the Kraang to their location.

 

"It's weird," said April as they shot past who knows how many islands unhindered. "You'd think we'd be seeing more Kraang."

 

Miwa glanced around, and saw no sign of them either. "Maybe they're all in New York," she said bitterly.

 

April's face twisted into a grimace at that idea. As much as she didn't want the aliens in her home, it was better that they were there instead of trying to capture them.

 

Suddenly, Metalhead shifted behind April, and pointed over her shoulder at something in the distance.

 

April followed his hand, and spotted a pair of creatures that looked like they wouldn't be out of place on one of Mikey's cellphone games. They were each a series of pink and purple spheres that were floating through the sky in figure eights. "What are those?" she asked, drawing them to Miwa's attention.

 

The kunoichi frowned, and tilted the scooter to fly away from them. "I don't know, but I'd rather not find out."

 

Just then the Kraang that Miwa had kicked off the scooter floated by again, still stuck flying through the pink void. "Halt!" it called at the sight of them. "Those who have stolen Kraang's vehicle will return the vehicle to Kraang."

 

That drew the attention of the ball creatures, and they flew rapidly over to where they were.

 

Before April and Miwa could blink, the ball creatures were looming over them and the Kraang, their spheres sparking with electricity. With a loud ' _ZAP!_ ' one of them vaporized the Kraang, and they turned their attention to the girls and Metalhead.

 

"Punch it, Mi!" shouted April, and Miwa forced her scooter forward as fast as it could go. The ball creatures chased after them, and tried to shoot them with electricity, but Miwa was fortunately able to dodge their shots.

 

But then one of the ball creatures got a lucky shot, and blasted the scooter right out from under the three of them.

 

All three were sent sprawling onto another island at the base of more crystal trees.

 

Knowing that using her metal weapon would only be asking to be electrocuted, Miwa reached over to the tree, and yanked off one of the sharp branches.

 

Only to pause and stare in confusion as the crystal started pulsing in her hand, and letting out a high pitched sound causing her to drop it.

 

"That can't be good," was all Miwa managed to say, before Metalhead grabbed her and April and used his rockets to fly the two of them away. Not a second later, the crystal Miwa had grabbed blew up causing a chain reaction of the crystal trees to also explode leveling the entire island.

 

As the girls clung to Metalhead as he flew them away, Miwa said bitterly, "It's official, I hate this place."

 

"You and me both," April agreed.

 

Metalhead also made a sound of agreement.

 

Unfortunately, Metalhead's rockets weren't strong enough to keep them airborne for very long, so they had to land on yet another island, though this time they gave the crystal trees wide berth.

 

"Where to now?" asked April.

 

"No idea, Metalhead, what do you think?" asked Miwa.

 

Metalhead raised one finger as if to make a suggestion, when a loud growling came from behind them. The robot wheeled around and armed his blasters.

 

"Oh, what now?" Miwa groaned as she yanked her tantō out of its sheath.

 

The girls and robot scanned the area, looking for the source of the sound, but there didn't appear to bay anything there.

 

Just then, April spotted movement from the corner of her eye. In a flash she unfolded her tessen in her hand, and wheeled to face it.

 

Only to see a small white marshmallow like creature with bright green eyes staring at her from a rocky outcrop. "Mop" the creature said cutely.

 

April blinked in surprise as what she was seeing sunk in, and slowly lowered her tessen. "Aww," she couldn't help but coo.

 

She reached out to pet the little marshmallow, but before she could, a new voice rang out, "Don't touch it!"

 

April, Miwa, and Metalhead all looked over at the source of the voice, and were shocked to see a familiar purple-haired goth girl standing there.

 

April immediately forgot about the cute creature, and ran towards the newcomer. "IRMA!" she cried in relief at the sight of her missing friend.

 

But before she could get close, Metalhead grabbed her arm to stop her, and Miwa jumped in front of her with her tantō aimed in Irma's direction.

 

"April, the real Irma wouldn't be able to breathe here anymore than I could. It's not her!" snapped Miwa as she glared at the goth.

 

It then registered to April that 'Irma' didn't have anything on her that would act as a breathing apparatus, and she realized who it could actually be. Instantly, rage replaced her relief at the sight of the petite girl. How dare the Kraang continue to use her friend's appearance. "Kraang Subprime!" she snarled as it all sunk in.

 

Not-Irma shook her head in denial, and held up her hands in the universal sign for 'I come in peace'. "No," she insisted, still using Irma's voice. "I admit I'm not the human this android is based on, but I'm not Subprime either."

 

"Tell it to my tessen!" April snapped as she broke free of Metalhead's grip, and bolted towards the android with rage in her eyes.

 

Not-Irma dodged the blow, but made no move to attack April back. "Please," she said. "I'm not here to fight you."

 

But the girls weren't listening, and Not-Irma had to jump back as Miwa tried to come at her with her sword, and Metalhead tried to burn her with his flame throwers.

 

And so things fell into a sort of dance as Not-Irma expertly dodged their blows, but the three continued to attack her regardless.

 

Just as it looked like they would keep fighting like that for hours, Metalhead's flame thrower missed Not-Irma and blasted near where they mostly forgotten marshmallow creature was sitting. The small blob let out a terrified sounding " ** _MOP!_** " and the entire ground beneath their feet started to shake, making them all stop fighting to regain their balance.

"Oh no," said Not-Irma nervously.

 

Suddenly the rocks the marshmallow was sitting on shot upwards, revealing that it was actually a tiny part of a much bigger bug like creature with a rocky texture to its skin.

 

"RUN!" shouted Not-Irma as she bolted away from the creature. Momentarily forgetting their fight, the other three hurried after her away from the giant monster.

 

"This way," Not-Irma said as she led them into a small abandoned looking Kraang outpost on the island. April, Miwa, and Metalhead took off after her, and the door slid shut behind them.

 

Not-Irma immediately hurried over to the control panel of the outpost, and armed the weapons system of the place, blasting the massive creature away before it could try to crush them.

 

With the immediate danger now past, Not-Irma turned to look at the three of them. " _Now_  will you listen to me?" she asked.

 

April, Metalhead, and Miwa exchanged glances, unsure of what to think. On one hand, the Kraang had been their enemy for so long, that it was second nature to take them out on sight. On the other hand, none had ever even attempted to help them before, and for this one to do so was odd in and of itself.

 

"Why did you help us?" April finally asked guardedly.

 

Not-Irma sighed in relief that they were no longer trying to attack her, and said, "My name is Captain Mortu. I come from the same species as the Kraang, but I am not one of them." With that, she opened up her chest to reveal a pink brainlike alien that was thankfully not Kraang Subprime. Shutting her chest she continued, "My kind call themselves the Utroms, we are a tribe that has broken off from the Kraang hive-mind, and want nothing to do with their destructive schemes," she continued, shutting her chest again.

 

"Wait, Utroms?" said Miwa in interest as that name rang a bell to her.

 

"What is it, Mi?" asked April as she and Metalhead glanced at her in confusion.

 

"Remember how I met my brothers' turtle counterparts when I was knocked through those portals in the Kraang Worm fiasco," Miwa said thoughtfully. "They told me about their version of the Kraang in that world were called the Utroms, and that they were a relatively peaceful alien race that they were friends with."

 

"Ah, then you've been to Dimension Third Earth," said Mortu, looking interested. "The Kraang attempted to get a foothold there not too long ago, but were beaten back by those who live there, among them our own dimensional counterparts. It was quite interesting to see what our species could have become if things had been different."

 

April was looking very disturbed at all this, so she said, "So let me get this straight, you're a  _good_  Kraang?"

 

Mortu shrugged, "I like to think I am at least a better person than the Kraang are. But it's a bit pretentious to simply declare oneself good."

 

"Then why are you dressed as my friend?!" April demanded. "And where is the real Irma?"

 

Mortu glanced down at the robotic body she was in, and said, "This Irma form is one of many androids my Utrom brothers and I stole in a raid on the Kraang's supplies. I did not mean to offend you by using it." She then turned to the control panel of the outpost again, and pulled up a video on the screen. "As for the human it is based off of, I do not know where she is. I would assume she has been mutated, and is working as a slave among the other humans of New York."

 

April and Miwa stared at the screen with distraught expressions on their faces as they saw hundreds of Kraangatized humans were being forced to mine the exploding crystals off of a large rock.

 

Seeing how distressed the girls were at the sight, Metalhead walked over, and shut off the video.

 

"All those people," said April in a daze. "How could the Kraang do this?"

 

Mortu gave her a sympathetic glance. "They think they are superior to humans, and that superiority allows them to do whatever they like to those below them. I am sorry."

 

"Superior my foot," growled Miwa. She then shot a glance at Mortu and asked, "Are my mother and father among them? Or did Shredder really…" She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

 

But Mortu shook her head. "No. As part of their alliance with the Foot Clan, the Kraang have been ordered to keep an eye out for both of your parents, and inform the Shedder the second either are seen no matter if they are dead or alive. But so far no one has seen them."

 

Miwa clenched her fists and tried to rationalize to herself that no news was good news.

 

"May I ask how the three of you got here in the first place?" asked Mortu. "The Kraang had been under the impression you had all fled New York."

 

Metalhead turned to look over at the Utrom, and let out a series of beeps and whirs, which made Mortu's eyes widen. "I see," she said. "Augustus O'Neil, huh? That's a name I haven't heard in years."

 

That snapped both girls out of their depressions, and they stared at Mortu in shock. "You know my Uncle Augie?" April blurted out.

 

Mortu nodded. "Yes, we Utroms intercepted a transmission the Kraang sent out, alerting us to their plans to capture Augustus. We were able to intercept him when he arrived in this dimension and attempted to return him home."

 

April gaped at the Utrom, and Miwa asked. "If you 'attempted' to do so, why's he still missing?"

 

Irma's face fell into a downcast expression as Mortu replied, "Unfortunately, we were betrayed as we attempted to use a portal to send him back to Earth. I am afraid that in the fall out, Augustus was thrown through a portal to a location unknown to us, and we have not heard from him since."

 

April felt tears begin to fall down her cheeks as she heard that, and she managed to gasp out, "But he's alive?"

 

Mortu nodded. "Lost somewhere we know not, but yes, we believe him to be alive."

 

April felt her knees give out from under her, and she fell to the floor and wept in relief. Augie was  _alive!_  And if he was alive, he could be found someday. She just had to keep hoping for that.

 

As April tried to pull herself together, Miwa looked at Mortu and asked, "Then how do we get home? You said you had a portal?"

 

Mortu hesitated, then replied, "No, we don't have a portal. When we attempted to return Augustus we attempted to commandeer a Kraang portal to send him to Earth. But the traitor interfered with the portal's coordinates." She then frowned and added, "Besides, all of the Kraang's current portals to your world open in New York City, and it would be far too dangerous to send you through to there. And if we input the coordinates of you hiding place, it would only alert the Kraang to its location."

 

Miwa opened her mouth to protest, but Metalhead beat her too it with another series of beeps.

 

Mortu looked thoughtful as she heard that, and said, "Hmm, that plan may have some possibilities."

 

"What?" asked Miwa.

 

"Your friend here has suggested we try to connect a portal to the one the three of you came through in the first place," explained Mortu. "Since it was a Kraang plot that caused it in the first place, they still should have that portal box on file, and could activate it. The problem is, that portal box was a prototype to the portals they currently use, and their systems have vastly changed since its creation. Any portal you try to connect with it will only last for a small window time before it shorts out on both sides. You will only get one shot at this."

 

April had been listening to all this, and wiped away her tears and pushed herself to her feet. "One shot is all we need," she said firmly. "Where do we need to go?"

 

Mortu led them to a tall spiky building that acted as a Kraang base. "This is the closest place with portals that we can use for our plan," she explained. "Anywhere else would be on the other side of Dimension X, and would make us far more likely to be caught traveling there. There's just one problem."

 

"What?" asked April.

 

Just then, massive doors opened on the building, and out stepped Traag, the giant living statue that had guarded the portal at TCRI, along with another nearly identical living statue only this one was white with blue lines instead of black with orange.

 

"We have to get past them," whispered Mortu as they ducked farther out of sight.

 

"Great," said Miwa sarcastically. "And how are we supposed to do that?"

 

Metalhead whirred and made some hand motions, making Mortu shake her head. "No. I doubt your firepower will make a scratch on them other than make them angry. Our best bet is to try and sneak past them somehow."

 

Miwa smirked as an idea occurred to her, and reached down to grab a decent sized rock. "Now you're speaking my language. Let's see if these rockheads know the oldest trick in the book," she said as she tested the rock's weight in her hands.

 

With she leaned out of her hiding place just enough to chuck the rock to the far side of the island so that it crashed into another cluster of the crystal trees, shattering more than a few crystal branches in the process.

 

The two rock creatures turned their heads when they heard the crash, and followed the sound to investigate. Just as they reached the spot the rock landed, the damaged trees exploded, causing a chain reaction among the trees and sending both giants flying off the side of the island and into the void below.

 

Miwa smirked as she stepped out of her hiding place, and the others followed.

 

Mortu quirked an eyebrow at the girls and robot. " _That's_  the oldest trick in the book?"

 

"Well, the 'throwing something to make a noise and distract the guards' part is the oldest trick in the book," said April as they walked towards the building. "The part where it all explodes is newer and more of a Miwa thing."

 

Miwa sent them a smirk. "It worked, didn't it?"

 

Metalhead gave a thumbs-up, and made an appreciative sound, making it clear he liked her method of blowing things up as well.

 

Mortu shook her head in amusement, but before she could reply, a familiar voice rang out behind them. "Very clever."

 

The four wheeled around to see another Irma android flying towards them, this one unfolded into its full battle mode, and had Kraang Subprime sitting in the driver's seat glaring down at them as he grew closer.

 

Mortu's eyes widened at the sight, and she yelled,  _"Run!"_

 

With that she bolted into the building, and the others hurried after her. Once they were inside, Mortu sealed the door, shutting Subprime out. "That won't hold Subprime for long," she said as she hurried farther into the building. "We have to do this quickly."

 

To prove her point, the spinning saw blade from Subprime's Irma-Bot's hand broke through the door and began slicing through it.

 

Hurrying after Mortu, April said, "I thought you said you stole Kraang Subprime's Irma suit?"

 

"I didn't steal Subprime's personal one," Mortu replied as they ran. "Just one of the many that they made. And for the record, the Kraang stole the design from  _us_  first, one of our leaders, Rook, saw your friend once and liked her style."

 

April stared in disbelief. "Wait, so they're mass producing Irma? Oh, she'd hate that!"

 

"Come on," said Mortu as she led the way, and ignoring what April said. "The portal controls are this way."

 

"One question, Mortu," said Miwa. "If they know you're here now, how do you plan to get away? This place will be swarming with Kraang the second Subprime calls in reinforcements."

 

She didn't offer to take the alien with them to the farmhouse. If it came down to it, they would bring Mortu with them, they owed her that much. But the fact was that they still didn't know much about the Utroms, or Mortu to trust them with the location of their safe haven willingly.

 

Fortunately, Mortu replied, "I'll open my own portal to safety along with yours. When your portal shorts out the equipment it'll erase what my coordinates are so the Kraang can't follow."

 

April and Miwa exchanged glances, and Metalhead let out a beep.

 

Mortu glanced at him. "Wait to thank me when we're safe, Metalhead. Besides, it's an honor to aid those who've been such a headache to the Kraang. Hearing reports of you kids has been us Utroms' main source of entertainment."

 

Miwa snorted, "If the Kraang had hair, we'd be making them tear it out."

 

Mortu smirked. "Why do you think some Kraang androids go around without a human suit?"

 

Mortu then led them to a room with a massive crystal tree hanging from the roof, honeycomb patterns on the walls and several open portals scattered near the floor. She quickly ran to the control panel and shut down all of the portals to keep Kraang reinforcements from coming in from that side.

 

"Okay," she said as April and Miwa approached. "I need to rig this to open our two portal simultaneously. One for me to return to the Utroms, and one that connects to your puzzle box." Mortu paused, for a second, then added in a deadpan tone, "And all before Subprime breaks through and slaughters us."

 

Metalhead hurried over to lend his assistance, for which Mortu sent him a grateful look.

 

"Wouldn't you be an even match for him?" asked April. "You're in an Irma-Suit too." She blinked then said, "I cannot believe I just said that."

 

Mortu spared her a glance, before returning to work. "No, the one Subprime has is his personal one. He modified it himself to be extra lethal. This one I have is just a standard suit. Aside from a few differences, it's not that different from a regular Kraang android."

 

"And we all know how durable those are," said Miwa sarcastically, thinking of all the times she had sliced the androids to pieces.

 

"Precisely," said Mortu not even looking up from the control panel she and Metalhead were working on.

 

Miwa and April exchanged glances, then simultaneously moved to guard the door, their weapons out and ready for anything.

 

For a moment, there was nothing but silence save for Mortu and Metalhead working furiously at the control panel.

 

Then one of the honeycomb panels burst outward and all hell broke loose.

 

Kraang began pouring into the room in droves, and they all leveled their blasters at the two girls and two bots.

 

April and Miwa immediately ran over to staunch the flow, and Metalhead disconnected from the control panel to help them. Between their weapons, and Metalhead's laser fire they were able to keep the Kraang at bay, but that didn't stop more from pouring in in their place.

 

The three were so busy fighting they Kraang soldiers that they almost didn't notice Kraang Subprime walk through the now unguarded door and try to sneak up on Mortu.

 

Fortunately, Metalhead noticed him, and made a shrill whistling sound. Mortu wheeled around and dodged just in time to avoid a saw to the stomach. Unfortunately, she dodged too far, and was blocked from the portal controls.

 

"Mortu, lookin' good," said Subprime tauntingly to the Utrom. "Love the body, but I wear it better."

 

Mortu just scowled at him, and had her elbow open up to reveal a cannon, much like the ones on the Mrs. Campbell robots, and tried to blast him with it.

 

Subprime dodged, but the blast still took out a large group of Kraang soldiers.

 

Mortu remained on the offence, trying to blast Subprime while also trying to edge back over to the controls, and the eye patch-wearing alien dodging every attack. Finally, Mortu tried to blast another missile at him, only for her elbow to make a clicking sound to show it was empty.

 

Laughing at that, Subprime took that opportunity to backhand Mortu even farther from the controls so that her body slammed against the wall. She tried to get back up, but it was clear her body was damaged.

 

"Don't this just bring back memories," said Subprime, gesturing dramatically around them as he stalked towards her. "Almost like déjà vu. You, me (Bishop ain't here, but he's a boring stiff anyway) here in a portal chamber trying to get some stinkin' humans home."

 

April's head jerked around at that, and would have been shot by a Kraang if Miwa hadn't noticed and stabbed the android before it could pull the trigger. "What's he talking about?" the redhead asked Mortu.

 

Mortu hesitated, then replied, "Remember how I said my fellow Utroms and I were betrayed when trying to return your Uncle home?"

 

"Guess who did the betraying?" Subprime interrupted, looking gleeful at the fact. "That's right, it was me."

 

"WHAT!" April shrieked, looking horrified.

 

But Subprime just laughed. "I'm actually glad old Augie showed up. I'd been looking for an in with the Kraang for a while by then, gettin' rid of that annoying snoop was my ticket to the big leagues."

 

April stared in horror at the laughing alien as it sank in the one who was the reason her friend was most likely a mutant slave was also the reason her Uncle was gone.

 

And then she got angry. Really,  _really_   ** _angry!_**

 

Kraang Subprime seemed to recognize the look on her face, and began backing away slowly, remembering the last time April's rage had been turned on him. "Hey, h-hold on now. Let's not do anything hasty," he said nervously.

 

"Is that so?" said April, her voice malicious. "Because right now I  _really_  want to get hasty."

 

Kraang Subprime looked terrified as April reached her hands up to her temple, and looked like she was trying to focus her psychic powers.

 

"No, stop!" Subprime shouted. But when nothing happened but April's face pinching in concentration, he brought his arm blaster up and pointed it at April. "I said STOP!" he shouted.

 

But before he could even fire a shot, a sword sliced through the chest of his android and it fell to pieces to the ground.

 

Subprime was ejected from the body, and looked up to see Miwa smirking down at him with her sword resting casually on her shoulder. Subprime had been so distracted by April that he hadn't even noticed the kunoichi go in for the kill.

 

Before he could voice a protest, April darted forward, and her foot slammed into Subprime's squishy pink side, and punted the alien into the wall of the room hard.

 

Subprime groaned weakly as he slowly slid back down the wall and fell unconscious.

 

"That's for Uncle Augie," April declared.

 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Metalhead managed to finish taking out the remaining Kraang soldiers, and Mortu stumbled to her feet and back to the controls.

 

"Opening the portals now," she said.

 

Instantly, two pink triangles appeared by the control panel. One showed Leo in his bathtub, the other showed another part of Dimension X.

 

"Go through it now," Mortu ordered. "It'll short the system out in less than a minute."

 

Miwa and Metalhead both nodded to her, and hurried through the portal. April hung back and said, "Mortu, thanks. For this, and for trying to help my Uncle."

 

Mortu smiled slightly but quickly made a shooing motion. "Go!"

 

April jumped through the portal, and Mortu quickly hobbled through her own.

 

Kraang Subprime woke up just as Mortu stepped through, and immediately began scuttling to the portals, desperate to get some kind of information on both of his foes.

 

But before he could reach them, the control panel sparked with electricity as it shorted out, and the entire Kraang base went dark as a result.

 

Sitting in the dark surrounded by the dismantled bodies of his comrades, Kraang Subprime groaned. "Aw,  _Kraang!"_

 

_________________________________

 

Back at the farmhouse, the boys stared at April Miwa and Metalhead after hearing what they'd been up to while they were at Super Slam Hockey (and all the hijinks that followed).

 

No one knew quite what to say about all of it. Kraang that were  _good?_  April's uncle lost in the multiverse? Their description of what Dimension X was like? It was all mind-blowing stuff!

 

As usual, it fell to Mikey to break the ice.

 

Holding his hands up in surrender, he said, "You win, your night was  _way_ crazier than ours."

 

"Mikey," they all groaned, but also had to chuckle at his statement.

 

They were all home, and that's what mattered.

 

Still, April threw the now fried puzzle box into a nearby lake first thing the next morning. As it sank, she vowed she would find her uncle.

 

Someday…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is late. And that's what happened during the boy's trip to the hockey rink. April's mother's name is Beth in the IDW comics, and since her mother is still unnamed other than Mrs. O'Neil, I decided to use Beth for this too. Since I didn't do an Into Dimension X chapter, I decided to use this to make up for it, and mesh it with the episode April's Artifact from the 2003 series, as well as add Captain Mortu who is also from the 2003 series (I know he's a guy in that series, but he's wearing a girl's body and it was easier to use feminine pronouns, and who knows how Utroms/Kraang work with pronouns anyway). We have no idea what they got up to at the farmhouse before Leo woke up, and without Miwa there, they may never have found the puzzle box and journal. It could happen.


	40. How Not to Stop an Alien Invasion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It turns out they weren't the only ones to escape New York. Too bad these other guys' methods to take back the city are too extreme.

After a month of freezing snowy weather, a very depressing Christmas, and a New Years where everyone's resolution was to give the Kraang and Foot what was coming to them, the snow covering Northampton finally melted. It was still very cold outside, but at least one could now walk around without getting soaked and miserable.

 

This was a huge relief for everyone at the farmhouse, who had all been getting sick to death of the snow, especially the two awake turtles, who had more or less been confined to stay inside. Cabin fever was not a pretty sight when it was inflicted on ninjas.

 

Still, when April suggested they have a picnic on the now dry grass, that was still a bit of a stretch.

 

"April, it's still super cold out," Casey moaned as April and Mikey filled up the picnic basket, and tasked him with finding the blanket.

 

"I don't care," April said firmly as she focused on making sandwiches. "I'm sick of being stuck in this house. One afternoon eating out in the sun won't kill you."

 

Casey opened his mouth to protest, but Miwa elbowed him in the gut. "Don't bother," she said. "She's set on the idea, and you're not going to get lunch otherwise."

 

Casey glanced up at Raph, who was leaning against the bathroom doorframe to keep an eye on both them, and Leo. He was hoping that he would be on his side, but Raph just shrugged, and said, "Donnie modified me and Mikey's coats to work like battery-powered electric blankets, and Metalhead's been set to watch Leo while we're gone, so we don't really have an excuse not to go anymore."

 

Mikey nodded brightly. "Yeah, now they're all warm and toasty." He then reached over to grab his coat and hug it to himself like a security blanket.

 

Casey scowled, but then his eyes lit up, "Do ya think he could do the same for my coat?" he asked.

 

"I don't know, go ask him," said Raph dismissively.

 

Casey left to do just that, forgetting completely about finding a picnic blanket.

 

Miwa sighed and stood up to fetch it herself. "He does realize that Donnie's not going to make him a heated jacket without some kind of price, right?"

 

"You try telling him that," said Raph. "I just wanna sit back and enjoy the show."

 

Mikey snickered, and the rest of them all looked amused.

 

___________________________

 

Lunchtime found the group of teenagers settled in a nearby apple orchard (though the trees had yet to bare any fruit) and (despite Casey's initial complaints) they were all having a good time.

 

The food April and Mikey had made was good, and even with the brisk weather they were all able to relax and enjoy themselves like they hadn't been able to since leaving New York. It was almost enough to make them forget why they were in Northampton in the first place.

 

Almost.

 

Just as Mikey was about to break out the desserts, a shot of gunfire sounded in the distance.

 

The group froze at the sound, and then heard it echoed again, closer this time.

 

"Is it some kind of hunting season?" asked Casey, glancing around at the others in confusion.

 

"Not at the moment," said Donnie, looking concerned. "Legally, anyway."

 

April frowned angrily. "Urgh, poachers," she growled, reaching for her cell phone to report it to the authorities.

 

But before she could. A third gunshot rang far too close for comfort, and someone burst out of the bushes and tumbled onto their picnic.

 

"My cookies!" Mikey yelped as the stranger collapsed on the plate of sweets.

 

But the others were far more concerned with the man himself over what he landed on. He was about their parents' age with dark hair and shattered glasses.

 

Seeing the bloodstain begin to grow on the shoulder of the man's shirt, Raph's eyes widened. "He's been shot!" he said as he leaned closer and clamped his hands over the wound to stanch the bleeding.

 

The man's eyes snapped open, and he looked at them wildly without really seeing them.

 

"Someone- someone, help," he moaned, squinting at them behind his glassless lenses and making it clear he couldn't actually see the giant turtle above him.

 

"Who did this to you?" asked Miwa, leaning over the man in hopes of getting answers.

 

"Help me, please," he begged. "They've- they've got a bomb. The city… Aliens… I didn't want… Not right… Gone too far…" But before he could fully explain what was happening, he collapsed in a dead faint.

 

Donnie and Raph had been examining his wound as he spoke. "He hasn't been shot fatally," said Donnie as he tore off strips of the picnic blanket to bind the wound. "But without medical help it could get infected or bleed out. We need to get this man to a doctor right away."

 

"Uh, guys, didn't he say something about a  _bomb!_ " Casey said pointedly.

 

Just then, they heard a voice with a Brooklyn accent yell, "He went over this way!"

 

"I see his tracks!" said someone else. "Let's finish this!"

 

"Hide," Raph hissed to everyone.

 

Mikey grabbed their entire picnic, and wrapped it up in the blanket like a big sack, and hopped into the bushes looking like a green Santa Claus. Donnie and Raph each grabbed the man who had interrupted them, and as gently as they could, they carried him to hide in some bushes. The rest found their own hiding spots, and waited silently as three men carrying big guns rushed into the orchard.

 

Glancing around, a large man with a beard looked to their leader and said, "I don't know, Skonk. Hunting down one of our own. Isn't this a little extreme?"

 

Skonk rounded on the man, and glared at him angrily. From what the hidden team could see, his appearance matched his name. He was built, and dressed in all black, and had short black hair with a white streak through it. The sunglasses he wore flashed as he snapped to the bearded man, "Nothing is too extreme in the fight against the alien menace, Pewk. Remember who we are. We are Humans Against The Extraterrestrials! And as a member of H-A-T-E, Michael knew the rules. Our cause is a lifelong commitment.  _No one_  leaves."

 

Pewk gulped, and backed away from the man nervously, but Skonk was no longer paying attention to him. "Now find that traitor, he's wounded, and won't get far. I need to make some last minute preparations at the base. We've come too far to let one pansy make us scrub the entire mission."

 

Pewk and the other man hurried closer to where they were hiding to find the wounded man (Michael, apparently), and Skonk turned and ran back the way he'd come.

 

As the two men got closer to where the teens were hidden, Miwa caught Mikey and Casey's eye from her hiding place, and signaled them to follow her lead.

 

As they two men broke off from one another to start searching the bushes, one of the wandered under the tree Miwa was hiding in. With a skilled display of gymnastics, the kunoichi swung down from the tree and kicked the man right in the face, making him fall back on his butt and drop his gun, before swinging back up into the tree and vanishing from sight.

 

He growled as he pushed himself up and reached for his gun. But before he could grab it, Mikey's kusarigama sickle swung out from the tree, hooked itself onto the gun, and yanked it away from the man.

 

As he was yelling in outrage at the loss of his weapon, Miwa swung down again, and this time she hit the man hard enough to knock him unconscious.

 

Pewk heard his comrade's shouts, and hurried over to help him. He stopped dead at the sight of his friend lying on the ground, and before he could recover, Casey burst from the bushes with a shout of "Goongala!" and clubbed Pewk over the head with a heavy branch he'd found.

 

Pewk yelped and dropped his gun, which Casey kicked away. "Didn't your mother ever warn you about those things," the hockey nut taunted as closed in on the disarmed man. "You'll shoot your eye out."

 

Pewk scowled at Casey, and said, "This is none of your business, kid," he snapped. "You don't know it, but New York City's been infested with alien scum, and we're the only ones who can do anything about it."

 

Casey glared at him. "Dude, I'm from New York, I was there when they hit. I'm all for taking out the Kraang, but I don't think shooting a human is the best way to get rid of them. Plus that talk about bombs kinda makes you look like the bad guy here."

 

Pewk sneered, "What do you know, kid." He then pulled out a nunchuck, and began spinning it in his hand. "Now scram, I know how to use this."

 

Casey stared at the nunchuck blankly, and was not at all surprised when Mikey's voice rang out from the trees. "Dibs! I call dibs!"

 

Pewk looked around wildly for the source of the voice, but still missed it when Mikey appeared suddenly from the shadows with his hood down to shadow his face, and his own nunchucks expertly spinning in his hands. "This is too good to be true," he said brightly.

 

Pewk now looked extremely nervous, but he still darted forward to attack Mikey.

 

Mikey's nunchaku whipped out and smacked Pewk between the eyes, making fall unconscious to the ground.

 

"Aw, that was lamer than I thought it'd be," Mikey moaned as he nudged Pewk with his toe, trying to rouse him into a more interesting fight. But the man stayed where he was.

 

The rest of the group came out of hiding and hurried over to where Raph and Donnie were working on Michael.

 

"How is he?" asked April, seeing that Michael's shoulder was now heavily bandaged.

 

Raph and Donnie exchanged glances, and the genius said, "We've done all we can, but I think the bullet might still be in his shoulder. He really needs a doctor to get it out."

 

"I can get him there pronto in the party wagon," Casey offered, and they all started carrying Michael to where they parked the car.

 

"It'd probably be best if only those who still look human go with him to the hospital," said Raph once he was inside. "Less explaining that way."

 

Casey and April nodded and headed for the front of the car, but Miwa and Donnie both shook their heads. "He was talking about a bomb," said Miwa nodding to the unconscious man. "And from the looks of those nutcases, I don't like the idea of them doing what they want with it."

 

"And since it's highly unlikely that this bomb is Kraang tech, you guys are going to need me to disarm it," added Donnie.

 

Raph and Mikey exchanged glances, and Raph nodded. "Yeah, I didn't like how that guy was talking about New York either. We better find out what they're up to."

 

Casey started up the party wagon to get Michael to safety, but April leaned out the window looking concerned. "Just be careful, you guys," she said. "I-I sensed a  _lot_  of anger from those two you took out. Whatever they're doing, H.A.T.E. is a very good name for it."

 

Donnie gave his girlfriend a smile, and took her hand in his. "We'll be careful, April, honest," he said sincerely, making April smile as well.

 

"Yeah, when aren't we?" Mikey piped in, ruining the moment between the couple.

 

April pulled away with a laugh and said, "Do you want a list?"

 

Before Mikey could reply, Casey sped off, leaving the Hamato siblings in the orchard. A few minutes later, the two men who had been hunting Michael were tied to a tree and the Hamatos took off in the direction Skonk had gone.

 

"Good thing these guys aren't that good at covering their tracks," said Mikey as the followed Skonk's footprints through the woods.

 

"I don't think they were the type to usually have to," said Donnie thoughtfully.

 

"What do you mean?" asked Raph.

 

"Well, you heard their accents," Donnie said. "It's pretty obvious they're from New York City, like we are. And not every city kid gets taught how to track their enemies. It seems most likely to me that we're dealing with other people who escaped during the invasion."

 

"And now they want revenge on the Kraang for taking over," Miwa muttered as she caught on. "But the question is, how do they want to get their revenge? I'm all for taking out the Kraang, and if the Foot get caught in the crossfire, all the better."

 

Raph stopped and signaled for the others to get quiet. "I think we're about to find out," he said softly.

 

The others followed his gaze, and saw a large wooden barn in the middle of the woods, and a dirt trail winding away in the direction of the highway. Outside the barn was a large group of people cheering as Skonk stood on the roof to address them.

 

"Today, we make history!" Skonk said loudly to all the people below them. "Today, we show those alien slime bags that you don't mess with the human race! Not when H.A.T.E. is on the job!"

 

The people cheered in agreement with him, and Skonk jumped down from the roof and paced in front of the crowd.

 

"You know as well as I do that we were chased out of our homes, forced to leave our families behind because those damn aliens showed up and started hosing everything with their freaky ooze! After all this time, I think it's safe to say whoever was left in New York after the quarantine was set up is now as good as dead! Or worse, they've been changed into more of those freaks!"

 

Mikey let out a tiny whimper at the thought that all their friends and family were dead, and Miwa reached over to rub the back of his shell comfortingly.

 

"And what is the government doing to put a stop to them?" Skonk asked. "Not a  _freaking_  thing! It's clear to me, that if we want those menaces gone, we'll have to destroy them ourselves!"

 

The crowd cheered again, and Donnie shot a nervous glance at the others. "I don't like the sound of that."

 

Skonk then pulled away from the crowd, and made his way to the door on the side of the barn, and shoved it open. The crowd followed after him, and the teens quietly slipped closer. Once they were as close as they dared, they found that they still were too far away to see into the barn, even though they could still hear what was going on.

 

"Perfect," Raph growled sarcastically as he squinted, and tried to see inside.

 

But then Donnie shifted next to him, and pulled out a small telescope and focused it on the shed.

 

At Raph and Mikey's confused looks, Miwa whispered, "He was going to take April out stargazing later tonight."

 

"Aww," cooed both turtle brothers teasingly.

 

"Shh," Donnie hissed in annoyance, trying to focus on Skonk, who was talking again.

 

"This is the last, best hope of the human race," Skonk said, gesturing to a large semi-truck. Opening the back of the truck he revealed the bomb. "And we're gonna blow it up. Right in the middle of alien central."

 

Donnie paled, and dropped his telescope in shock.

 

"What is it, Donnie?" asked Miwa, and the other looked at him in concern.

 

"The bomb," Donnie gasped, "it's-it's-"

 

"What?" asked Raph, his worry growing.

 

" _Nuclear!"_  Donnie all but squeaked, too horrified to say it any louder.

 

The other three exchanged horrified glances over his head.

 

"Are they out of their  _minds?!"_  Miwa hissed.

 

"Probably," said Raph, looking sick.

 

"Nuclear bombs are the really, super, bad, nuke the fridge ones, right?" Mikey asked in a tiny voice.

 

"No fridge would stand up to one of those, little brother," said Donnie faintly in reply. "But yes, the really, super, bad ones."

 

"They can't do this!" Miwa said forcefully. "Mortu told me that our parents are still in New York somewhere."

 

"And Jay-Man, LH, and Malachi," added Mikey. "They're probably still there too."

 

Donnie looked over at their temporary leader, and said, "What do we do Raph?"

 

Raph stared at the shed silently, but didn't answer.

 

"Raph?" asked Miwa.

 

"You with us, man?" asked Mikey when there was still no reply.

 

Donnie then recognized the look on Raph's face. It was a little different now that Raph was a turtle instead of a human, but it was the same frozen expression he'd had after Mikey was injured the last time he was leader. Raph was once again struggling under the weight of leadership, and that was far from what they needed right now.

 

Taking a leaf out of Leo's book, Donnie slapped Raph across the face to snap him out of it.

 

He then promptly had to duck as Raph swung at him in retaliation.

 

"What the hell, Donnie?" Raph snapped, thankfully keeping his voice down.

 

"You are our leader right now, Raph," Donnie snapped back. "And I know this is more dangerous than what we usually do, but now is  _not_  the time for you to freak out on us, got it?"

 

Raph blinked, and shook himself before saying, "Got it."

 

He then took a deep breath to calm himself and tried to think of what Leo would do in that situation.

 

"First of all, we  _never_  tell Leo that the slapping thing actually worked," Raph said as he puzzled out what to do.

 

"Agreed," was the unanimous reply.

 

"Second, Donnie, can you disarm that thing?" Raph continued.

 

Donnie gingerly picked up the telescope again, and peered through it. "Well," he admitted, "I studied how they were made online."

 

" _Why_  would you study that?" asked Miwa, looking incredulous.

 

"I considered using a scaled down one if another Technodrome ever came through the portal, then we could zap it back to Dimension X for it to blow," he replied. "But I eventually decided it was too dangerous."

 

"Way too dangerous," agreed Raph. "But can you disarm it."

 

Donnie looked nervous, and he said, "Maybe."

 

"Maybe's the best we've got right now," Raph said, patting him on the shoulder encouragingly. Turning to his sister and other brother, he said, "We'll have to distract those yahoos from the bomb long enough for Donnie to disarm it."

 

Miwa nodded in determination, but Mikey looked confused. "How, bro?" he asked.

 

Raph smirked slightly and pulled down his hood. "Well, they're all worked up about little green men, then let's give them little green men."

 

Mikey still looked confused. "But the Kraang are pink, and where are we supposed to get some?"

 

Raph smacked his forehead, and snapped, "I mean  _us_ , you dork."

 

Mikey's eyes lit up as he caught on. "Oooh."

 

___________________________

 

Skonk and his men were working out just how they were going to break past the barricade back into New York, when a shrill beeping sound hit their ears.

 

"What's that?" asked Skonk suspiciously.

 

Some of the men grabbed their guns and went to investigate the sound, only to be knocked back as a tree outside their base exploded.

 

"We're under attack!" Skonk shouted when he saw that. "Battle stations, men!"

 

Groups of Skonk's followers rushed to some ATVs armed with machine guns, and started shooting out of the shed. The rest grabbed guns and hurried after them on foot.

 

They searched the woods wildly, looking for the one who had blown up the tree, but at first they saw nothing.

 

But then a green figure wearing an oversized parka and snow pants jumped out of the bushes and yelled, "Booyakasha!"

 

"Alien!" yelped one of the men on the ATVs, and all of H.A.T.E. turned their guns and fired at the figure.

 

Mikey yelped, and dove back into the bushes and vanished from sight.

 

H.A.T.E. began tromping towards him, only for the figure to jump out again farther away and on the other side of the path.

 

"Over here, you boneheads!" yelled Raph, waving his hands above his head before diving back into cover.

 

Fortunately, the gun-toting extremists didn't notice the differences between him and Mikey, and hurried in Raph's direction, shouting obscenities.

 

Only for Mikey to pop out again even farther away with a call of, "Yoo hoo!" and take cover again.

 

The two turtles continued like this, leading H.A.T.E. farther and farther away from the barn.

 

With them distracted, Donnie and Miwa hurried out of their hiding places, and the genius made his way to the barn. Miwa, meanwhile, found cover and kept an eye out in case any of the people chasing their brothers caught on to their rouse and came back.

 

Donnie climbed into the back of the semi, and turned to get a better look at the bomb. To his dread, it looked even more complicated up close then it had while he was looking at it through the telescope.

 

"What have I gotten myself into," he moaned. His nervousness increased even more when he caught sight of the flashing light on the bomb, showing that it was armed. "Oh, right, like it couldn't get any worse," he whimpered at the sight.

 

"What the hell do you think you're doing, kid?" came a voice behind him, making Donnie jump.

 

The genius wheeled around, and held his bō staff in front of him defensively.

 

Skonk stepped out of the shadows with an automatic rifle in his hands. "I asked you a question, brat," he said.

 

"A better question is, what do  _you_  think you're doing?" Donnie retorted, speaking loud enough to signal Miwa that Skonk was still in there. "Do you have any idea the kind of damage something like this can do?"

 

"Oh, I know," said Skonk as he made his way closer to the semi with his gun still pointed at Donnie. "Don't worry, we won't blow it anywhere near here. That's for New York City. You don't know it, but-"

 

"But aliens from another dimension have invaded New York, and that's why it's been quarantined, I know," Donnie said, cutting him off and hoping to reason with him. Seeing Skonk's flummoxed expression, he explained, "I was there when it happened. My parents are still in there, waiting to be rescued, along with a lot of innocent people. That's why you can't blow up the city, you'll kill them all!"

 

Skonk lowered his gun slightly, and looked at Donnie with something akin to pity. "Kid, I'm sorry about your parents. But you gotta face the facts that if they're still in there, they're as good as dead. And we can't let it spread to the rest of the world. We have to cut this invasion off at its head before it poisons the rest of the planet."

 

Donnie saw Miwa slip in behind Skonk, and make her way over to take him by surprise. "You don't know that!" he protested to keep the trigger-happy New Yorker's attention. "There's a cure for the mutation. It just takes time to make! We can stop the Kraang without all this!"

 

Skonk sneered at Donnie when he heard that. "And how do you know that for sure," he said. "And even if there was, could we  _really_ trust those people again. No! Far as I'm concerned, once they get oozed, there's no going back."

 

Miwa was finally close enough to launch herself forward and slice through Skonk's gun with her tantō. "Clearly there's no going back for you, if you're willing to throw their lives away so easily," she said angrily as Skonk looked at her in outrage.

 

Skonk seethed at them, but then something seemed to occur to him. "Wait a minute," he said eyeing Donnie suspiciously. "You called those aliens the Kraang. Now how would you know what those freaks are called?"

 

Donnie and Miwa exchanged glances. "Er…" Donnie said.

 

"And with that alien my men are tracking down right now, your little arrival here can't be just a coincidence," Skonk continued, a suspicion growing in his mind

 

Miwa scowled, not liking that Skonk was starting to figure them out. She launched herself forward to take him out.

 

But before she could reach him, Skonk surprised her by pulling a smaller pistol out of his coat and shot it at her.

 

It was all Miwa was able to do to dodge the bullet, but even so, she felt it graze her shoulder, making her cry out in pain.

 

" _Sis!_ " shouted Donnie, as he tried to run out of the semi to help her, but before he could, Skonk fired another shot at the hatch holding the back door of the trailer up, causing it to come crashing down and trapping Donnie inside.

 

He then turned his gun back on the injured Miwa, and the kunoichi had to dodge as he unloaded the rest of the cartridge at her while running towards the semi.

 

The back of the semi trailer started lifting up as Donnie tried to get it open, but Skonk reached it and slammed it back down, locking the ninja inside with the bomb.

 

"Nothing's gonna stop me from keeping this planet safe for the human race!" Skonk yelled as he threw his now empty gun in the direction of Miwa's head while running to the driver's seat. "Especially not a pair of traitors like you!"

 

Miwa dodged the gun, and ran after Skonk, but before she could reach him, he was gunning the semi's engine, and she had to dodge once again to avoid being run over. Skonk smashed the truck though the wall of the barn and took off down the road.

 

"You aliens will perish!" he yelled as he went. "Every last one of you!"

 

"Dammit!" she shouted as she ran after them, but knew she'd never catch them on foot.

 

Just then, Raph and Mikey drove up on a pair of H.A.T.E.'s ATVs, minus the guns.

 

"Check out our sweet rides!" said Mikey cheerfully as he pulled up beside his sister. "We kicked those crazies' butts, and took these to come-"

 

"Shut up and follow that semi!" Miwa snapped as she climbed onto it behind him.

 

Hearing the urgency in her voice, the two turtles gunned the ATVs and took off down the road.

 

"Where's Donnie?!" called Raph as they shot after the truck. "Did he disarm the bomb?!"

 

"No, Skonk surprised us!" shouted Miwa as she clung to Mikey's shell for dear life with her uninjured arm. "He took off with the bomb, and Donnie's trapped inside with it!"

 

Hearing this, the two brothers pushed the ATVs to go faster.

 

___________________________

 

Inside the truck Donnie banged uselessly against the door to try to open it, but it was clear he was locked in.

 

Nervously, he turned to look over at the reason he'd climbed in in the first place.

 

The bomb sat in the far side of the metal box, lights on it blinking ominously in the dark confines.

 

Donnie heaved a deep sigh, and pulled out a flashlight (which was also supposed to be for his stargazing trip with April) and made his way over to the bomb in hopes of doing the job he'd come here to do.

 

"You can do this, Donatello," he said, trying to boost his own confidence. "You've disarmed advanced alien bombs and other technology, this'll be a cinch compared to that."

 

The semi swerved as it took a sharp turn, and Donnie found himself clinging to the bomb to keep from bouncing around the inside of the container like a pinball.

 

"Okay," Donnie said as he clung to the bomb. "Now all I have to do is remove the plutonium core." The container jostled again, making him wince. "At ninety miles an hour, with a maniac at the wheel," he continued.

 

As what he said sunk in, he smacked himself on the forehead and groaned, "I'm doomed."

 

Still, he had to try, so he bit the flashlight between his teeth to hold it steady, and got to work.

 

___________________________

 

Back outside the shipping container, Skonk glanced in his rearview and noticed that Miwa was following him along with two of the aliens his men had been chasing on H.A.T.E.'s own ATVs.

 

"Alien scum," he growled under his breath, and began swerving on the road, trying to knock the two ATVs off it.

 

But they were able to dodge, and Mikey pulled his ATV up to the side of the truck.

 

Realizing what Mikey was about to do, Raph yelled, "Tenshi, don't be stupid!"

 

But Mikey didn't listen, instead he said to Miwa, "Take the wheel," before leaping off the ATV, and clinging to the side of the truck.

 

Miwa scrambled to take control of the ATV in his absence, and ended up falling behind next to Raph.

 

"Is he crazy?" she asked her red wearing brother, looking astonished.

 

Raph rolled his eyes and said, "I did something similar during the Golden Puck thing. He's been wanting to try it ever since."

 

Miwa stared at him incredulously, before declaring, "You two are both crazy!"

 

Raph rolled his eyes, and pushed his ATV faster so that he could reach the back of the truck.

 

Reaching out, he was just barely able to unlock the hatch, and shove the door open, revealing Donnie working feverishly on the bomb.

 

"How's it going, Gifuto!" Raph called to him.

 

Donnie didn't even spare him a glance. "It'd be going better if this tuck would just hold steady for one second!" he called back.

 

On cue, the semi swerved as Skonk tried to force Raph and Miwa off of the road again, making Donnie wince and look fearfully at the bomb.

 

"Something tells me that's not gonna happen," Raph called back in reply.

 

Back in the front, Mikey kept a tight hold on the door handle of the shotgun side of the truck. Fortunately for him, the window was open, and he launched himself into the seat, startling Skonk so much he let go of the wheel.

 

With the maniac's hands off the wheel, Mikey dove for it in hopes of pulling the truck to a stop before they went any further. But Skonk quickly gathered his wits, and began fighting with him over it, making the truck swerve even more than before.

 

"You're not gonna stop me!" Skonk growled as he tried to elbow Mikey away. "Nobody's going to stop me!"

 

"Never say never!" Mikey yelled back as he ducked under Skonk's elbow, and made the truck take a hard right.

 

In the back, Donnie was down to cutting the last few wires. With his tongue poking out between his teeth, he tried to focus on getting just the right one. But just then, the Mikey and Skonk's fighting made the whole truck jerk, and forced Donnie to cut the wrong wire and barely avoided biting his tongue in the process.

 

The genius paled as he looked at the bomb and saw the counter on it start ticking down from sixty seconds.

 

"Wrong wire!" he yelled. "Wrong wire! Everyone bail out!"

 

Raph immediately shot his ATV forward, and Donnie jumped off the back of the semi to him. He then pulled back to get as much distance between him and the bomb as possible.

 

Miwa also shot hers forward to where Mikey and Skonk were still fighting over the wheel.

 

"You heard him, Tenshi!" she yelled. "We're out of here!"

 

Mikey tried to climb out to her, but Skonk grabbed him by the back of his jacket, and tugged him back.

 

"If I'm going out, I'm taking one of you alien scum with me!" Skonk yelled crazily, grabbing Mikey in a headlock.

 

But Mikey had been put in far too many headlocks by Raph over the years, and Skonk's was weak in comparison. He easily pulled out of it, and caught sight of Miwa holding up a smoke bomb egg for him to see. He then ducked as she threw it into the truck, and Skonk yelped as purple smoke filled the space.

 

Mikey took that as an opportunity to punch Skonk in the face hard enough to knock him out, and launched both of them out of the truck and onto Miwa's ATV.

 

With her brother (and the crazy) secure, Miwa immediately raced her ATV away from the semi.

 

Not a second too soon, as the entire truck exploded into flames, the blast knocked the three off the ATV, and sent them rolling along the road.

 

Groaning in pain from their wipe out, the two Hamatos pulled themselves to their feet as Raph and Donnie drove up to them.

 

Leaping off their own ATV, the two middle brothers instantly began looking their brother and sister over for injuries.

 

Mikey felt woozy as Raph looked him over, and vaguely asked, "Are we dead?"

 

Miwa winced as Donnie found the gash she'd gotten when Skonk had shot her. "Hurts too much to be dead," she groaned.

 

"Why aren't we vaporized right now?" asked Raph to Donnie. From what little he knew about nukes, he figured the explosion would have been a lot bigger.

 

"I was able to remove the plutonium core," Donnie explained as he ripped off part of his shirt to bandaged Miwa's arm. "So the explosion wasn't nuclear anymore. Just, you know, bad if you were too close to it."

 

After some arguing about what to do with Skonk (especially after Raph found out that Miwa had been shot, and wanted payback), they finally came to a decision, and rode away on the ATVs.

 

A few minutes later, the police arrived on the scene, having been notified about the explosion.

 

Officer Howard (having transferred to regular PD rather than continue to work undercover) stared at the sight before him, unsure what to think.

 

In the middle of the road was the burning remains of a semi-truck. But what was far more interesting was the man who was tied up a safe distance from the wreckage with the words  _'Insane Nutcase'_  written across his forehead in sharpie.

 

The man was tied up so tightly, that Howard doubted he could move if he tried. Sitting in his lap was a container with the words  _'Plutonium for a nuclear bomb, handle with caution'_  scrawled across it also in sharpie. Next to the container was a letter detailing the apparent plans of the 'Insane Nutcase' and the location of his base, and where to find his followers, who (according to the letter) were also tied up and scattered throughout the forest.

 

Howard shook his head in disbelief, and nodded to his men to take the man away. "Get him to the station," he said, "We'll work out just what happened there."

 

The police officer with him nodded and moved to untie the man.

 

Only for him to jerk awake as they approached, and begin raving about aliens spoiling his plans to save the world by blowing up New York City. It looked like the words 'Insane Nutcase' was an apt way of describing him.

 

Backing away from the apparent crazy person, officer said, "Uh, sir, if it's all the same to you, can we keep him tied up?"

 

"Paperwork's on you for it, but go ahead if you want to," said Howard dryly.

 

Apparently the paperwork was worth it, and his officer approached again and read Insane Nutcase his rights as he dragged him to the police car while still tied up.

 

Howard, meanwhile, began relaying the locations of Insane Nutcase's followers over his radio to be rounded up.

 

As he did so, he had to wonder just how the supposedly peaceful area of Northampton was attracting all this crazy happenings.

 

He also wondered if those kids he'd met during the Golden Puck fiasco were somehow involved in this. From what he'd seen of them, if they were he wouldn't be surprised.

 

___________________________

 

Upon arriving back at the farmhouse in the ATVs, Casey and April hurried outside to find out what had happened.

 

After hearing the story, Casey was torn between keeping the ATVs, or frowning upon stealing them, even if it was from insane criminals who wanted to blow up his home.

 

While he was puzzling out that, April filled them in on what had happened to Michael. She and Casey managed to get him to a hospital, and the doctors assured them that he would live. They had then beat a hasty retreat before anyone could get around to questioning them, and had come back to the farmhouse to wait the Hamatos return.

 

"I still can't believe they were going to nuke New York," said April once everything was said and done. "They can't have really thought that that was the right way to stop the Kraang."

 

"It wasn't," said Miwa as Donnie put the finishing touches on her injured arm. "But deluded as H.A.T.E. was, they did have a point. The Kraang have to be stopped somehow before they mutate the rest of the planet."

 

"You're not wrong," said Donnie, "but there has to be a better way than nuclear explosives."

 

Raph had moved back to his spot at the bathroom's doorway, and glanced down at them all from the upper level. "No matter what the right or wrong way of doing it is, the fact is we can't do anything until Leo wakes up." He turned to look at his sleeping brother and sighed. "Because something tells me we're going to need  _everyone_  if we want to save anyone."

 

The others exchanged glances, and nodded in agreement.

 

Win or lose, they weren't going anywhere without Leo. They just hoped that the world could wait that long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As those who are fans of the 2003 series, or the Mirage comics can guess, this is based of the episode H.A.T.E. and the comic equivalent. I wanted to do this one to showcase the Hamatos handling a mission without Leo. And also because I didn't think the teens could be the only people who managed to escape New York, and the reactions of some who did would probably be on par with this.


	41. Black Sheep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When April's cousin comes for an unexpected visit, things start getting hectic.

After the fiasco their picnic turned into, the teens of the farmhouse decided to try and take it easier for now to avoid any more disasters.

 

For a few weeks, that plan seemed to work, the wounds they had gotten while stopping H.A.T.E. healed, and they began falling into a daily routine to pass the time.

 

But one thing that did change from day to day was the interactions between April and Donnie.

 

Most days whenever the genius wasn't working on his cures, he was spending his time trying to keep April's spirits up. Donnie went out of his way to find new activities to do together, and new ways to distract her from the absence of her father, and the bittersweet memories of her mother and uncle that being at the farmhouse gave. But there were also times when he sensed that it wasn't distractions that she needed, and instead would spend his time listening as April vented her frustrations to him, or simply holding her as she cried whenever the absence of their families became too much.

 

April appreciated this more than Donnie could ever imagine, and tried her best to return the favor. When Donnie was working too hard on his projects to eat, she would bring his meal out to the barn for him, and coax him into eating. When she felt that Donnie was bottling things up too much, she gave a quiet word to one of his siblings for them to goad him into a spar to help him vent his frustrations. When Donnie was trying to work out a particularly hard problem with his projects, she would act as a soundboard for him to bounce his ideas off, and contributed her own ideas when she could come up with them.

 

Not that they didn't argue, because they did, and would find themselves not speaking to each other for a few hours afterwards. But they would always make up, and go back to the comfortable closeness that they shared.

 

Despite all the bad things that had happened, April and Donnie were closer than ever, and that fact was clear to everyone.

 

Donnie's siblings mostly shrugged it off, and would either tease or ignore the two's growing affections for each other depending on the situation.

 

But Casey would often watch their interactions with a thoughtful look on his face, and then glance over at a certain kunoichi.

 

Casey would admit (to himself at least) that he had been attracted to Miwa from day one. There was no denying that she was a beautiful girl, and her kickass ninja skills only made her that much more awesome. The more he interacted with her the more fascinated with her he became, (and having a fake out make-out with her while staking out Shredder's lair hadn't helped any) and he wouldn't mind dating her at all, except for one problem.

 

They got along about as well as cats and dogs.

 

It wasn't that he didn't consider Miwa a friend, but most of the conversations he had with her had the two of them sniping at each other at every opportunity. It was not exactly an endearing trait.

 

Not that that put him off, on the contrary he enjoyed their verbal sparring, and sometimes egged her into having one if they weren't already.

 

But the problem was that he couldn't tell if any of it was making an impact on Miwa, or if she would ever even consider thinking of him in such a way. Miwa always had an aloof air of a sarcastic rebel, and always kept her true emotions close to the vest unless it was anger. For all Casey knew she could secretly be madly in love with him, or she could completely hate his guts and was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to kill him when no one was looking.

 

And if that wasn't bad enough, he had no one to talk to who knew her better and would be able to tell him otherwise.

 

It wasn't like he could go up to Raph and tell him about his crush on his sister. That would be all kinds of awkward, and would only force Casey to have to put up with an overprotective Raphael on top of everything else. The same could be said about Mikey and Donnie, and he had enough problems to deal with right now.

 

He couldn't tell April, because there was no guarantee  _she_  wouldn't go and tell Donnie. Plus, he had seen her gush over her friends' crushes back when they were in school, and did not want to have to put up with her asking for details on his feelings every time he turned around.

 

So that left Casey all alone with trying to figure out what to do. Should he ask her out, to heck with the consequences, or should he try to flirt with her more first to make her more willing to say yes? Would she murder him horribly if he even asked?

 

These were all legitimate questions, and Casey was clueless on how to answer them.

 

So for now he kept quiet and tried not to think about it so that he could figure it out in time. Which wasn't easy to do with April and Donnie being the poster children of a near perfect couple right in front of him.

 

___________________________________

 

The teenagers' plan to try and keep out of trouble only lasted for a few weeks. Then drama inevitably struck again in the form of an unwelcome visitor.

 

It started as an average night at the farmhouse. Raph was keeping an eye on Leo, April was sitting with Mikey as he watched cartoons, Donnie, Casey, and Metalhead were working on their own projects in the barn, and Miwa was practicing her stealth in the nearby forest.

 

But as Miwa concealed herself on a high branch of a tree a few yards from the house, it occurred to her that it was hard to gage how stealthy one was without someone else there to hide from.

 

Just as she was smacking her forehead for this oversight, the sound of a twig breaking nearby sent her on high alert.

 

Going still and listening carefully, she could make out the sounds of someone making their way through the forest in the direction of the farmhouse. A clumsy someone, from the sound of him tripping over a root and cursing under his breath.

 

"I know that damn house is around here somewhere," she heard him grumble as he got closer.

 

Not knowing why this person was heading for her family's hiding spot, and not wanting to find out, Miwa silently dropped down from her tree, and bent a branch backwards as she heard the intruder grow closer.

 

Just as he was about to pass by the tree, Miwa released the branch, causing it to swing forward and smack the man in the face hard enough to knock him flat on the ground and groan in pain.

 

While he was down, Miwa bolted silently back to the farmhouse with the intruder none the wiser of her presence.

 

A few minutes later she had the O'Neil house in sight, and sprinted towards it. As she passed the barn on the way to the house, she banged her fist against the side, and yelled, "Emergency meeting in the house! Move your butts!"

 

Inside the barn she could hear a couple yelps as she no doubt startled the boys from whatever they were working on. From the burning smell and cries from Donnie, and the pain filled cursing of Casey, she suspected that the genius had burned his project, and Casey had dropped something heavy on his foot.

 

Smirking slightly at the mental image of that, she continued on until she was inside the house. Donnie and Casey trailed after her with annoyed expressions on their faces.

 

"Emergency meeting, now!" she called again, to get the house's occupants' attention. She also quickly moved to turn out all the lights, and shut the curtains on the windows so no one could see inside.

 

April and Mikey had both looked up curiously as she did that (Mikey reluctantly turning off the TV as he did so), and Raph came to the door-frame of the bathroom to find out what the commotion was about.

 

"What's the deal, Babe?" Casey asked as he came in and sat in a chair to massage his aching foot. "You made me drop my toolbox on my foot."

 

"And I spilled some chemicals on my Bunsen burner," Donnie complained as he followed after him. "It's nothing dangerous, but it'll take forever for the smell to air out of the barn."

 

"First, don't call me Babe, Hockey Boy," said Miwa, shooting a quick glare at Casey. "And second, I saw someone skulking around the woods not far from the house. I was able to slow him down, but from the look of things he was on his way here."

 

Everyone exchanged glances at that news.

 

"Who would come here?" asked Raph from upstairs. "We're in the middle of bum fuck nowhere."

 

"And why are they coming in by the forest, the road would be a much easier way to get here," added Donnie.

 

"Nothing good, that's for sure," said Miwa darkly.

 

April frowned. "Well, this is private property. Maybe I should call the police to deal with this."

 

The boys exchanged glances, and shook their heads. "As a last resort, maybe," said Raph. "But I get the feeling that the police would be more than a little interested in why a bunch of teenagers are alone out here, and no parents in sight."

 

"Plus, Howard might be with them," added Mikey. "I think he was kinda mad at us for beating those cowboys with Boom Stars and shuriken instead of letting the police handle it."

 

"That, or it was your crazy driving that ticked him off," Casey added pointedly.

 

Mikey stuck his tongue out at Casey in reply.

 

"Plus, the police might be wonder about those ATVs we stole from H.A.T.E." Donnie pointed out. "They're still sitting outside the barn, and we don't know what we should do with them yet." Donnie sent a glare at Casey, who was the main source of their indecision.

 

The vigilante looked sheepish and shrugged.

 

"So then what  _do_  we do?" asked April.

 

"Find out what he wants, I guess," said Raph looking a little lost about that as he leaned against the doorframe. "If he's looking for trouble, we kick his butt to the curb, but if that's not the case, we just tell him to buzz off, and you can at least threaten to call the police, April, and actually do it if it comes to that."

 

Donnie, who had been closest to the window, pulled back the curtain a crack and glanced out it, only to freeze. "Guys, I see him!" he said to the others. "He's crossing the yard right for the house!"

 

Everyone tensed at that, and Raph jerked his head towards the bathroom. "Mikey, you and me will hide in here. We can climb out the window and sneak attack him if the guys need it."

 

Mikey nodded, and bounded up the stairs to join him, and Raph glanced at the others. "You guys try to get this guy to scram ASAP, I don't want to be locked in here with Mikey any longer than I have to."

 

Mikey froze just as he was about to pass Raph into the bathroom, and sent him a glare. "Hey!" he whined.

 

Raph just rolled his eyes and said, "Get in there," before shoving Mikey into the bathroom, and sliding the door shut.

 

And not a second too soon, as the nob on the front door started to jiggle as if someone was trying to get in.

 

The others tensed and waited to see if the intruder would try to knock. But they heard the rattling sounds of him trying to pick the lock instead.

 

Well, Casey wasn't about to let that stand. Grabbing one of his baseball bats from his golf bag, he quietly snuck over to the door, and signaled the others to join him.

 

Donnie grabbed his bō staff, and Miwa unsheathed her tantō and moved to join him by the door.

 

April then moved to the door silently, and on Casey's signal, she yanked the door open fast.

 

The intruder was thrown off balance by the door's opening and started falling forward. He would have landed face first on the ground had it not been for Casey grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, and slamming him into the wall with his forearm pressed to the intruder's throat.

 

"You picked the wrong house to break into," Casey growled as the trespasser squirmed under his grip.

 

April then snapped on the lights so that they could finally see who they were dealing with.

 

Pinned up against the wall was a scruffy young man in his early twenties. He had dark red-brown hair with some stubble on his chin, and wore a long dark jacket over jeans and a t-shirt.

 

April's jaw dropped as she recognized him. "Sid!"

 

Everyone's attention turned away from the intruder to her.

 

"You  _know_ him?" asked Donnie incredulously.

 

"Yeah," said April, looking like she wished she didn't. Glancing at Miwa, she said, "Remember when I was telling you about my Uncle Augie, and how he had a son that was older than me?" She was careful not to mention anything about the journal, in case Sid would want to see it. She'd rather he not know about how messed up her mother's side of the family was.

 

Miwa's eyes widened slightly, and nodded as she caught on. "So then this must be him."

 

"Unfortunately," April muttered.

 

Sid scowled at her. "I'm right here," he said. "Don't talk like I ain't." He then shot a glare at Casey, "And would you let go of me, you psycho!"

 

Casey growled, but a glanced at April, and she nodded at him to let Sid go.

 

Shoving Sid against the wall before backing off, Casey and the two Hamato siblings (who were subtly hiding their weapons, since Sid had been to focused on April and Casey to notice them) stood back and glared at Sid while April stormed forward and asked, "What are you doing here, Sid?"

 

Sid glared back and said sarcastically, "What? No introductions, cuz?"

 

Gritting her teeth, April waved her hand at Sid, and said, "Guys, this is my gambling, thieving, lousy-good-for-nothing, black sheep of a Cousin Sid, Sid these are my friends, Casey and Miwa, and my boyfriend, Donnie."

 

Sid scowled at his introduction, but before he could comment on it, April rounded on him again, "Now what are you  _doing_ here Sid? This is my house, and you're not welcome here."

 

"Ain't like I wanna be here either," snapped Sid. "Soon as I get what's mine, I'm gone."

 

April raised an eyebrow at that. "And what here could possibly be yours?" she asked sounding skeptical. "This house is from my mother's side. You, Uncle Augie, and Aunt Robyn stopped coming here when I was a little kid."

 

"What I want is Dad's treasure," Sid snapped. "Give me that, and I'm gone."

 

April slapped her forehead at that, and her friends chorused "Treasure?"

 

Upstairs they hear an excited squeak, followed by a loud thump.

 

Sid glanced in that direction in confusion. "What was that?"

 

Behind the closed door of the bathroom, the two conscious turtles had been listening in on the conversation outside. At the mention of treasure, Mikey had let out a noise of excitement, and looked like he was about to blurt something out, but Raph quickly grabbed him in a headlock and clapped a hand over his mouth to keep him from giving them away.

 

Down below, April and the boys exchanged worried glances, but Miwa lied smoothly, "Oh, that was probably my brother's cat. That fuzzball gets into everything."

 

"Brother?" asked Sid in confusion, but then he glanced between her and Donnie, and saw the clear family resemblance. "Oh, right."

 

"Uh, can we get back to the whole 'treasure' thing?" asked Casey, putting them back on track. "That sounded pretty important."

 

"Not really," said April. "When they visited, Uncle Augie used to set up these treasure hunts for me and Sid to go on. It was just a game for us to test out our math, science, and logic skills to find where it was. The treasure would always be candy or something. I used to love them, but Sid here always scoffed at them and called them kid's stuff." She shot another glare at Sid as she said that.

 

"Not this one," said Sid looking serious (and somewhat desperate). "I did think it was dumb kid stuff, but that summer Dad disappeared, he set up one last treasure hunt for me. Told me that this time the treasure was actually something good. Something valuable. I couldn't find it then, but I gotta find it now."

 

April sent him a skeptical glance. "And just why do you need to find it?" she asked.

 

Sid opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but seemed to think better of it. Instead he said, "Uh, 'cause I've been missing my Dad, you know," he said. "He's been gone for so long, I just wanted to, er, reconnect with him."

 

The teenagers glanced at each other. It was more than obvious that Sid was lying about his motivations. And they couldn't have him sticking around and possibly seeing the three mutants hidden upstairs. But it was also clear that Sid was not about to give this up, and if they kicked him out, he'd just keep coming back.

 

Sid, meanwhile, was scanning the room, as if the treasure he was looking for could be there. But in not seeing anything that could be a clue, he also noticed that something else was missing.

 

"So where's Uncle Kirby anyway?" he asked, startling the teens out of their silent discussion.

 

"He's not here," April admitted without thinking, and immediately wished she could take it back from the wicked grin spreading across Sid's face as his eyes darted from her to Donnie and the others, and back again.

 

Her cousin then burst into obnoxious laughter at whatever conclusion he'd come to, and didn't stop for a full minute (in that time, the teens seriously considered just shoving him back out the door).

 

He finally stopped, and gave April a smirk. "Who would have thought?" he asked in a mocking tone. "Perfect little April decided to turn this old dump into a love nest."

 

That brought the teens' thoughts to a screeching halt as they processed what he'd just said.

 

A second later, Sid had to cover his ears to block out the sheer volume of protest that the four of them gave.

 

Donnie had turned scarlet and began stammering protest how he and April hadn't gotten that far yet, and that they were both under age.

 

Miwa and Casey immediately jerked as far away from each other as possible when they realized Sid thought they were together, and shouted denials (though no one seemed to notice over the racket that Casey's were somewhat halfhearted).

 

April was loudest of all as she shouted angrily at her cousin to get his brain out of the gutter, and that it was none of his business what they were doing at the farmhouse.

 

Inside the bathroom, both Raph and Mikey felt like their brains had been fried at the mere thought of their brother and sister doing  _that_  with April and Casey respectively.

 

The shouting eventually died down, but April was still seething. "Get out, Sid," she snapped. "You're not welcome or wanted here, and I want you gone. If we find your treasure, we'll mail it to you. Either way, get out!"

 

Sid sneered back at her. "And how can I trust you to actually do that?" he snapped. "For all I know you could just keep it to yourself."

 

"Because, unlike you, I'm not a dishonest creep," April said back. "Besides, I doubt not as valuable as you think it is. Probably just some fancy toy Uncle Augie brought back from one trips."

 

"Don't matter," snapped Sid. "Dad told me that Spot marks the X, and that's where it's hidden. I'm not leaving without it. And you ain't stopping me, April."

 

April probably would have started hitting him right there if Donnie hadn't hurried forward to hold her back.

 

Casey, however, frowned at what he heard. "Spot marks the X?" he asked skeptically. "That's not how it goes."

 

But Miwa had become fed up with all this bickering, and decided to take matters into her own hands.

 

Storming forward, she grabbed one of Sid's arms and twisted it behind his back with one hand, and opened the front door with the other. Then with a shove she tossed the man out of the house and said, "April said scram. And since this is her house, she makes the rules."

 

Sid stared up at her in shock before his cocky facade crumbled, and the desperation he'd been trying to hide became clear. "I need that money, April," he called pleadingly to his cousin. "You know where it is, don't you? Dad always really liked you!"

 

Miwa looked unsympathetic as she started to close the door, but April stopped her. "Wait a second, Mi." Walking to the threshold, she looked down at her cousin, concern spreading across her face. "Sid, are you in trouble?"

 

Sid wouldn't meet her eyes, and April took that as a yes.

 

She heaved a reluctant sigh, and glanced over at her friends. "Donnie, Casey, would you guys mind helping Sid search the yard real quick? Mi and I can search the house."

 

"You're not serious," Miwa deadpanned, not looking happy about this.

 

But Sid (who no one had noticed had been reaching into his coat pocket for something), stared at April with his face lighting up like a Christmas tree. "You mean it, cuz."

 

April gave him an impassive look and said, "Don't get me wrong, Sid. I still don't want you here, but I know it would just destroy Aunt Robyn if anything happened to you. I'm doing this for her."

 

Sid's face fell slightly at the mention of his mother, but April was already making her way to the kitchen. "I'll get you boys some flashlights," she said as she went.

 

Miwa and Donnie hurried after her, leaving Casey to make sure Sid didn't get into anything while their backs were turned.

 

"Are we really doing this?" asked Miwa once they were safely in the kitchen.

 

April sighed and said, "As much as I wish we weren't, yes we are. Sid's a part of my family, and it really would hurt my Aunt if something happens to him."

 

"What happened between you two, anyway?" asked Donnie, looking concerned. "There seems to be a lot of animosity."

 

April glanced at him before replying, "When Uncle Augie disappeared it was hard on us all. Aunt Robyn was a worried wreck, Dad was always trying to comfort her, and Mom seemed to blame herself for some reason. It was a really bad time for Sid to be acting out, but he kept doing these stupid things to get in trouble. Shoplifting, breaking and entering, vandalism, smoking, and who knows what else all while acting like a major jerk. It went on for years just getting worse, and then when he was my age he ran away from home. It broke Aunt Robyn's heart when he did, since she never really got over Uncle Augie disappearing, and then Sid left her too."

 

"So you're mad at him for your Aunt's sake?" asked Mikey as he leaned against the kitchen counter.

 

"Yeah," April admitted, "I gue-" she then realized who she was talking too.

 

Letting out a loud yelp, April jumped a foot in the air as and stumbled back into something hard that definitely wasn't the kitchen cabinet. Looking behind her she saw that it was Raph she had bumped into, and he was looking back at her with an expression that seemed to be a cross between amusement and annoyance.

 

There was a knock on the kitchen door, and she heard Casey call, "Everything okay in there."

 

Shooting the turtles the dirtiest look she could manage, April called back. "Fine, the stupid cat just surprised me."

 

"Hey, don't blame Ice Cream Kitty!" Mikey whispered furiously, but Miwa reached over and smacked him to quiet him down.

 

Casey apparently got the hint and backed off without opening the door, and April rounded on the two who scared her. "When did you get here?"

 

"We slipped in when Mi was tossing out your lamebrain cousin," said Raph bluntly.

 

April smacked herself on the forehead as she realized the two had been there the whole time, and she just hadn't noticed.

 

"Did you two know they were here?" she hissed to Donnie and Miwa.

 

Both human Hamatos nodded in reply, looking like they were fighting down laughs.

 

April threw her hands up in the air, and growled, " _Ninjas!"_  Before shoving a pair of flashlights into Donnie's hands and shooing him out the door.

 

She turned back to face the others, only to see Mikey standing right there looking eager. "Does this mean we get to go on a treasure hunt?" he asked excitedly.

 

April chuckled. "Yes, Mikey. We're going to have a treasure hunt."

 

Mikey's eyes lit up, and he opened his mouth to cheer, but Raph and Miwa caught him just in time, and clapped their hands over his mouth.

 

"A  _quiet_  treasure hunt, got it," hissed Raph. "We don't want Sid to know we're here."

 

Mikey nodded and they released him. But he still pumped his fist and whispered a soft, "Booyakasha!"

 

___________________________________

 

Outside the farmhouse Casey, Donnie, and Sid were searching the grounds with their flashlights for anything that resembled an X.

 

"Do you think he buried it?" asked Casey as they passed the barn wondering if he should duck in to get some shovels.

 

Donnie glanced over at the barn too, and caught sight of Metalhead (who had remained inside to monitor his experiments) peeking out curiously. Donnie subtly signaled for the robot to lay low. Metalhead nodded and ducked out of sight.

 

Fortunately, Sid saw none of this. "Nah, not likely," he replied. "Dad never buried any of his other treasures, well, there's was this one time with April's sandbox, but Uncle Kirby scrapped that old thing long before Dad hid this one."

 

He then turned to look over at Donnie suspiciously and said, "Speaking of Kirby, does he know that you're up here? Or more specifically, that you're  _alone_  up here? I can't see him bein' too happy that my cousin's up here with her boyfriend and no supervision."

 

Donnie blushed scarlet at his implications, but didn't flinch. Looking Sid straight in the eyes, he asked, "Have you heard what's happened to New York City?"

 

Sid looked confused at the question, but replied, "Who hasn't? There was some mass hallucination about aliens, and they quarantined the city 'til it dies down. So?"

 

" _So_ ," said Casey pointedly, "We were able to get out of the city before the quarantine went up."

 

"But April's Dad, along with our own families, are all still in there," Donnie said, taking up the story again. "They weren't able to get out, and we couldn't get back in for them. April was nice enough to offer to let us stay here until Le-" Donnie broke off before he could mention his comatose brother, and amended, "until the quarantine is lifted."

 

"None of us had anywhere else to go, so here we are," Casey added, waving at the farmhouse.

 

Sid had been staring at them as he heard that, but when they finished, he looked concerned. "Did my Ma make it out?"

 

The two teens exchanged glances, and Donnie replied sympathetically, "I'm sorry, but we're pretty sure she didn't. Or at least, April hasn't heard from her if she has."

 

Sid's grip tightened on his flashlight hard enough to make the plastic crack, before wheeling around and searching the yard again. "Let's just find that treasure," he said in a heavy sounding voice. "I'll worry about finding Ma later."

 

Casey and Donnie silently began searching again as well. For the first time since he'd arrived on the property, the two felt sympathy for Sid.

 

At least until lights began shining up the driveway, and Sid started muttering, "No, no, no. Not yet! I don't have the money yet!"

 

"What is it?" asked Donnie, looking suspicious. "Who are those guys?"

 

"They have to do with that trouble you might be in?" asked Casey, equally suspicious.

 

Sid looked nervously at the boys, then at the oncoming cars, then bolted into the woods to the side of the house. "I was never here!" he yelled as he vanished among the trees. "Tell them I was never here!

 

As the cars got closer, and Sid's reaction sank in, both teenagers turned and ran back to the farmhouse to warn the others.

 

"We've got more company!" Donnie yelled as he and Casey rushed inside, and locked the door behind him.

 

"What's going on?" asked Raph, as he and the others looked up from their treasure hunt.

 

"Where's Sid?" asked April.

 

"He took off into the woods," said Casey. "But from the looks of things, we've got bigger problems."

 

As if to prove his point, the sound of cars parking in their driveway, and the sound of slamming doors reached their ears.

 

"Oh Sid, what did you do?" April groaned as she went to the window to peer out the crack in the curtains.

 

Mikey, who was already there, replied, "Looks like he invited some Purple Dragon wannabes to party, and didn't invite us."

 

Just then, there was a heavy knock on the door, and a loud man's voice called. "We know you're in there, Sid! Open up!"

 

The teens tensed, and they knew there was no point in pretending no one was home. The people outside had no doubt already seen the lights on inside the house. Gathering her courage, April yelled back, "He's not here!"

 

The sound of mean laughter could be heard through the door. "Yeah right, girlie! We know he's here! He was raving about a treasure buried around here, and we ain't leaving 'til he pays us what's due!"

 

"We chased him off a week ago!" Donnie shouted, deciding reluctantly not to rat Sid out in the woods. "He's nuts! There's no treasure!"

 

There was a pause outside the door, before the man replied, "We don't believe you!"

 

Then the whole door shook as the man tried to kick it off its hinges, and from the way it creaked and groaned, it would not take too many more hits like it to do the job.

 

"Hide!" Raph hissed to everyone as he snapped the lights off. "Lead them in circles and take them out one by one! Mikey,  _don't_  let them see you!"

 

The others hurried to follow his orders, and when the thugs finally succeeded in kicking down the door, the house looked deserted.

 

From their hiding places, the teens observed the thugs with a critical eye. Mikey's previous comment that they looked like Purple Dragon wannabes was fairly accurate. They were all beefy men in leather jackets and punk hairstyles, and toting very big guns. There were about seven of them, and they all squinted into the darkness looking for those they knew had been in the house.

 

The one who had kicked down the door appeared to be the leader, and he sneered into the darkness. "Where are you Sid?" he called into the house. "Playin' hide'n'seek ain't gonna get you anything but a bullet in the skull!"

 

All that met that claim was silence.

 

The leader scowled, and looked at his lackeys. "Find 'em. We know they're here."

 

"Ya sure, Spuds?" asked one of the thugs. "This place is kinda creepy."

 

Spuds gave the thug a nasty look, and kicked him forward. "I'm sure, get movin'."

 

Unseen by the thugs, Miwa and Casey slipped out a window and back into the yard. They hurried over to the big expensive looking car that the thugs had come in.

 

Casey let out an appreciative whistle at the sight. "Nice ride."

 

Miwa grinned and pulled out her tantō. "I bet they'll be  _really_  ticked if something happens to it."

 

Casey shared her evil grin, and hefted his baseball bat high in the air.

 

Inside the house, the thugs were getting very close to the upstairs bathroom.

 

Behind the door, Raph tensed as he heard their footsteps growing closer to his location. He'd hidden up there to protect Leo, and as the bathroom doornob started to turn, he prepared himself to do just that.

 

But before the door could open, there was a loud crashing sound, and the sound of a car alarm went off outside.

 

"What the-?!" came Spuds' enraged shout. "That's my car! No one messes with my car!"

 

The footsteps retreated from the bathroom door as four of the thugs rushed out of the house to see who was causing the alarm to go off.

 

Raph sighed in relief as he heard them go, and glanced over at Leo's sleeping form. "Heck of a party you're missing, bro," he whispered to him.

 

Leo slept on silently.

 

Outside, Spuds stopped dead at the sight that met his eyes. The headlights of his car were smashed, and the hood now had a massive dent in it. Both sides of the vehicle had been keyed, and the inner upholstery had been slashed to ribbons.

 

Spuds was furious. "When I find who did this, they  _are DEAD!"_  he shouted. Turning to his men he ordered, "Find them!"

 

The three men who had followed him out, nodded and spread out across the property.

 

One headed in the direction of the barn, thinking that that would be one of the best places to look. Creaking the door open, he let himself in with his gun pointed in front of him, keeping an eye out for any sort of movement.

 

But at the sight of what looked like a mad scientist's lab sitting in the back of the barn, and the awful smell that was wafting from it, he had to pause and blink at the sight in confusion. "What the hel-?"

 

Unfortunately for him, in that moment of distraction a hand reached out and grasped his ankle, yanking the thug off his feet, and making him drop his gun. The man had enough time to look up in surprise, and see a short but menacing metallic figure stand over him with glowing blue eyes, before the figure's fist came down on his head, and his world went black.

 

___________________________________

 

Back outside, another thug was searching by the chicken coop for the vandals. Just as he was passing by the small structure, a sack full of birdseed suddenly came down on his head, trapping his face inside it with all the small grains.

 

The thug yelped and yanked the sack back off his head, despite the fact that it made him drop his gun, and doing so caused all the seeds to spill out on top of him, covering him in it.

 

As he cursed his head off and tried to brush the seeds off, he became aware of the sound of clucking behind him.

 

The thug turned around to see a flock of very hungry chickens eyeing him with interest.

 

Just as the thug realized what they were after, the chickens all pounced upon him, pecking at the seeds that covered his body regardless of the yelps of pain that it caused.

 

Sitting atop the chicken coop, Casey laughed at his misfortune. He'd been skeptical when April had come back from town a week ago with the chickens for the farm, but now he was grateful that she had.

 

Once the chickens had had their fill, they wandered away from the thug and back into the coop, leaving the man groaning on the ground. Only then did Casey jump down and knock the guy unconscious.

 

He then fist pumped and whispered, "Goongala!" to himself.

 

___________________________________

 

The third thug was searching along the tree line for the mysterious vandals, but did not seem to be having any more luck than his friends.

 

At least, not until he heard some rustling in the nearby bushes.

 

Grinning at the sound, the man made his way towards the shaking leaves, and began prodding his gun at it, searching for the source.

 

However, instead of a person, a frightened raccoon burst from the foliage and bolted deeper into the forest.

 

Grunting in disappointment, the man lowered his guard, and wondered where his prey could be hiding.

 

But before he could start searching again, a swift kick between the legs from behind sent the man collapsing to the ground, groaning in agony in a much higher pitched voice than normal. But before he could catch sight of his attacker, a foot appeared in his vision, and struck him right between the eyes, knocking him out cold.

 

Standing over her fallen opponent, Miwa couldn't help but smile proudly. "Guess that stealth training has been paying off after all," she muttered to herself.

 

___________________________________

 

Back inside the house, one of three who had stayed inside had made his way to the kitchen.

 

The man began opening cabinet doors and the pantry, thinking that their quarry could be hidden in there, only to find nothing.

 

Just then, a rattling sound reached his ears.

 

The man whipped around and pointed his gun in the direction of the sound, only to see that it had come from the refrigerator.

 

Skeptical that there could be anyone hiding there, he reluctantly opened the fridge, but saw nothing inside but your average groceries.

 

Hearing the rattling sound again, the thug's eyes widened as he realized it was coming from the freezer.

 

Wondering what the heck could be in there to make that sound, the man cautiously opened the door with one hand, and kept his gun trained on it with the other.

 

Only for something fast, cold, and sticky to fly out of the icebox and begin clawing at his face, yowling angrily as it did so.

 

The man dropped his gun and tried to pry the sticky creature off his face, but before he could he felt something strike him on the back of the head and he collapsed to the ground.

 

Mikey grinned, and put down the frying pan he'd used to clock the bad guy. "Nice work, Ice Cream Kitty," he whispered to his pet as he gently lifted the mutant cat up and placed her back into the freezer.

 

Ice Cream Kitty only meowed proudly in response.

 

___________________________________

 

The other two thugs were making their way through the house, unaware of their comrade's predicament.

 

As they went, a sound reached their ears, and one signaled for the other to stop and listen.

 

The cheerful jingle of a cell phone could be heard coming from one of the nearby rooms, and they made their way towards it with their guns drawn.

 

One kicked in the door, and they both hurried into the room, which appeared to be some sort of study.

 

Sitting atop the desk was the ringing cell phone, the light from the screen being the only illumination in the room.

 

As one man made his way towards the phone, the other hung back, looking around suspiciously. Just as the first thug reached the desk, a hand shot out from behind it and dragged the startled man over the desk, and the sound of scuffling followed, until a loud yelp ended it.

 

The second thug blinked in shock at what he'd just seen, and shouted, "Max?" He tried to rush forward to help his friend, but before he could take a step, a heavy book was brought down hard on his head and knocked him out.

 

April stood behind him with the book still raised to hit him again if he moved, and Donnie crawled out from behind the desk, dragging the other man with him. "Nice hit," he said appreciatively as he saw the goose egg growing on the head of the man at April's feet.

 

"You're not so bad yourself," said April cheerfully as the two worked to drag the men away.

 

As they came out into the living room, they saw Mikey exit the kitchen carrying his own downed thug, and Raph cautiously opened the door to the bathroom.

 

They all then tensed as the front door opened again, but all that came through was Casey, Miwa, and Metalhead.

 

"We got three outside," whispered Miwa.

 

"We stuffed them back in their car, and Metalhead did some thingy to lock them in," added Casey. "If I got what he was trying to say right, then only he'll be able to unlock it."

 

Metalhead nodded and gave a thumbs-up to show that this was correct.

 

"Then that means only that Spuds guy is still out there," said Raph as he did a quick headcount. Glancing at Metalhead, he pointed at the three unconscious men in the house and asked, "Can you stick these three in the car too?"

 

Metalhead nodded and gave an affirmative beep.

 

"Good," Raph said. "Then do that. After you do, come up here and guard Leo in case Spuds comes back. The rest of us'll go out looking for him."

 

"I think I saw him heading into the woods to the left of the house after we messed up his car," said Miwa. "But he was too far away for me to get."

 

Casey frowned. "But that's the directions Sid ran off in when he saw those jerks coming."

 

April frowned and looked worried.

 

"Then let's go after him," said Raph, and teenagers all headed out the door into the night.

 

___________________________________

 

Within an old abandoned shed in the middle of the forest, Sid collapsed against the wall and tried to catch his breath, and wondered when his life had gotten so screwed up.

 

When he'd borrowed money from that loan shark in Las Vegas, he had done it with every intention of paying it back. He had been so sure that by the time the due date had rolled around he'd have hit it rich enough that the amount would have been pocket change in comparison.

 

But instead of hitting it big, he'd lost it all in the games, and then some. Now completely broke, he'd tried to contact his mother to spot him the money, but for some reason had not been able to reach her.

 

Thinking that she had finally gotten fed up with the trouble he caused, Sid had turned to the last possible gamble to save him from whatever the gang after him had in store.

 

The treasure his father had promised him when he was little.

 

Sid's family had never been rich, but they weren't poor either. He was hopeful that whatever his father had hidden would be valuable enough to pawn off for the money he needed to get out of debt. And even if whatever it was hadn't been valuable enough to do it, he'd figured he could steal some of the things from the farmhouse to make up for the extra. To his knowledge, his Uncle Kirby had never returned to this place after Aunt Beth disappeared the same way his father had. No one would miss anything he took from the house. It was supposed to be an easy score.

 

April was  _not_  supposed to be here.

 

But she was, and she brought with her the terrible news that Sid's mother couldn't be reached because she was trapped in New York because of who-knows-what had happened there, and Sid couldn't help but kick himself for not being there to protect her.

 

So not only was Sid penniless, treasureless, and on the run from gangsters who were after his head, but he had also brought his troubles down on his baby cousin's head. He consoled himself that the thugs couldn't have hurt her. He hadn't heard the sounds of gunshots coming from the direction of the house, so maybe she'd been able to convince them they were barking up the wrong tree.

 

Or maybe those friends she was with had sold him out, and they were instead searching the woods for him this very minute.

 

At that thought, Sid reached into his jacket, and pulled out the gun he'd brought with him just in case. He was ashamed that he had nearly pulled it on April and her friends when that punk girl tossed him out of the house, but he was desperate. Spuds wanted that money tonight, and if he didn't get it there would be a bullet in Sid's skull by morning.

 

Either way, the gun in his hands was likely Sid's only defense against what was to come.

 

Just then, the sound of a twig snapping outside the shed had Sid tensing up, and pointing the gun in hands at the door.

 

For an agonizingly long minute, he waited for Spuds and his crew to burst in the door and shoot him.

 

But the door remained shut, and nothing but silence could be heard outside it.

 

Hesitantly, Sid got to his feet and opened the shed door, wincing as it made a horrible creaking sound.

 

Peering through the door, his eyes searched the woods for any sign of his pursuers, but he saw nothing but darkness and trees.

 

Nothing but darkness could be seen, and Sid let out a sigh of relief.

 

Which quickly turned into a yelp as a had reached out from behind the door of the shed, grasped Sid by the collar, and threw him against a tree a few feet away, making his gun fall from his hands in the process.

 

Sid groaned in pain at the impact, but then immediately froze as he heard the telltale sound of the safety being taken off a gun.

 

Slowly, he looked up, and his eyes widened in horror at the sight of Spuds standing over him, looking furious as he pointed his gun in Sid's direction.

 

"Sid, Sid, Sid," said Spuds angrily as he closed in on the cowering man. "When the boys and I came here, we was all willing to help you case that joint to pay off your debt. But then you had to do such a damn stupid thing."

 

"Wha-what thing?" asked Sid as he pressed himself as close to the tree behind him as he could.

 

"My  _CAR,_ Sid!" Spuds growled. "Ya had to know this was coming when you messed with my car."

 

"I-I didn't do nothin' to your car, Spuds, honest!" Sid stammered fearfully as he searched desperately for a way to escape.

 

"Aw," said Spuds mockingly. "Now, why don't I believe you."

 

Spuds then aimed the gun directly at Sid's head and his finger started to squeeze on the trigger.

 

Sid let out a fearful squeak, and could only stare helplessly at the barrel of the gun.

 

But before Spuds could pull the trigger, something went flying through the air at him, and knocked the gun from his grip, and left a deep cut across the back his hand in the process.

 

Yelling in rage and pain, Spuds clutched at his bleeding hand and began swearing profusely. The flying thing arched back around like a boomerang, and both men watched as it was snatched out of the air by a girl in a yellow t-shirt.

 

"Get away from my idiot cousin," She said firmly as she shifted into a fighting stance, glaring daggers in Spuds' direction, her tessen held threateningly in her hand.

 

Sid gaped at the sight of her. "April?" he asked in utter shock.

 

"You little  _BITCH!_ " snarled Spuds as he rushed towards the girl with the intent of beating her senseless with his own bare hands.

 

But April just grabbed the fist he threw at her, and used his momentum to drop to the ground and kick Spuds over her head and into a tree. Then she ducked back into the underbrush and out of sight.

 

Sid gaped at the sight of his petite cousin taking out a thug twice her size, but before he could comment on it, a pair of hands came out of the shadows and grabbed him, clapping over his mouth before he could cry out in surprise.

 

Looking over at the owner of the hands, he saw Donnie crouched next to him. "Shh," the genius whispered as he yanked Sid into the shadows.

 

By the time Spuds managed to climb back to his feet, he saw that both of the cousins were nowhere in sight.

 

Snarling in rage, he ran towards his dropped gun, only for a sickle on a chain to fly out of the shadows, hook the gun, and drag it away.

 

Outraged, Spuds searched the dark forest for his enemies, and began calling out for his men to help him. "Guys! Max! Sam! Jake! The worm's over here! And he's got some little bitch protecting him!"

 

Spuds then cried out in surprise as a staff shot out of the trees and swept his feet out from under him.

 

"Don't you  _ever_ talk about my girlfriend like that!" snapped Donnie's voice angrily, but by the time Spuds rounded on the direction it came from, the genius had already vanished.

 

Spuds's eyes darted around him, searching in vain for his attackers. But all he could see was darkness.

 

Backing up to the shed, he tried to step inside it so that he'd at least have some cover, only to bump into something solid.

 

Spuds wheeled around to see a short figure hidden in the shadows of the shed with a pair of blank white eyes staring out at him behind a red mask. "Boo!" the figure hissed as he drew back his arm, and slugged Spuds right in the face, sending him flying away from the shed.

 

Spuds scrambled back to his feet, but the figure in the shed had already vanished.

 

Now more than a little freaked out, Spuds' angry bravado cracked, and he began searching desperately for a way to escape.

 

But all he could see in the darkness was more eyes staring out at him, two pairs of which were blank and white like the figure who hit him.

 

Spuds turned tail and tried to run, but before he could a hockey stick was dropped in his path and tripped him up, and sent him sprawling to the ground once again.

 

Spuds looked up to see April, Casey, Miwa, Donnie, and a frazzled-looking Sid standing over him.

 

"Whatever Sid owes, it's paid up as of right now, understood," said April as she pointed at him with her tessen.

 

Despite all he'd gone through, Spuds still had the audacity to sneer. "No deal," he growled. "No matter what you do to me, it won't stop my boss from sending more men after him 'til he gets what's due. And I'll make sure you're on their list too, girlie."

 

Sid looked worried at the idea of more people coming after him, but it quickly turned to confusion as Miwa's face took a dangerous smirk at Spuds' response. "So what you're saying is, you're  _expendable_ ," she said snidely.

 

Glancing at the others, she pointed at Spuds with her tantō and asked, "With being a low-life thug who's no doubt pissed some other people off before us, what do you bet him and his buddies all have bounties on their heads?"

 

Spuds sputtered at their feet, and the others' eyes widened as they caught on to what she was saying.

 

Donnie quickly whipped out his phone and took a picture of Spuds to search through the police database. Grinning at what he saw, he said, "There is one, and a substantial amount it seems."

 

The genius held his phone out for Sid to see, and the man's eyes widened. "Whoa! That's enough to cover my debt and then some!"

 

"W-wait!" shouted Spuds as he scrambled backwards to get away from them. "I-I take it back, Sid's square! Alright!"

 

"Too late," said April cheerfully. "Pleasure doing business with you."

 

With that she darted forward and brought back her foot, before kicking Spuds in the face and knocking him out cold.

 

___________________________________

 

The next morning, Howard the cop was shocked to find a scruffy-looking young man coming into the police station to collect the bounties on seven unconscious small-time gangsters, who were all lying unconscious in a beat up car. When asked how he'd managed to catch them all, he simply beamed and declared that he had the best cousin in the entire world.

 

Howard decided not to question it. For a small town, Northampton clearly had its own brand of craziness.

 

Though, when he and the other cops went to impound the thugs' car, they also found two unregistered ATVs already in the lot that matched the description of the ones the H.A.T.E. crazies had claimed to have been stolen by aliens.

 

Needless to say, the paperwork that followed was murder.

 

___________________________________

 

Before leaving again to return to Las Vegas, Sid stopped by the farmhouse again to say goodbye to April.

 

"Ya sure you'll be okay out here alone?" he asked his cousin while they stood out on the front porch.

 

"I'm sure," said April. "Just, as soon as the quarantine on New York is lifted, call Aunt Robyn, will you? She misses you."

 

"Yeah, I will," agreed Sid. He then let out a disappointed sigh. "Still, after all that, I still didn't find Dad's treasure. 'Spot marks the X', why is it so hard to figure out?"

 

Suddenly, April's eyes widened. "Wait a minute," she said, then took off from the porch and across the yard.

 

Confused, Sid followed after her, only to stop short next to April, who was now looking down at a flat stone.

 

"When I was little, I had this pet hamster I named Spot," she explained. "When he died, my Dad buried him right here, and put the marker down so I could leave flowers for him. I bet Uncle Augie was expecting you to ask me for help at some point, so I could show you this."

 

Sid's eyes widened in surprise, and April knelt down next to the marker, and lifted the stone up.

 

Underneath was a yellowed, but mostly undamaged envelope sealed inside a Ziploc bag.

 

"That's the treasure?" Sid asked in surprised when he saw it. "Maybe it's a check or something."

 

April plucked the envelope from the ground, and opened it. Reading the contents, her eyes widened. "Actually, Sid, I think you should see this."

 

She handed it to her cousin and watched him read it.

 

Sid's jaw dropped in shock at what he read, "This- this is…"

 

"A letter of recommendation from an esteemed professor Uncle Augie knew," said April calmly as she watched the information sink in on Sid's face. "Alone, it's not much. But that, plus a high school diploma or GED will be a big help in getting you into almost any college of your choice."

 

Sid let out a dry laugh and the letter fell through his fingers. "Dad always did want me to go to college. Wanted me to be worth something. So much for that."

 

"It's not too late, Sid," said April encouragingly. "And it'd really make Aunt Robyn proud if you tried."

 

Sid hesitated, then reached down to pick up the letter and put it in his pocket. "I'll think about it," he said as he turned to leave. "Later, April."

 

April waved goodbye to her cousin and wandered back into her house.

 

Maybe Sid wasn't such a black sheep after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Cousin Sid is Casey's cousin in the Mirage Comics and 2003 show, but since it's April's farmhouse this time around, he had to be April's cousin in order for it to work. What do you think? Also, Howard the cop is starting to become a running gag.


	42. Struggle on the Homefront

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While the Hamato Clan recovers at the farmhouse, their friends still in the city press on.

The streets of New York City were dark and silent, a far cry from their usual splendor of lights and people out and about at all hours. As it was, the city was nothing but a ghost town now, its inhabitants fled, hiding, or having met a terrible fate.

 

With such eerie silence reigning over the streets, the sound of running feet echoed loudly in the night, though the one making them took no notice.

 

The runner panted for breath as he raced through the street, not daring to look back. He knew if he slowed down for even a moment, his pursuers would be on him like wolves.

 

Soon a new sound joined the runner's footsteps, and the clank of metallic feet followed after him as a patrol of Kraang raced after the running boy.

 

Gulping loudly as he heard them closing in, the boy ducked down an alley, only to screech to a halt as he saw that his turn was met with a dead end.

 

"Surrender and be mutated," said a deadpan voice behind him, and the runner didn't even need to look to know the Kraang now had their mutagen hose pointed at him, ready to make him join the legions of Kraangatized slaves that had once been citizens of the city.

 

The runner smirked.

 

"You're the ones who should be surrendering," he said in a low voice, before flickering out of sight.

 

The Kraang barely had time to glance at each other in confusion, before two loud roars from overhead shattered the stillness of the night. They looked up to see two hulking figures leap from the rooftops of the adjacent buildings, and with a screech of metal the androids met their end, leaving the aliens to scuttle away in terror upon their own tentacles.

 

Once the last Kraang lay in pieces at the mutants' feet, Slash hefted his mace onto his shoulder and glanced back up at the rooftop. "Good work, Malachi," he called.

 

A third figure floated down and into the light. Sir Malachi smiled at his two companions. "Thy thanks is unnecessary," he said with a grin. "Though, one would think that there Kraang wouldth have learned by now not to falleth for my illusions of friend Jason."

 

Slash chuckled. "One would think," he agreed. "But so long as they keep taking the bait, I'm not complaining."

 

Next to him, Leatherhead snorted in agreement, and kicked a Kraang head away with his foot. "Speaking of Jason," he said.

 

On cue, the cell phone tucked into Malachi's tunic rang, and the sparrow mutant hurried to answer it.

 

"All set here, compadres," said the skater boy through the speakers. "I got those folks we found down to the Shelter, and Mr. Jones is helping them settle in now. Did the Kraang take the bait?"

 

"Hook, line, and sinker," said Leatherhead, making Jason cheer.

 

"Alright, Mighty Mutanimals, mission accomplished," said Slash. "Meet back at the Lair in twenty."

 

"You got it, Chief," said Jason cheerfully. "Over and out."

 

Malachi hung up, and he and Leatherhead filed down a manhole into the sewers.

 

Slash made to follow them, but as he did so, he caught sight of a familiar dojo across the street from the alley he was in.

 

The Renaissance Dojo…

 

Home…

 

Sighing heavily at the sight, the turtle moved to follow his teammates downwards, but couldn't suppress the question that bubbled to the surface of his mind.

 

' _Raphael, guys, where **are**  you?'_

 

____________________

 

Jason grinned triumphantly as he hung up his cell phone, and glanced around the hidden chamber Slash had found during the start of the invasion all those months ago.

 

The entire place had been transformed into a shelter for the small number of humans left in the city (and had gained the unimaginative name of 'The Shelter').

 

It was sometimes hard to believe that in that time, he, Slash, Leatherhead, and Sir Malachi had come together to form the Mighty Mutanimals to go against the Kraang.

 

Slash had quickly proven himself an effective leader with Leatherhead acting as his second command, and the two acted as the muscle of the team, tearing down any enemy in their path with brutal precision. Malachi was their strategist, able to out think his opponents and making illusions and distractions to protect the team. Jason, lacking any mutant powers, but being the only one with a face that didn't send the citizens of New York screaming, was the one to calm any humans they found down, and lead them to safety. He also acted as bait at times (much to his fellow teammates discontent at his endangering himself), as even as a human he was still the fastest of the four, and could often evade the aliens better than the rest.

 

At first there had been many protests in the Shelter to the human teenage boy joining the three mutants, but Jason would hear none of them, and refused to let his friends fight alone. "I'm a Mutanimal too!" he'd insist whenever asked, remembering his own time as a mutant, and knowing full well what his friends were going through. "Anyone who says otherwise is totally bogus!"

 

Jason shook himself out of his thoughts, and turned to make his way towards the exit.

As he walked through the crowded room, many of its occupants waved and called out greetings. He had been the one to lead most of the humans to this safe haven, and they were all extremely grateful for it.

 

Jason felt a small bubble of discontent inside him about it, however. Even though all the people at the Shelter knew of the rest of the Mutanimals, and that saving them all, as well as finding them food and supplies to keep living down there was a team effort, most of the Shelter's residence were still frightened of the three mutants that made up his team. Because of this, it was just Jason who interacted with the skittish refugees a majority of the time, allowing the mutants to stay out of sight and out of mind of those who wished as such.

 

Something that was totally unfair, in Jason's opinion. His three friends were risking their lives to save these people, and they only wanted to thank  _him_  for it since he was the only one who looked 'normal'. A part of Jason wondered how friendly they'd be towards him if he had still been Mondo Gecko, rather than plain ol' human Jason.

 

Mondo ingrates.

 

' _Well,'_ reasoned Jason to himself as he drew near the door, ' _not all of them.'_

 

By the door to the sewers, Arnold Jones was still talking to the extremely grateful couple that the Mutanimals had saved that night. During the time they'd been underground, the man had become the unofficial leader of those in the Shelter, and he, for one, made it clear  _all_ of the Mighty Mutanimals were welcome at any time.

 

And he wasn't alone in that. His daughter, Shadow, had taken a shine to all of the mutants. She was especially fond of Malachi, whom shared her love of fairytales, and the two would often embark on 'epic quests' during Malachi's occasional visits to the Shelter to see his parents.

 

His parents were also a pair who accepted the mutants despite their appearence. Mr. and Mrs. Milton had turned out to be very kind people, who both shared their son's wonder of all things strange and mythical. They took it upon themselves to encourage the people of the Shelter to be more accepting, though they were having limited success. Mostly due to the fact that Jason's own parents were doing their best to sabotage their attempts.

 

Jason frowned as he thought of those two, and quickly forced them from his mind. The months of being underground had done nothing to make the pair more accepting, and seemed to go out of their way to make everyone else around them as miserable as they were. He had long since given up trying to reason with them.

 

Besides, there were other people who were openly accepting of the Mutanimals. They had managed to rescue April's Aunt Robyn, and once she stopped freaking out, she became more supportive of them (especially after finding out about Leatherhead and Jason's help in protecting April before the invasion). The restaurant owner, Mr. Murakami, and Mrs. Morrison, an old retired teacher, were both blind, and therefore not at all bothered by their appearance. There was also a really cute blond girl named Candy Fine who was accepting of them, and was always especially friendly towards Jason. Another girl named Angel Bridge, and her brother, Ryan, both thought the mutants were cool. Even a grumpy scientist named Harold Lillja was willing to snap at any person who was stupid enough to speak badly of the mutants in his presence.

 

With those happy thoughts in mind, Jason walked past Mr. Jones and the new couple, and headed out the door. "See ya, Mr. J," he said as he grabbed his skateboard and opened the door. "Gotta check in with my peeps."

 

One of the new couple, a blond woman who looked like she hadn't slept in days, whipped around to stare at him in horror. "Don't go out there!" she cried, reaching out to grab Jason's arm and stop him in his tracks. "Those monsters, they'll…"

 

Jason shrugged her off, and hoped she was just talking about the aliens. "The only monsters out there are the Kraang, and they're nowhere near fast enough to catch me," he said confidentially.

 

With that, he tossed his board onto the ground, and soon was rolling his way through the sewers, heedless of the alarmed shout from the woman, that was quickly cut off by the Shelter's door shutting behind him, hiding the safe haven once more.

 

____________________

 

' _Run! Run! Run! Run! Gotta help them! Run!'_

 

The word repeated constantly in his head as he raced through the sewer tunnels, desperate to out run those chasing him.

 

' _Run! Run! Run! Can't fly! No room! Keep Running! Can't let them catch you! Not again!'_

 

His breath came out in loud gasps, and it felt as though his lungs would never work properly again, but still he kept running. He couldn't stop.

 

He dared a glance over his shoulder to see if they were still behind him, and let out a whimper when he saw that they were.

 

"Kraang, we must capture the one who is evading capture," said one of his pursuers.

 

"Kraang is aware of that, Kraang," replied another, and they seemed to pick up their pace to catch up to him.

 

Resisting the urge to break down and cry at the thought of being a 'guest' of the Kraang again, he faced forward and did his best to loose them in the darkness.

 

He glanced back behind him again for just a moment to see if he had made any distance, when suddenly he felt himself crashing into something.

 

That something let out a yelp, and they both landed on the floor in a heap.

 

Jason groaned as he propped himself up on his elbows to see what had clotheslined him out of nowhere.

 

A pair bulbous yellow eyes stared back at him in terror, and the former mutant blinked as he recognized them. "Pigeon Pete?" he asked in surprise.

 

Pigeon Pete let out a terrified sounding warble, and glanced back the way he'd come.

 

Jason followed his gaze, and paled as he caught sight of a patrol of Kraang coming right for them.

 

Grabbing Pete by his feathery wrist, Jason jumped back to his feet and bolted down the sewer tunnels away from the Kraang, and dragging the pigeon mutant a long for the ride. Literally, as Pete somehow managed to stumble onto Jason's skateboard, and was being wheeled behind the teenager like a dog sled.

 

As he ran, Jason reached desperately for his cell phone with his free hand and hit speed dial. "Kraang patrol in the Laird street tunnels!" he shouted into it the second he heard it pick up. "They're after me, I don't think I can shake 'em!"

 

"We're on our way," came Slash's voice in reply, and the call shut off.

 

Jason shoved the phone back into his pocket, and focused on keeping ahead of his alien pursuers, doing his best to ignore Pete's not so helpful cries that they were gaining on them.

 

As they raced through the tunnels, Jason chanced a glance behind him. A chance that turned out to be a mistake, as an uneven piece of sewer floor jutted out, and tripped the skater, sending both him and the mutant pigeon crashing to the ground for the second time that night.

 

With a groan, the two sat back up, only to freeze in dread at the sound of Kraang laser pistols firing up.

 

"Surrender is optimum," said one of the Kraang as they closed in on the two. "Non-surrender means disintegration, which is less optimum."

 

Jason scowled at the aliens, but quickly morphed it into a wicked grin. "I'll tell you what's opty-mum, Metal-Butt!" he said confidentially, looking over the android's shoulder. "A beat-down Mutanimal style!"

 

The Kraang turned to follow his gaze, and immediately had its head bashed off by a giant rusty mace, and more soon followed its example.

 

A loud gator-roar sounded, and Leatherhead reared up and tackled another three Kraang to the ground, and immediately began ripping them to pieces.

 

One Kraang tried to back away, only to be turned into a turkey, and quickly fled down the tunnels gobbling in fear.

 

When the last Kraang lay in pieces on the sewer floor, Leatherhead moved over to help Jason to his feet. "Are you okay?" he asked.

 

Jason dusted himself off and gave the alligator a thumbs-up. "All good, LH. Thanks for the save." He then turned back to Pete, only to see the pigeon still shaking like a leaf in fear, but also looking up at the four of them with wide, hopeful eyes.

 

"Please," he whimpered, clasping his hands in front of himself as he fell to his knees and begged. "Please, you gotta help them!"

 

Then his strength gave out, and he collapsed at their feet in a dead faint.

 

____________________

 

When Pigeon Pete became aware of the world again, he found himself lying under a blanket on the stone seat of an abandoned subway station.

 

Blinking his eyes blearily, he slowly sat up, only to have a steaming mug shoved in his face.

 

"Some hot tea?" said the friendly looking sparrow mutant holding the mug. "It will doeth thou a world of good."

 

Unsure of what else to do, Pete took the mug and stared around at where he was.

 

Though it was clearly an abandoned subway station, the place had a far more homey air to it. There was worn out furniture decorating the area, and a large pile of video games set around a large TV that looked like it had seen better days.

 

But what drew Pete's attention the most was the four other occupants of the room, who were all staring down at him expectantly.

 

"So," said Slash, making Pete's gaze focus on him. "You said something about saving somebody?"

 

Just like that, it all came flooding back to Pete. He leapt from the seat, flapping his arms wildly to hover in the air, and sending the blanket and mug of tea flying. "Yes! Yes! Help them! You gotta help them!  _Please!_ "

 

Malachi yelped and jumped to the side to avoid the hot tea, but the rest of the team focused on the pigeon.

 

"Uh, we're down with saving people, dude," said Jason, hoping to calm the pigeon down, "but you gotta be more specific. Who've we gotta save?"

 

" _THEM!"_  Pete insisted, not going into depth any further.

 

" _Who_  is them?" asked Slash, but that question did no more to calm the hysterical mutant down than the other ones.

 

Gently, Leatherhead reached out and caught Pigeon Pete, and pinned his wings to his side. "Take a deep breath," he said calmly.

 

Pete immediately stilled, and did as the gator asked.

 

"Now let it out," Leatherhead coached, still in his calm tone.

 

Pete exhaled loudly, and finally looked calmer.

 

"Now," the alligator continued, "please tell us who you would like us to save?"

 

For a second Pete looked like he was going to go off on another panicked tangent, but he quickly repeated the breathing exercise and explained, "My name is Pete. I just escaped being a 'guest' of the Kraang's bio labs. But there's a lot more people still trapped in there.  _Please_ , you gotta help them! I promised!"

 

The Mutanimals all exchanged glances at this news, before turning back to the pigeon.

 

"Thou meaneth people as in…" Malachi asked.

 

"As in humans," said Pete. "And another mutant like us," he paused and glanced at Jason. "Well, most of us."

 

Ignoring the mention of his non-mutantness, Jason asked, "Why would the Kraang be keeping people as humans?" he asked. "I thought they were trying to make that Kraang hybrid ooze to take over and turn all humans, like, into them."

 

"Yeah, the Kraang have the mutagen they were working towards to invade, but they're not done messing with it yet," Pete explained, looking downcast. "They've been experimenting with it further. They're trying to make new mixtures of it so that their mutant slaves are stronger, and better able to do more specialized jobs."

 

"What sort of specialized jobs?" asked Leatherhead with a tightness in his voice.

 

Pete sent a nervous glance at Jason, before looking downwards and twiddling his thumbs. "The-the Kraang know there are more humans in New York that they haven't been able to find," he said. "So they've been making a mutant that can act as a tracker. A hunter. They haven't made good enough one yet, but when they do…"

 

The Mutanimals exchanged horrified looks, and Slash finished his sentence, "Then every human still hiding in New York would be sitting ducks."

 

Malachi paled beneath his feathers as it sank in what that meant. "But-" he said desperately and forgetting his accent, "-all the people at the Shelter! My  _parents!_ "

 

"They won't stand a chance," said Leatherhead, his claws digging into the scales of his palm as he clenched his fist tightly.

 

Jason looked unnerved at the thought of being some creature's prey, and turned to look at their leader. "So what do we do, Chief?" he asked.

 

Slash frowned at the stone floor of the Lair for a moment, before looking up to address his team. "We're gonna find this lab, and wipe it off the map," he said firmly. "And we're gonna save all those prisoners while we're at it."

 

His three teammates nodded in agreement and determination.

 

With that Slash turned to Pete, and said, "Show us where they are."

 

Pete gaped at the four of them for a moment, then his beak turned upwards and be beamed at them.

 

____________________

 

With a spoon left over from the last 'meal' they'd had, Jack Kurtzman carved another dash onto the wall to mark another day of imprisonment, before turning to look at his cellmate.

 

"How are you holding up, Doctor?" he asked.

 

Chained to the other wall of the metallic cell, the mutant monkey that had once been Dr. Tyler Rockwell slowly raised his head, and looked at Kurtzman with a bleary expression. "As well as I can be while drugged to the gills," he said in a slightly slurred tone. "I'm not sure why our 'hosts' insist on doing such between experiments."

 

Kurtzman gave the mutant a helpless shrug. "I suspect it's to suppress those psychic powers of yours. Still, have to admit it's an improvement. At least now you can talk again."

 

Rockwell winced slightly at the mention of his time as a wild and savage ape, and quickly changed the subject. "When do you expect that buffoon of a pigeon to be back with those ninja adolescents you are so certain will save us?" he asked.

 

Kurtzman sighed and slumped against the wall. "I don't know," he admitted. "Soon, I hope. I just pray he can find them. From what I've overheard from the Kraang, they've apparently gone so deep into hiding that not one of them has been seen since the invasion."

 

Rockwell kept silent on his opinion that they may not have been seen because they had been killed in the invasion like who knows how many other innocent people. He knew the thought of rescue was one of the few things keeping the man across from him going in such a bleak situation.

 

As if to remind them of just how bleak it was, a loud cross between a roar and a howl sounded down the hallway outside their cell as the Kraang completed a mutation on their tracking beast to further improve its capabilities. They knew the next step in the process was to let the newly mutated monster loose in a maze with some helpless prisoner, and observe how well the creature was able to track the human prey.

 

They hadn't perfected the mutation yet, but the time any human spent in the maze alive was lessening with each new test.

 

Kurtzman and Rockwell exchanged defeated looks as the sound of said human prisoner being dragged kicking and screaming from his cell reached their ears, and knowing they could do nothing to help him.

 

The screaming continued for some time as they heard the human try desperately to evade the beast in the maze.

 

But like all others, it was cut off abruptly by a roar of triumph, and was not heard again.

 

"Fifty-five minutes this time," Kurtzman remarked darkly as he examined his watch. "A new record."

 

____________________

 

Sunrise painted the sky red as the Mighty Mutanimals and Pete looked down at the facility that the pigeon had led them too.

 

"This is the place," said Pete nervously as he stared down at the place he'd worked so hard to escape from.

 

The other four eyed it critically, and had to admit, it fit the part of an evil lab.

 

With the Kraang's complete takeover of New York City, they'd long since stopped trying to hide themselves. Anywhere they frequented now sported the standard metallic silver and pink color scheme, and had Kraang androids patrolling the parameter while armed to the teeth.

 

Just then, a loud monstrous howl cut through the air, and came from within the building.

 

Pete's feathers ruffled in alarm and he ducked behind Slash at the sound.

 

"I presume that was the beast thine would have us slay," said Malachi nervously as he tried to picture what the creature that had made the sound would look like.

 

"Yup," squeaked Pete.

 

"Oh joy," said Slash sarcastically.

 

Leatherhead sent a concerned glance at Jason, and said, "It is not too late for you to go back. It may be better if you went to the Shelter while we do this."

 

Jason sent Leatherhead a look that was equal parts appreciative and exasperated. "I'm part of this team too, aren't I?" he asked rhetorically. "We warned those dudes at the Shelter about what might happen, so they're on edge. Plus, I bet you guys are gonna need me in there to calm down those prisoners."

 

"He is correct," agreed Malachi, moving to stand next to his friend. "With what there captives are going through, they will not be quick to trust us mutants. Better to have a friendly face to calm the storm, than not and temper it ourselves."

 

Leatherhead nodded reluctantly to concede their point.

 

"Just be sure to stay close," Slash said. "I don't like the idea of bringing you to a place where they're making monsters specifically to target humans."

 

Jason nodded, and clutched his skateboard tighter. "Don't need to tell me twice, Chief. I'm not to stoked on the idea myself." He then sent a glance at Pete, and added, "But you can head back to the Lair, bird-man. You don't gotta tag along if you don't wanna."

 

From where he was still cowering behind Slash's shell, Pete looked sorely tempted for a moment, but then shook his head and forced himself back out from behind the mutant. "No," he said in a tight voice. "I promised I'd get help, and I have to see this through."

 

Slash eyed the pigeon with something akin to respect, before turning to look down on the facility once again. "Then lets go give these Kraang their morning wakeup call."

 

Knowing a full frontal assault was not likely to go in their favor, Malachi cast one of his illusions over the team to hide them from sight, and they made their way into the building with the guards none the wiser.

 

As silently as they could, they slipped through the building, with Pete leading the way towards the prison cells.

 

All was going well, until Leatherhead's tail accidentally swung where it wasn't supposed too, and tripped security.

 

Instantly lights began flashing, and an alarm began blaring down the halls.

 

With the element of surprise ruined, Pete let out a frightened wail, and alligator grabbed his tail and looked sheepish.

 

But far be it from being upset, Slash sent his team a smirk, and said, "That's our cue."

 

Malachi immediately dropped his illusion, and Slash and Leatherhead charged forwards to take out the Kraang that had come running at the alarm. They barreled through the aliens like a two mutant wrecking crew, leaving mangled android parts in their wake, and squealing Kraang scurrying for cover.

 

Malachi and Jason stuck together, and worked as a team to fight of the Kraang in their own way. Malachi would entrance any Kraang who got close, and while they were distracted, Jason would grab and yank the aliens out of their android bodies and drop kick them down the hall.

 

Pete stood out of the way watching them work together to take out the ones who had caused him so much torment. His beak hung open in shock at the site, and his eyes were wide with awe.

 

Finally, the wave of Kraang ended for now, and the Mutanimals paused to catch their breath before continuing.

 

"You guys are AWESOME!" cheered Pigeon Pete gleefully, and he hopped up and down with his enthusiasm.

 

Slash chuckled as he hefted his mace onto his shoulder, and gave the pigeon a mock salute for his praise. "Where too next?" he asked.

 

Pete beamed, and hurried onward, the others following after.

 

____________________

 

When the alarms began sounding throughout the building, Kurtzman immediately sat up and looked hopeful. "By jove, that birdbrain did it!" he exclaimed.

 

Rockwell couldn't help but feel a spike of hope as well, but immediately squashed it down. "We're not out of this yet," he said cynically.

 

Kurtzman grinned at him, and replied, "But we're closer to being out than we were before."

 

Rockwell couldn't deny him there. If by some miracle they did get out of this, he'd never doubt Kurtzman again.

 

Suddenly, their cell door slid open, and both of their head shot up to look.

 

Standing in the doorway were a pair of Kraang, who didn't seem at all bothered by the blaring alarms.

 

At first, Rockwell thought they were there to drug him again. The ones muddling his brain were nearly out of his system, and he was due for another injection soon.

 

But instead, they seemed to be focused on his 'roommate' as it were, and didn't spare the monkey a second glance.

 

"One known as 'Kurtzman' has been selected to take part in the experiment of Kraang," said one Kraang.

 

"He will act the part in the experiment that is known as 'bait'," added the other.

 

Kurtzman and Rockwell both paled as they heard that, and before the man could retaliate, the Kraang grabbed his arms in a vice like grip, and dragged him from the cell.

 

Rockwell strained against the shackles pinning him to the wall, and couldn't contain the primitive screeches that crawled their way out of his throat at the sight of the man he'd come to befriend get dragged away.

 

Kurtzman struggled futilely against his captors, and shouted how he had been so close to escape, before the door slammed shut behind them.

 

With the sound of the door closing, something inside Rockwell snapped, and he screeched louder than ever, the sound encompassing all the rage, distress, and hopelessness he was feeling at that moment, and rocked around in his head, making him feel like his brain was on fire.

 

It wasn't fair! They were so close! Escape had been in sight!

 

He was so caught up in his emotions that he didn't notice the few objects in the cell fly violently against the walls, nor the shackles chaining him to the wall start to crack.

 

____________________

 

Pete led the way to the prison cells with only minor difficulty, and the Mutanimals quickly began opening the cell doors and freeing the prisoners.

 

While the people in the cells were initially terrified at the sight of the mutants, Jason was quick to reassure them that they were safe. The prisoners weren't completely convinced, but were desperate enough to escape that they figured the Mutanimals couldn't be any worse than waiting around to be slaughtered. Some of them even recognized Pete, and knew he wasn't a danger to them.

 

The rescue was going well up until Malachi opened the last door, and promptly jumped back and clasped his head with a cry of pain.

 

Jason rushed to the sparrow's side, and steadied the small mutant as he swayed on his mismatched feet.

 

Slash growled at the sight of his teammate in pain, and stormed towards the cell and looked inside for the cause.

 

He then paused at the door, and took in the sight before him. Chained to the wall and straining at his bonds was a monkey mutant he'd occasionally seen in the city at a distance. The mutant was thrashing against his shackles and screeching his head off hysterically.

 

But other than the manic monkey, there was nothing in the room to warrant Malachi's reaction.

 

Pete heard the sound of monkey screeches, and immediately pushed past Slash and ran to Rockwell's side. "Doctor! Doctor!" he shouted, trying to calm down the monkey enough to find out what was wrong.

 

Seeing as he was getting nowhere, Slash walked over and smacked Rockwell across the face, careful not to hurt him to badly with his giant hands.

 

Unfortunately, he didn't temper his strength enough, and Rockwell was knocked to the side, his already weakened chains snapping free of his shackles as he fell to the ground.

 

Pete let out a squawk of alarm, and immediately began freaking out.

 

Jason, however, shot a now sheepish Slash a dry look over Malachi's head. "The slapping thing? Dude, really?" he asked.

 

Slash rubbed the back of his head and looked embarrassed. "I saw Le-er-Raion do it sometimes."

 

"Dude, Raion, like, got it from a cheesy old 80s cartoon," was Jason's reply. "It's not supposed to be used in real life."

 

Next to him, Malachi groaned, but looked like he'd recovered from whatever was bothering him.

 

"What happened?" asked Leatherhead in concern.

 

Malachi massaged his temples, and said shakily, "It felt like this immense pressure pressing down upon my brain. It's not gone, but it's lessened somewhat."

 

Pete paid none of them any mind as he continued to hunch over Rockwell. "Doctor! Are you alright?"

 

Rockwell let out a groan and rubbed his head as he sat up. "Yes, yes, I'm fine, just a slight psychic backlash," he said, shoving the worried pigeon aside. He then sent a glance at Slash and added, "Thank you, I needed that."

 

Slash sent Jason a smug look, but then Rockwell's eyes bulged as he remembered what had sent him into a fit.  _"Kurtzman!"_  he shouted, jumping to his feet. "The Kraang came just a few moments ago to put him in the labyrinth."

 

Pete's let out a despairing wail at the news, but Rockwell cut him off and continued, "It hasn't been too long! He could still be alive!"

 

Slash and Leatherhead exchanged glances, and nodded. "Where is this labyrinth?" asked the turtle.

 

"This way," replied Rockwell, and he started running down the hallway in the direction of the maze.

 

Slash and Leatherhead hurried after him, with Slash barking over his shoulder, "Jason, Malachi, Pete, get these people to the Shelter. We'll meet you back in the Lair!"

 

The two teenagers looked like they wanted to protest, but the larger mutants were gone before they could voice them.

 

They followed Rockwell down the identical hallways until the monkey stopped dead in front of a set of doors. "This is it," he said in a voice barely above a whisper.

 

The door slid open before them, and they walked out onto a narrow platform looking down on a gigantic white maze with exceptionally wide hallways.

 

They heard the roaring howl from somewhere below them, and though the sound of it sent shivers down all of their spines, it actually put Rockwell at ease.

 

"Good," he said to Slash and Leatherhead. "That's its hunting cry. It hasn't found him yet."

 

"Then we still have a chance to save your friend," said Leatherhead, peering down at the labyrinth to try and spot the man or the beast.

 

But neither form revealed themselves, and they knew if they tried to call out to the man they would only alert the creature to his location and theirs.

 

Slash closed his eyes and took a deep sniff with his nose, trying to catch the sent of human in the maze.

 

Over… Somewhere…  _There_!

 

His eyes snapped back open, and quickly narrowed in determination. "I've got his sent. Follow me," the turtle said, and hurried along the narrow walkway towards the stairs into the labyrinth.

 

Rockwell and Leatherhead exchanged a quick glance, before hurrying after him.

 

Following Slash's nose, the three mutants hurried through the maze, occasionally 'making' doors whenever they hit dead ends that stood in their way.

 

Suddenly, Slash froze and held up a hand to signal the other two to stop.

 

The two looked at him in confusion, but the reason for the sudden stop soon became clear as the sound of claws clicking against the metal surface of the maze floor reached their ears.

 

The three quickly ducked behind a corner, and watched as a hulking shape made its way into their sights.

 

It was utterly grotesque, and seemed to be a mishmash of all the top predatory hunting animals.

 

It was very clear why the halls of the maze were so wide. The monster was easily the size of a bus, and yet seemed agile enough that its bulk was not a hindrance. It had eight hairy tarantula legs, and the body of a bear, with patches of snake scales littering its coat. Its head was a mix between a lion's and a wolf's with glowing red eyes, and its mouth was full of long jagged crocodile teeth, with a dribble of saliva dripping constantly from it, and judging by the way the drool corroded the floor as the creature crawled past, the spit was poisonous as well.

 

"Just when I thought the Kraang couldn't get any more twisted," Slash muttered softly to his companions.

 

Leatherhead nodded in agreement, and Rockwell couldn't suppress a shudder at the sight of the monster.

 

"Why didn't it go after us, though?" asked Slash as they made to move on. "There's no way it couldn't smell us as it passed."

 

"Because we are not human," said Rockwell, for once feeling thankful for his mutation. "That abomination has been bred and trained specifically to track down homo-sapiens, and has no interest in anything else. Unless, of course, something gets in between it and its prey, then that monstrosity will tear the poor soul to pieces."

 

Leatherhead snarled softly, and his pupils shrank to slits behind his second eyelid. "Bring it on," he growled, "I will take apart anything the Kraang make."

 

"Let's find Kurtzman first," said Slash evenly. "It'll better to brawl  _after_  we get him out of the kill zone."

 

Leatherhead reluctantly nodded in agreement, and Slash quickly resumed tracking the man by sent.

 

But as the minutes ticked on, Kurtzman remained nowhere to be seen. It was only the fact that the monster had not yet called it's victory that they could believe he was even still alive.

 

"You sure that thing always makes a sound when it finds someone?" asked Slash as they made their way around yet another turn in the giant maze. "I'm following his scent, but it's been getting to be all over the place. I can't tell for sure which way to go any more."

 

"Quite certain," said Rockwell in reply. "Jack and I have been monitoring the Kraang's progress on this beast as best we could, given the circumstances. It follows a distinct pattern in its hunting. Trust me, if it finds Kurtzman before we do, we'll know it."

 

"I must commend your friend for evading it this long," said Leatherhead, sounding impressed. "Even though it's probably why we can't find him either."

 

Rockwell shrugged. "Jack is a bit eccentric, but he has a good head on his shoulders. And with how we've been studying and theorizing about it, if anyone could last this long, it's him."

 

"Well then, do  _you_  have any idea how to find him?" asked Slash. "You studied that thing too."

 

"If I had, don't you think I would have-" Rockwell started to say, but then stopped as a perplexed look passed over his face as he felt a buzzing in his brain. Turning to the look down the hallway to their left, he immediately changed directions and took it. "This way," he said with certainty.

 

Leatherhead and Slash exchanged glances, and the gator asked, "How do you know?"

 

Rockwell didn't look back, and continued on his way. "I'm psychic," he said bluntly.

 

With no other indication of where they should be going, the turtle and gator exchanged shrugs and followed after the monkey.

 

Rockwell led them though the maze, taking turns seemingly at a whim, but never once giving any indication of not knowing exactly where he was going.

 

They continued on in silence, but soon the lack of explanation began to grate on Slash's nerves. For all they knew this could be a trap. The possibility of a man being trapped with that horror they'd seen earlier was enough to keep him from calling it quits, but he turtle remembered hearing Raph tell his pre-mutated self about the monkey mutant leading them, and from what he remembered, things were not adding up.

 

"So, Doc," he said, trying to sound casual. "Last I heard, you were a chittering ape running amuck on the streets. What happened?"

 

Rockwell winced, and shot an embarrassed look at them over his shoulder. "By Darwin's beard, does everyone know about that?" he asked in humiliation.

 

Leatherhead, however, frowned as he remembered the brief encounter he'd had with the hairy mutant before as well. "Slash is right," he said. "I remember how you were when my friends freed you from the Kraang's prison. At the time, you did not seem as…"

 

"Intelligent, articulate,  _sane?_ " Rockwell listed dryly, looking even more humiliated than before.

 

Leatherhead nodded in response.

 

Rockwell sighed, and continued to lead them through the maze as he explained. "I admit, when my former friend, Victor Falco, (or, as I'm now told, he's been calling himself the Rat King) first turned me into…  _this_ , I was not… in my proper frame of mind. Or in any frame of mind at all, for that matter. Because of the low intelligence I was exhibiting, I was an easy target for the Kraang's capture. The first of which was the one you saw me freed from, and, unfortunately, the second time there was no rescue to be found."

 

"Until now," said Slash pointedly.

 

Rockwell looked like he was still in disbelief at the possibility of such a thing, then his face darkened even more as he continued his tale. "The Kraang were quite fascinated with whatever it was Victor had done to me, and seemed to take great pleasure in their torturous experiments to learn more."

 

Leatherhead wilted slightly as his own memories of a similar experience flashed before his eyes. "I can sympathize," he said lowly. "They treated me with much the same during my time as their prisoner."

 

Rockwell nodded slightly. "Their returning my intelligence to me during one such experiment was quite by accident, I believe," he said. "One they were not happy to achieve. When attempts to return me to my, erm, feral state failed, they took to keeping me drugged and chained to control me. Fortunately, you arrived before they could give me the next injection."

 

Slash was still suspicious, but decided to give the monkey the benefit of the doubt for now. But he still remained on high alert as they continued onwards. "Am I the only one wondering why we haven't been attacked yet?" he asked. "We've been in this maze long enough that the Kraang have to know we're here."

 

Bot Leatherhead and Rockwell paused at that comment, and looked around in confusion as they realized he was right. Despite being in the middle of an enemy stronghold, it was deceptively quiet.

 

"I have a bad feeling about this," said Leatherhead.

 

Just then, the sound of footsteps racing towards them reached their ears, and all three mutants tensed and got ready to attack.

 

But before they could move, Kurtzman ran into view, looking winded and disheveled, but otherwise unharmed.

 

"Jack!" shouted Rockwell at the sight of him.

 

Kurtzman took in the sight of them with wide panicked eyes, and didn't stop running as he shot past them. "IT'S RIGHT BEHIND ME!" he shouted.

 

On cue, the many limbed monster scuttled into view, its glowing eyes locked on its human prey.

 

Seeing it, Slash darted forwards and swung his mace upwards to clock the creature under its jaw.

 

The monster was sent tumbling back several feet, but it was up again quickly, and howled in rage at the three mutants.

 

"I fear all you've done is make it angry," said Rockwell nervously.

 

Slash smirked. "It's not the only one," he said. Then with a roar of his own, he rushed forward to combat the creature.

 

The eight-legged monstrosity hissed, and tried to bite the turtle, but Slash made use of his ninjutsu abilities to dodge the snapping teeth. Unfortunately, with his bulk evasion was not his strong suit, and he was unable to get any closer to attack the creature.

 

Suddenly, another roar came from above, and both monster and mutant looked up to see Leatherhead leaping at the creature with a feral expression on his face.

 

The alligator landed squarely on the monster's back, and wrapped his thick scaly arms around its throat in a chokehold.

 

The monster howled and thrashed as it tried to dislodge its passenger. Leatherhead gripped its neck with all his might as he rode it like a bucking bronco, and refused to loosen his hold out of sheer will and stubbornness.

 

Slash stood back and watched this happen, unable to move forward to attack. He knew if he did so, the giant spider legs could possibly hit him, or worse, he could accidentally hit Leatherhead if he tried to attack it.

 

Finally, with one final heave, the monster threw Leatherhead from its back, sending the gator flying into Slash, and sending them both crashing into Rockwell and Kurtzman, who had been watching a short distance back.

 

As the four tried to untangle themselves, Kurtzman caught sight of the monster, and paled. "Watch out!" he yelled, "It's about to spit acid!"

 

The dog pile barely managed to roll to the side to avoid a stream of the acidic poison that shot from the fang-filled mouth at his warning.

 

As they continued to scramble to get back up, the creature closed in on them, its eyes glowing hungrily as it drew near.

 

But then, suddenly it paused, and sniffed the air with interest.

 

"Seriously, dude, why do they always gotta spit acid," said a voice behind the monster.

 

Everyone froze as they looked past the monster to see Jason standing in the middle of the corridor looking at the monster with annoyance.

 

"I mean, come on," he said. "This has gotta be the third acid-spitting mutant we've met. Can't the Kraang be a  _little_ more original. This freak is lame, dudes."

 

The monster let out a screech as if it knew it was being insulted, and promptly turned around and made to pounce on the impudent teenager.

 

But before it could reach him, a streak of blue and brown shot down and snatched Jason out of the way.

 

Slash, Leatherhead, Rockwell, and Kurtzman looked up to see him being held in the air by Sir Malachi, and Pigeon Pete hovering next to them.

 

"Thine cavalry has arrived!" called Malachi down to them.

 

"We took the humans to that safe place you wanted!" added Pete.

 

"But you guys were, like, taking  _way_  too long," said Jason, who was holding on to Malachi's staff to stay in the air. "So we decided to launch a bodacious rescue. So what's the plan, Chief?"

 

Before Slash could reply, the monster sent a stream of acid spit in Jason's direction, and Malachi had to fly them higher to avoid it.

 

"I would suggest haste in the deriving of such a plan," said Malachi as he flew Jason back and forth above their heads to avoid more shots from the monster. "There Huntterror is a fair shot."

 

There was a beat as the rest of them digested what the sparrow had just said, but when they did, the sent him incredulous looks despite his constant movement.

 

"Hunt-Terror? Dude, really?" asked Jason as he clung to Malachi's staff for dear life.

 

Malachi responded to his dry look with one of his own. "Well, we have to call it  _something_ , and Tenshi's not here to name it," he snapped back, forgetting his accent.

 

Just then another spit of acid came too close for comfort, and both boys cried out in alarm as it missed them by mere inches.

 

The shock was enough to make Jason loose his grip, and fall into the maze below.

 

The teenager groaned as he landed, then looked up to see the Huntterror snarling down at him with acid dripping fangs.

 

"Bogus," Jason squeaked fearfully.

 

"Jason! RUN!" shouted Leatherhead as he and Slash rushed forwards and grabbed the creature's back legs before it could pounce on him.

 

"Already running!" Jason shouted in reply as he unhooked his skateboard from the back of his belt and threw it onto the ground and jumped onto it, shooting away as fast as the wheels could take him.

 

The Huntterror let out a screech, and kicked the two reptiles off before taking off after its new prey.

 

Slash and Leatherhead quickly recovered themselves and took off after it as well.

 

"Pete!" Slash shouted as he ran. "Guide Rockwell and Kurtzman to safety. Malachi, try to get Jason out of there, and, if you can, distract Huntterror. Leatherhead and I will handle this thing."

 

Not bothering to wait and see of the pigeon had followed his commands, the two reptilian mutants, and the sparrow raced after the monster.

 

Malachi tried to use his powers to misdirect the monster, but quickly found his efforts to be futile. "I can't bewitch its sense of smell!" he called to the others. "No matter what falsity I show it, its nose can sniffeth out the truth."

 

Jason, meanwhile, glanced back at those chasing him, and yelled, "You never did let us in on a plan, Chief!"

 

"This thing tracks humans only, and the only ones around are you and Kurtzman!" shouted Slash. "We can use that to lead it somewhere with enough room to take it out!"

 

"So we need more space to party?" Jason called back as he caught on. "I'm on it!"

 

Slash nodded, and glanced up at Malachi. "Lead Jason out of the maze!" he yelled. "You're the only one with a birds-eye to see the way! Leatherhead and I will keep trying to slow it down!"

 

"Thy plan has merit! There is no maze I cannoteth solve!" shouted Malachi down to them, and he flew higher to get a better look at the layout of the maze, and his eyes glowed green as his powers activated.

 

A second later, Jason blinked as a large blue arrow appeared and floated in front of him, indicating he should take the next left turn.

 

Taking the sharp turn, he began shooting down the new hallway, and heard the sound of the monster skidding as it couldn't change direction as fast as he could.

 

Seeing the opportunity, Leatherhead launched himself at the monster, and snapped his jaws down on one of its eight legs.

 

The Huntterror howled in pain, and quickly kicked the alligator off, and resumed chasing after Jason, but it was clear to see it was now limping on the bitten leg. Not that that made much difference with seven more scurrying beneath it, but still it was slightly slower than before.

 

Finally, Jason reached the stairs out of the maze, and hopped off his skateboard to run up them two at a time.

 

The Huntterror was closing in behind him, snarling angrily as it scuttled up the too small stairs after the boy.

 

Just as Jason neared the top, he paled at what he saw ahead.

 

It seemed the Kraang had finally decided to show themselves again, and were standing at the top of the staircase pointing their blasters down at the teenager.

 

"The one known as Mondo Gecko, who is also known as Jason, will turn back and be devoured by the creation of Kraang," said the one in front of the group.

 

But Jason didn't stop running up the stairs. Between Kraang and the monstrosity behind him, he'd take the aliens any day.

 

Even though he knew he didn't stand a chance against either in a fight alone.

 

Suddenly, there was a loud squawk, and they all turned to see Pete barreling towards them with Rockwell clinging to his legs.

 

"Pigeon Pete to the rescue!" shouted Pete as he flying tackled several of the Kraang out of Jason's way, and began pecking at them with his beak. Rockwell released his hold on the pigeon's legs, and with a monkey screech he began pummeling the ones Pete had failed to hit.

 

"Major thanks, dudes!" shouted Jason as he bolted past them, and down the facility hallway, the Huntterror still at his heels.

 

Taking off down the hallway like a rocket, Jason was well aware of the loud scuttling sound of the monster gaining on him.

 

Just then, his destination came into sight, and he burst into an enormous boiler room filled with pipes and plenty of room to move, even for giant monsters.

 

The Huntterror got stuck in the door as it tried to chase him out, and snarled angrily as Jason came to a stop just out of its reach.

 

After it became clear it would not be able to squeeze through the door, the Huntterror took a few steps back, and spat its acid on the surrounding doorway. The liquid began melting the wall like sugar cubes, and soon the creature was bounding through the opening.

 

Jason gulped at the sight, and prepared to skate off again, but before he could, two loud roars came from behind the creature, and Slash and Leatherhead flew out of nowhere to tackled the creature once again, making it thrash angrily as it tried to throw them off.

 

"You two with wings, get Jason and Kurtzman to higher ground!" shouted Slash as he clung to the creature's neck.

 

"You've got it!" called Pete as he flew past the struggling mutants to carry Kurtzman up to an upper level of the room.

 

Malachi followed behind him, and grabbed Jason in order to do the same.

 

"What now?" asked Malachi as he hovered next to the two humans.

 

"See if you can find a way to level this place!" shouted Slash.

 

Rockwell, who had been following close behind the two birds, immediately began climbing up to join the humans. "I believe my intellect would be of assistance in that endeavor," he said as he reached them, and he and Kurtzman immediately began discussing the best way to sabotage the boiler.

 

Meanwhile, Jason, Malachi, and Pete continued to watch from above as the two muscle-bound mutants below continued to wrestle with the feral beast, wondering what they could do to help.

 

As they did so, Malachi eyed the long pipes littering the ceiling and a box of tools lying nearby, and grinned. "I haveth a plan," he said cheerfully to the other two. "Follow me."

 

As the three hurried to carry it out, Leatherhead and Slash were quickly finding that they might not be able to muscle their way through this fight.

 

"No matter what we throw at it, nothing keeps it down," Slash growled as he was once again tossed aside by the creature.

 

Leatherhead didn't seem to hear him as he once again rushed the Huntterror with a feral snarl.

 

 

Grabbing it by two of its legs, the gator gave a massive heave, and managed to fling the much larger creature across the room.

 

The Huntterror hissed angrily as it landed on its back, and flailed its many legs in the air uselessly.

 

This gave the two reptile mutants pause as they watched the now immobilized creature wobble back and forth until it finally managed to flip right side up again and snarl at them.

 

Seeing this, Leatherhead sent his turtle companion a smirk. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

 

"Oh yeah," Slash agreed, and the two flew at the monster once again, this time with a plan.

 

Above them, Malachi led the way along the pipes, looking for one that would do the most damage.

 

"Are you sure about this, dude?" asked Jason skeptically as Malachi tapped the pipes to fine one that was hot enough.

 

"Most certainly, friend Jason," he replied cheerfully. "I've seen it done countless times on TV."

 

Jason and Pete exchanged unconvinced glances, but still followed the sparrow's lead.

 

Finally finding a pipe that was hot enough, Malachi flew down along it until he was closer to the fight, and used the wrench from the toolbox to loosen it. Stopping just before it could come loose, the bird glanced downward at where the larger mutants were still fighting.

 

"Bringeth it over here!" he called to his teammates.

 

Slash and Leatherhead nodded in agreement, and each of them got a tight grip on the monster's legs once again.

 

With a yell they threw the Huntterror clear across the room so that it landed on its back directly below Malachi's pipe.

 

The sparrow wizard instantly gave the wrench one last yank, and pipe broke open, sending a stream of scalding hot water and steam down onto the Huntterrors unprotected underside.

 

The monster howled in pain as it writhed beneath the boiling water, trying desperately to both get out from under the stream, and flip right side up again.

 

With the monster suitably distracted, Slash turned his attention to Rockwell and Kurtzman. "How's blowing this place going?"

 

Rockwell and Kurtzman made one final adjustment to the boiler, and immediately began bolting for the door.

 

"It's blowing in five minutes!" yelled Kurtzman as he slid down a pipe to the ground, followed closely by Rockwell and Jason. "We gotta get out of here before then."

 

The others hurried after him as they rushed out of the building, leaving the howling monster behind them.

 

Just as they reached a manhole a safe distance away, they heard the facility explode, and collapse in on itself.

 

"Good riddance to bad rubbish," muttered Slash as they watched it crumble to dust. The others all nodded in agreement, before slipping into the relative safety of the sewers.

 

____________________

 

In the Lair, seven mismatched glasses clinked together as the Mighty Mutanimals, Pete, Rockwell, and Kurtzman had a celebratory drink for their success.

 

"Well, that's one plan of the Kraang's that's less likely to come to fruition," said Rockwell as he sipped his drink.

 

"And a bunch more people safe in the Shelter," added Leatherhead, who tipped the entire contents of his cup into his mouth at once.

 

"Here, here!" said Malachi cheerfully.

 

Slash nodded. "I don't doubt the Kraang will try that experiment again, but without any test subjects, they'll be slowed down for awhile."

 

"Oh, no doubt," said Kurtzman. "But now that I'm out of their hands, I have the full intention to crack their every secret."

 

Leatherhead blinked in surprise, and said, "Aren't you going to stay at the Shelter with the other humans?"

 

Kurtzman shook his head. "Hiding away in a hole was never my style. If there's information I can get on the Kraang, I'm going to go find it. It can only help us in the long run."

 

"Well, whatever those bogus aliens do next, the Mighty Mutanimals can handle it," said Jason confidentially.

 

At that, Rockwell, Kurtzman, and Pete all exchanged glances.

 

"Uh, about that," said Pete fidgeting nervously.

 

"Would you happen to have room on your little team for, say, three more?" asked Rockwell, trying his best to look aloof.

 

"Because if there is, then sign us up," said Kurtzman, raising his glass to toast them once again.

 

The four Mutanimals exchanged their own glance, and grinned widely.

 

"We thought you'd never ask," said Slash with a grin, clinking his glass with Kurtzman's. "Welcome to the team."

 

____________________

 

Deep within the sewers, the Huntterror limped through the tunnels slowly.

 

It had managed to survive the explosion that took out the Kraang facility, but not without sustaining heavy injuries.

 

The monster slowly made its way through the filth, trying not to jar any of its wounds. Suddenly, a sent caught its attention above the rank smell of the sewers. A smell it knew well.

 

_Human!_

 

Instantly, the Huntterror began to growl, and followed the sent.

 

The sent led it to a small, but dry and sheltered alcove of the sewers.

 

It's head perked up as it caught sight of its prey. A human male, lying as if in sleep on a worn cot and IVs hooked into his arm.

 

But that was the last thing the Huntterror was able to see, as suddenly a thick coil of white scales flashed out of the shadows and wrapped around the Huntterror's neck. With a strong twist, the monsters neck snapped, and it fell dead to the sewer floor.

 

The scale-covered tail retracted, and Tang Shen slithered out of the shadows to look down at the creature apathetically.

 

"Sssstay awayyyy frommm myyyy hussssbaaand," she hissed at it, before using her tail to fling the monster into away.

 

She would later have to dispose of the creature's body in a more permanent fashion later on. And perhaps move to a better hidden location. If that thing could find them so easily, others could as well. But at the moment she could already feel the madness of her mutation start to over take her once again.

 

She hurried to coil herself up next to the cot and hospital supplies she had salvaged months ago to care for her comatose husband, and began focusing on one very important thought so that it would carry over into her feral state.

 

' _I must protect him! I must protect him! And I will!'_

 

Soon a feral hissing filled the sewers, but the only one alive to hear it slumbered on oblivious to his serpent guardian.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you know, this chapter can happen at any point during the Hamatos' stay at the farm house. This is my first completely original chapter, without using any episodes or comics of any version of TMNT as reference other than the use of the characters. I thought it would be important to give some perspective of what's happening in New York while the Hamato siblings, Casey, and April are away at the farm, as well as showcase my theories of how Kurtzman, Pete, and Rockwell ended up joining the Mutanimals, and give a glimpse of how Shen and Yoshi are fairing. It was a lot of fun to write, and I couldn't resist putting a lot of cameos in the Shelter.


	43. Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, after several months Leo awakens, but things still need to get worse before they get better.

_Leo felt like he was floating…_

 

_Everything around him was like a fog… Flowing and ebbing as it kept him cushioned, like he was sleeping inside a cloud…_

 

_It was peaceful… Leo didn't know how long he'd been floating like this, but he didn't feel he was in danger…_

 

_But every now and then, voices would cut through his fog…_

 

"Hey, that goat was vicious I tell you. VICIOUS!"

 

"Strangely enough, the next day Vernon and his friends all showed up with black eyes, and didn't laugh at me anymore. I wonder how that could have happened."

 

"So moral of the story, your brother's a nice guy. Feel like talking yet?"

 

"I found these in a fake tree outside, they mean anything to you?"

 

"It looks like my Uncle spent the next few years researching my mother's side of the family whenever the came to visit."

 

"You try telling him that. I just wanna sit back and enjoy the show."

 

"Heck of a party you're missing, bro."

 

_Those voices would break through Leo's peaceful haze, and make him want to leave his cloud… Leave the peaceful and safe floating feeling to the world where the words came from…_

 

_But it wasn't time yet… Soon, but not yet…_

 

_____________________

 

It was finally warm enough for the two mutant turtles to go out without jackets on, and Raph decided to celebrate this with even more rigorous training than before, much to Donnie, Mikey, and Casey's dismay.

 

But when the latest training session ended with Casey and Donnie getting into a wrestling match over a cheap shot by Casey, the red wearing turtle decided to call it a day.

 

With training over, the others decided to wander off and do their own thing, and Raph returned to his usual spot of watching over Leo.

 

Dipping his hand in the tub to test the water, Raph reached down and undid the plug to drain the water out, and replace it with fresh water.

 

"It's warm enough now that Mikey and I don't have to worry about going outside," Raph said softly. "That means you'll be waking up soon, won't you?"

 

Leo slept on silently.

 

Raph sighed at the expected silence. "Come back to us soon, bro. We're going crazy here without you."

 

He then sat down on a stool, and resumed his vigil over his big brother, waiting for him to awaken.

 

What he failed to notice was that Leo's expression had shifted slightly at his words, and looked much less peaceful than before.

 

_____________________

 

_He was hearing one of the voices again… It sounded so close, yet it also so far away…_

 

_Raphael?_

 

_That's right, it was Raph's voice… What was he saying…?_

 

"Come back to us soon, bro. We're going crazy here without you."

 

_Come back? When had he left…? How long had he been gone…?_

 

_Come back… He could do that…_

 

_Slowly, the fog around him started to lift, and the floating feeling faded away…_

 

_____________________

 

Raph shifted uncomfortably on his stool. He'd been sitting at Leo's side for hours, but as usual there was no change in his older brother's condition. The stool he used was not the most comfortable, but he didn't have any motivation to get up and find a better one.

 

Just then, the sound of water sloshing around made his head shoot up.

 

It couldn't be- but it sounded like…

 

It was! Leo was  _moving!_

 

In the tub, Leonardo shifted in his sleep, as if finally realizing just how uncomfortable his bed actually was.

 

Raph sat frozen in shock as he watched, Leo shift more and more, before he finally cracked open his blue eyes.

 

" _L-Leo!"_  Raph whispered hoarsely, still not fully believing what he was seeing.

 

"Raph?" Leo muttered back, his voice sounding deeper and huskier than before, but still held a familiar ring to it. "Wh-what happened!"

 

Raph didn't say anything. Instead, he bolted from his stool so fast that it was knocked over, but he didn't care. In a heartbeat, he was crouched next to Leo's tub and taking his brother's hand in his. "You're awake!" he said in what he would later deny was a choked up voice. "You're awake!"

 

Leo tried his best to smile at his brother and assure him he was alright, but before he could, he caught sight of the hand that Raph had clasped in his.

 

Pulling it from his brother's grasp, Leo held his now three-fingered hand up to his face, and looked at it in horror. He then glanced down at the rest of himself, and saw through the water that he was no longer in a body that was his own.

 

"I-I-!" he tried to ask, but could not seem to get the words out.

 

But Raph understood what he was trying to say.

 

"Shredder stabbed you in the back," he said softly, resting a hand on Leo's shoulder to comfort him. "He got me too, through… through you."

 

Leo's eyes widened at the thought of his brother being stabbed, and his eyes snapped over onto Raph, searching him for injuries.

 

Raph grimaced, and brought a finger up to point at the jagged crack in the upper left of his plastron. "I'm okay, it was just a scratch. But it got my blood on you, and-and there was some mutagen buried at the construction site, so when you were tossed away from me you and it got knocked into the water together…"

 

Leo's eyes widened as his memory of that fight came rushing back. Struggling to sit up in the tub, he began pawing at his chest, trying to find the place he'd been stabbed.

 

Raph reached over to stop him, "Easy, Leo, easy! You're okay. Donnie says the mutation patched up the stab wound. You're okay!"

 

At Raph's insistence, Leo took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. "Where are the others?" he asked with his new voice. "Are they alright?"

 

"They're fine, Leo, we…" Raph trailed off as he remembered that they didn't know that Leo was awake yet. "Just a sec," he said, and bolted to the bathroom door. "Guys!  _Guys!_  Get up here!" he yelled excitedly.

 

In the living room below, everyone (except Metalhead, who was out in the barn lab) looked up from watching Mikey's new favorite show, before hurrying up the stairs to find out what had happened now. Even Miwa was pulled away from the push-ups she'd been doing in the living room to come.

 

They were shocked to see the third turtle of their family staring back at them from the bathtub, and doing his best to smile at the sight of them.

 

"Leo?" asked Donnie in wonder.

 

"Hey, guys," Leo replied tiredly.

 

"LEO!" shouted Mikey ecstatically, and he threw his arms around his brother's neck regardless of the water that sloshed out of the tub as he did so. "You're back! Dude!"

 

"He won't be for long if you strangle him," said Miwa dryly as she pulled her enthusiastic brother off of Leo. But she said it with fondness, and still squeezed Leo's shoulder as she pulled Mikey away.

 

"Take it easy," said Raph as Mikey struggled to try and hug Leo again. Turning his attention to Leo he said, "Let's get you out of here."

 

With that three of the quadruplets gathered around the tub to help pull their fourth from the water, and help him downstairs to the couch. Miwa grabbed some towels, and hurried after them, leaving April and Casey to trail behind her.

 

Once Leo was on the couch, Miwa wrapped the towels around him, and Donnie began giving him a physical, all while the rest explained where they were and how long he'd been hibernating.

 

"So we've been here three months," Leo said once they were done. "I've been out that long?"

 

"You had us worried sick, Leo," said April sympathetically. "Raph barely slept."

 

"Ah, it was nothing," said Raph waving it off.

 

"Did anything happen while I was out?" Leo asked, looking around at them all curiously.

 

The other six teenagers exchanged glances as they thought about the crazy adventures they'd been in in the last few months. "Nope," they all said in unison.

 

"So, like, why does he sound different?" asked Casey curiously, having notice the different voice Leo had when he spoke (and to change the subject before Leo could ask more questions).

 

"Could be any number of things," said Donnie, reluctant to admit there were some things he didn't know. "It could be from the mutation, or his vocal cords could have been damaged in the fight. I'm just not sure."

 

He then pulled his makeshift stethoscope away from Leo, and said, "Though, it appears all your outward injuries are healed, but I'd like to keep you under observation for a few days, just to be sure."

 

"It's not like he'll be able to do much, anyway," said Mikey bluntly. "Remember how long it took me and Raph to just learn how to stand up again?"

 

Leo had been trying to avoid thinking about his mutation, but at his brother's words, the reminder of it came rushing back. He grimaced, and looked down at himself, seeing the shell and green scales covering his body.

 

Seeing the look on his face, the other teenagers fell silent. They had had three months to look upon this new face, and associate it with Leonardo. But for Leo, it was as if he had closed his eyes as a human one minute, and then woken up a mutant the next.

 

"How- what do I look like?" Leo asked reluctantly.

 

The others exchanged glances, and Miwa pulled out her makeup compact. "Here," she said softly, flipping open the mirror for Leo to see.

 

Leo took it from her, and gazed at his reflection. A mutant turtle similar to his two brothers stared back at him. His scales were a bit of a darker color than the other two, but the resemblance between them was unmistakable. Even so, he didn't feel he even recognized himself anymore.

 

Before he could comment on it, a bolt of pain coursed through him, making him drop the mirror, and clutch his stomach in pain.

 

Seeing this, Donnie pulled out a spoon, and poured the medicine he'd been making into it. "Here, take some more of my special, patented medicine," he said, leaving out that it was made of mutagen for Leo's sake. "You'll be healed in no time."

 

"When did you get the time to get it patented?" asked Miwa with a raised eyebrow as Leo reluctantly sipped the medicine from the spoon.

 

Donnie ignored her question, and kept his attention focused on Leo. The newest turtle grimaced at the taste, and clutched his stomach again. "Ow, that tastes like something that's supposed come out of me, not go in to me."

 

Seeing that Leo was still down in the dumps, Raph moved from his chair to sit on the couch next to Leo. Grabbing him in a one arm hug, he said, "First thing tomorrow, we're gonna start training again. You and me. I'll have you on your feet in no time, bro."

 

After all, if he could handle helping his father teach  _Mikey_  to be a ninja again, Leo should be a piece of cake.

 

Leo seemed to realize this, and managed a small grateful smile at Raph for it.

 

But still, when he looked down at Miwa's now broken mirror, he couldn't help but be freaked out by the reflection that was looking back.

 

_____________________

 

Not long after that, they helped Leo up to the (until then unused) bedroom that was supposed to be for him and Raph to share.

 

With the knowledge that he'd apparently been asleep for over three months, Leo wasn't very enthusiastic about sleeping any more, but Donnie insisted, saying that it would be better for his health if he did so.

 

Even so, Leo still spent the majority of the night staring up at the bedroom ceiling, and listening to Raph's snoring as he tried to rationalize the screwed up reality that he'd awakened too before finally drifting off.

 

The next morning had Mikey practically pouncing on Leo in bed as the orange wearing turtle enthusiastically demanded he wake up and eat the breakfast he'd specially prepared for him.

 

Leo groaned and tried to roll out of bed and follow his little brother out, only to face-plant flat on the floor, which took some of the wind out of Mikey's sails.

 

Having also been awoken by Mikey, Raph quickly jumped from his bed, and the two turtles move to help the third up.

 

"Easy, bro," said Raph and they lifted Leo between them. "You just need to find your center of balance. Try to plant your feet so that your weight is more spread out."

 

Leo grimaced, and tried to do what Raph said, only to wince the second he put weight on his legs. "Something's wrong," he said as he frowned down at his legs. "Get me to Donnie, I need to ask him something."

 

Mikey and Raph shared concerned looks over Leo's head, but hurried to do as he asked.

 

The rest of the household looked up from the breakfast Mikey had made as the three turtles made their way down the stairs to join them. After sitting Leo in the chair next to Donnie, the other two backed off and waited to hear what was wrong.

 

"Something's wrong, Donnie," said Leo, massaging his sore legs, and grimacing. "My legs, they don't feel right."

 

"You sure it's not just that you're not used to your mutation?" asked Miwa, looking worried.

 

"No," said Leo, "That's not it. Remember when we all got switched around after Raph got brain-swapped with a Kraang?"

 

April pulled a face, and said, "I've been trying to forget it, actually. Too weird."

 

"I was switched with Mikey, and because of that, I kinda remember how it felt being a turtle, and how weird my balance was," explained Leo. "But this feels different. My legs feel like they  _can't_  support my weight, it's like something's wrong with them and it hurts."

 

Donnie looked grim as he heard Leo's assessment, and stood to get more of his elixir. "That's what I was afraid of," he said softly as he poured another spoonful, and held it out to Leo.

 

Leo eyed it wearily, and asked, "What were you afraid of?"

 

Donnie lowered the spoon slightly when he saw Leo not take it, and replied, "When Raph and Mikey mutated, it was just mutagen that they were hit with. You, Leo, fell into mutagen filled water, and I'm afraid that may have diluted the ooze."

 

Seeing confused faces, Donnie elaborated, "There wasn't enough mutagen to get on Leo for a complete transformation like with Raph and Mikey. Because of that, Leo's mutation isn't as strong or stable as you two's, and his body isn't fully able to handle the changes. Such as lack of strength in his legs to handle his new weight. That's why I made this medicine."

 

"And what's that medicine you made supposed to do to help?" asked Leo suspiciously. "It doesn't look like retro-mutagen, or what you gave me the last time I partially mutated."

 

"It's, well," said Donnie hesitantly, "it's actually more mutagen that I've specifically set to help your body finish whatever changes it hasn't yet completed?"

 

" _What!"_  demanded Leo, jerking away from Donnie. " _Why?_  I thought you said partial mutations were easier to reverse!"

 

"Because at that time you were much more human than turtle," said Donnie, trying to calm Leo down, and feeling hurt at the betrayed expression on his brother's face. "But this time your mutation is much closer to completion, and it can't be reversed without retro-mutagen. But that's still weeks from being finished, and I'm worried about how your body will handle the stress of being in your current state. For all I know, your internal organs could give out before the retro-mutagen is done. The only other option is to complete the mutation so that you can become strong enough to live until it is. Otherwise you'll probably be stuck as a bedridden invalid until the retro-mutagen is finished."

 

Donnie then took a deep breath, and held his elixir out to his oldest brother. "I'm sorry it has to be this way, Leo, I really am. But you have to trust me that this is the best way to get your strength back. Please."

 

Leo looked revolted at the sight of the elixir, and wanted nothing more to smash it on the ground. But instead, he heaved a reluctant sigh, and reached out to take it from Donnie's hands, and swallowing the spoonful that had been poured for him with a grimace.

 

"How long until it kicks in?" he asked, glaring at the bottle in his hands.

 

"Hard to say," said Donnie hesitantly. "I've set it to act more slowly to prevent any pain on your part. My guess is whenever you can stand without help again would be a good judge of it."

 

"Great," Leo said sarcastically.

 

Mikey cleared his throat, and tried to dispel the heavy atmosphere in the air by shoving a big plate of pancakes in front of Leo and encouraged him to eat up. "Gotta put meat back on your bones, Bro," he said cheerfully.

 

Leo slowly picked up a fork (with some difficulty in his now oversized hands) and proceeded to eat his meal without further complaint.

 

He didn't have the heart to tell Mikey that he wasn't hungry, and that it all tasted like cardboard to him anyway.

 

_____________________

 

To get around, Donnie fashioned a pair of crutches for Leo to use until his legs could handle his new weight.

 

But moving around on crutches wasn't going to stop Raph from trying to help Leo train, so after breakfast, the red wearing turtle took his brother for a walk out in the forest to build his muscles up and help him recover.

 

Leo did his best to keep up with Raph, but he felt incredibly useless hobbling after him at a much slower pace.

 

"Come on, Leo, you've gotta build up those muscles," said Raph as they reached a nearby creek. "You've gotten super weak."

 

"Don't rub it in," Leo grumbled as he gingerly walked down the incline to the stream. But before he could reach the water, his crutch slipped and gave out from under him, making him collapse to the ground.

 

Raph turned back at the sound, and his face fell at the sight of his brother on the ground wincing and clutching his leg.

 

"I don't think I'm-" Leo admitted, glancing up at Raph. "I don't think I'm ever going to be the same again."

 

"Don't talk like that," said Raph with a frown. "That's not the Leo I know. Donnie'll make the retro-mutagen soon enough, don't worry about that. But unless you want to sit on your butt and be sick until he does, we need to get you moving. Now come on, let's cross this creek."

 

Leo grimaced, but knew that Raph was right. With a wince of pain, he pushed himself back up on his crutches, and caught a glimpse of his reflection in the water.

 

"How did you ever get used to this?" he asked Raph roughly. "Looking in the mirror and not seeing yourself looking back. I don't even recognize me anymore."

 

Raph glanced down and frowned at the red masked figure staring back. "To be honest, I'm still not totally used to it. And part of me doesn't ever want to be." He then glanced back over at Leo. "But I get by 'cause I know green or not, I'm still me, and I can still fight. Donnie's making a cure, I just need to wait for the right time to use it."

 

Leo met Raph's gaze with a wry smile. "Not 'til after Mother, right."

 

Raph shrugged. "I've lasted this long, haven't I? Any retro-mutagen Donnie uses on me could be better spent for trying to cure you or her _._ I can wait, but I don't think she can."

 

Leo sighed. What was he supposed to say to that?

 

Feeling another jolt of pain, Leo reached down for his medicine and took another drink of it. If they were going to save their family, they needed to do it as soon as possible. That meant Leo needed to be fighting ready no matter if that was as a turtle or a human.

 

Only this time, his stomach revolted at the elixir, and Leo swayed and dropped the bottle as dizzying nausea hit him like a freight train.

 

Raph had taken the time to cross the creek, but when he looked back again, he saw Leo on all fours retching out the contents of his stomach on the side of the creek.

 

Not bothering with the stepping-stones, Raph rushed through the water to get back to his brother. Crouching at his side, he asked, "You okay, Leo?"

 

"I know that mutagen's supposed to help me," Leo said with a groan. "But I'm not feeling too good."

 

Raph glanced down at the elixir, which had partially spilled across the creek bank. He picked it up and tucked it in his belt before helping lift Leo to his feet and carry him back to the farm.

 

"There's a leech on your leg," Leo mumbled woozily as Raph started to move them away.

 

Raph glanced down at the blood-sucking creature that must have latched on when he splashed across the creek. Before he could say anything, Leo had reached over to pluck it off and toss it back in the creeks direction.

 

As the two brothers moved away, they failed to notice how the leech had fallen into the puddle of vomit mixed with mutagen elixir, nor did they see how the leech seemed to turn green and sink right into the ground as the flowers began to grow at a rapid pace.

 

_____________________

 

A few hours later had Leo resting in an armchair in front of the fire as April brought him a cup of tea.

 

Glancing over at his siblings, he said, "I can't stop thinking about Mother and Father. You guys sure you don't know what happened to them?"

 

The other Hamatos exchanged glances, and Miwa replied, "Mortu said that neither the Kraang nor the Foot knew where either of them were. That doesn't mean they survived being sucked down the drain, but it doesn't mean they  _didn't_  either."

 

"So they could be alright, right?" asked Mikey hopefully.

 

"It's possible," said Donnie, looking at his cell phone. "Shredder didn't hit either of them with his blades, but who knows how long that pipe went before they could come up for air. Plus, with how unpredictable Mother had become, who knows how she would have reacted to being in that situation, and it's possible she could have-"

 

"No," snapped Raph, stopping that line of thought in its tracks. "Even when she was at her worst, Mother never hurt Father like that. She hissed and acted threatening, but she  _never_  attacked him. And Father was the greatest Ninja Master in a century, if anyone could survive that, it's them."

 

Mikey, Miwa, and Leo looked more hopeful at that, but Donnie didn't look convinced. "Either way, it's not like they can contact us," the genius said glumly. "The Kraang are doing something to block all communication signals to and from New York. Even if they  _were_  alright, they wouldn't be able to reach us."

 

Miwa, who had sitting in a chair beside Leo, leaned over and whispered, "He says that, but that doesn't stop him from checking his phone for new messages every few hours."

 

Leo gave a small smile at the knowledge that his genius brother hadn't given up hope either.

 

"Quiet down, dudes!" called Mikey from his seat in front of the TV. "The show's starting!"

 

He then settled himself down happily as the opening theme for Crognard the Barbarian began playing over the speakers. Only to let out a yelp of despair as the TV suddenly shut off, and the entire house went dark save for the fireplace.

 

"Aw man, you gotta be kidding," groaned Casey as he glanced around at the now darkened house.

 

Donnie rolled his eyes at their dramatics. "It's just a blown fuse, I'll fix it in two shakes of a leg."

 

But then a draft passed through the house, and the fire went out in the fireplace.

 

"Great, looks like we need more firewood," said Raph as he crouched next to the smoking ashes to get a better look.

 

Donnie grabbed a flashlight and went over to inspect it, only for the battery to die almost instantly. "Are you  _kidding?"_  he groaned in annoyance.

 

Raph got to his feet, "I don't need it anyway. It's a full moon outside, there's plenty of light."

 

With that, he walked out the door and grabbed the axe off the chopping block as he headed into the forest for more wood.

 

A few minutes later, he was hacking at a fallen log to cut off parts of it to use. Just as he had gathered enough kindling he got the sense of something moving behind him.

 

Wheeling around, he scanned the forest for the movement, but couldn't see anything in the shadows.

 

"What was that?" he muttered to himself. Hearing another twig snap, he whipped his head in that direction, and called out, "Who's there?"

 

There was a beat of silence as he scanned the forest, only to nearly jump out of his shell when a deer burst out of the foliage and ran past him.

 

Sighing in relief, Raph turned back to gather the firewood, only to drop it all when he saw a new shadow move forward to join his on the ground with the sound of rustling leaves accompanying it.

 

Raph turned to face whoever it was, only to scream in horror at the sight.

 

But before he could do anything, vines sprang up to immobilize him, and the figure's hand shot out to grab his face, and everything went black.

 

_____________________

 

It took a few hours for those at the farmhouse to get worried, but after Donnie's failed attempt to fix the fuse (apparently, he needed to go to town in the morning for a replacement part), they started to wonder what was taking Raph so long to get the firewood.

 

When going out on the front lawn and screaming their heads off for him to come inside didn't yield any results, it was decided they would go out and search for him.

 

"RAPH!" shouted Mikey into the forest as the rest of them gathered flashlights and decided what to do. " _RAPH!"_

 

"RAPH!" shouted Casey along with him, "Can you hear us!"

 

"Don't you think he'd answer?" said April, pointing out how it seemed pointless to shout.

 

"Okay, we split up," said Leo as he leaned heavily against his crutches. Pointing to the left, he continued, "Casey, Miwa, you guys take that way." He then pointed right. "Mikey and Donnie, you take that way. April and Metalhead, you two try the woods behind the house."

 

"Split up?" asked Mikey, looking worried. "Are you loco, homie?"

 

Miwa smacked Mikey on the head. "It's the fastest way to find Raph," she said looking disapproving of his complaining. "It'll be fine, I've been training in these woods for months. There's nothing to worry about out there."

 

"Then why isn't Raph here?" Mikey grumbled.

 

Donnie didn't look to thrilled at not being paired with April, but knew better than to complain. "Watch out for her, okay, buddy," he said to his robot.

 

Metalhead nodded in reply and gave an affirmative beep.

 

April smiled at his concern. "Don't worry so much, Donnie," she said. "Like Mi said, we'll be fine. Raph's probably just gotten lost getting the firewood."

 

"What about you, Leo?" asked Casey, having noticed that the lead turtle hadn't said what he was going to do.

 

"I'll wait at the farmhouse in case Raph comes back," said Leo dejectedly as he hobbled back to the porch. "I won't be much help out there anyway."

 

The others winced slightly at his words, but had no idea how to comfort him. Resolving to try and cheer him up after they found Raph, the teenagers and robot turned and went their separate ways.

 

However, as they left, Donnie couldn't help but notice that Casey was more cheerful than he thought the vigilante would be at the idea of going with Miwa. With the way the two were always arguing with each other, he thought the kunoichi would be the last person he'd want to be alone in the woods with.

 

Something wasn't adding up, but he had bigger things to worry about right now.

 

As April and Metalhead entered the woods behind the house, the redhead couldn't help but say, "I always hated these woods at night. When I was a kid I was sure monsters were going to creep out and eat me."

 

Metalhead let out a sympathetic sounding beep, then opened all his hatches to show off all of his lasers and weaponry.

 

April smile at the sight. "Yeah, I get it, Metalhead. You'll protect me."

 

Metalhead stowed his weapons, gave her a thumbs-up, and the two continued on.

 

_____________________

 

Over with Casey and Miwa, the vigilante was trailing after the kunoichi as she expertly maneuvered her way through the forest despite the darkness, making it clear just how much time she'd spent training in there since they had come to the farmhouse.

 

Speaking of which.

 

"So what's the deal, Babe," Casey said as they passed by a cornfield, complete with creepy scarecrow standing on a post.

 

"Deal with what?" asked Miwa. "And don't call me Babe."

 

"I get that being a ninja involves a lot of training and stuff," said Casey. "But you've been working out, like, twenty-four-seven. Not that it's really a bad thing, it just seems kind of…" he paused to find the right word. "Excessive," he said once he came up with the answer.

 

Miwa stopped dead in her tracks, and Casey nearly walked into her. Seeing her clenched fists, he hoped he hadn't said the wrong thing.

 

"I was useless in the invasion," she said softly. "And now we have no idea what's happened to any of our families, and we're stuck out here waiting for Leo to get better, if (according to Donnie) he ever does." She rounded on Casey and glared at him harshly. "I'm never going to let something like that happen again," she said with determination and anger in her voice. "No matter what, I'll protect my brothers. But I need to be stronger in order to do that. I won't let my family get hurt, not again."

 

Casey held his hands up defensively, and had no real response to that, so all he said was, "Just, don't overdo it, okay Babe. Like my coach always says, training's good and all, but if you work yourself to the bone, you'll only let the other team win."

 

Miwa stared at him for a second, before turning around and continuing her trek through the woods.

 

Casey let out a sigh, and followed after her. So much for a romantic stroll in the moonlight.

 

As they walked away, neither of them noticed that the scarecrow that had been in the cornfield had vanished.

 

_____________________

 

"Raph!" shouted Mikey as he and Donnie walked through the forest. "Raaaaph!" When no response came, he groaned and looked over at his big brother. "I don't know, D," he said worriedly. "Think he got lost? Maybe he got eaten by a rabid squirrel."

 

"I do not think that, no," said Donnie, who had been trying to puzzle out the look on Casey's face as he'd gone off with Miwa. "Do you think Casey has a thing for Miwa?"

 

Mikey froze at that totally random question. "Wait, what?" he asked in confusion.

 

Donnie sighed. "Sorry, it's just something that's been bugging me. I mean, you know what happens when two teenagers who like each other go out into the woods alone?"

 

Mikey frowned and looked thoughtful. Then spotting movement to his left, he clicked on his flashlight and looked in that direction.

 

Sitting on the branch of a tree was two squirrels looking very 'friendly' with each other, before both turned to look at Mikey with hideously deformed faces.

 

Shrieking in fear, and nearly dropping his flashlight, Mikey looked at Donnie and whimpered, "They get eaten by  _squirrels!"_

 

Donnie rolled his eyes and moved to continue on. "You know what, forget I said anything."

 

The two brothers continued on until a slamming sound in the distance caught their attention.

 

As the source came into view, Donnie said, "Hello, what's this."

 

It was the shed Sid had been hiding in when he came by a few weeks ago, only with one big difference.

 

"Didn't we lock that door after we took that Spuds guy out?" Donnie asked Mikey as he stared at the swinging door of the shed.

 

Mikey screwed up his face as he tried to remember. "I think so," he said finally. "Do you think Raph's in there?"

 

"One way to find out," said Donnie as he made his way towards the shed. "But if he is, why didn't he come back to the farmhouse? He knows the way from here, just like the rest of us do."

 

Mikey shrugged, and followed after Donnie. Trying not to let it show just how creepy he was finding all of this.

 

As Donnie pushed the door to the shed all the way open, both brothers peered in and Mikey called, "Hello!"

 

No answer came, but the two entered the shed anyway.

 

"Was this place this creepy last time we were here?" asked Mikey nervously as he swept his flashlight over the racks of rusted tools that lined the walls.

 

"If it was, I didn't notice," Donnie admitted, also feeling unnerved. He then spotted some candles in the corner, and wandered over to it curiously. "Oh, gross," he muttered to himself at the sight.

 

Sitting in a cracked jar next to some lit candles was what appeared to be the contents of someone's stomach. Donnie gagged as he backed away from the strange altar, and pinched his nose to block out the smell.

 

But then a hand clamped down on his shoulder, and he cried out in alarm before realizing it was Mikey. Before he could berate his little brother for scaring him, Mikey yanked him close, and kept his flashlight trained on something in the corner, his eyes wide with horror.

 

Donnie followed his gaze, and he gasped at what he saw.

 

Sitting in the corner, staring off into space was Raph. Only he didn't look much like Raph anymore. He looked like he had shrunk to half his size, and most of the humanoid aspects of him looked to be gone, making him appear far more turtle than mutant. His mask was now too large to properly fit around his much smaller head, and was now hanging like a scarf around his neck. He was gazing back at them with a blank expression on his face, but then it seemed to register to him that they were there, and he lurched towards them, hissing and snapping at him with his now toothless jaws.

 

Donnie and Mikey yelped and jerked away from him in alarm. They bolted to stand by the door of the shed, but paused when they realized that Raph hadn't moved too far from his spot, and remained sitting there glaring at them with a feral expression.

 

"I think it's Raph," said Donnie in a freaked out voice.

 

"But he's all turtlely looking," said Mikey, equally freaked. "And I mean more than usual."

 

"Something must have infected him," said Donnie as he forced himself to calm down, and think about this with a more scientific mind. "Making his mutation take over more, and his human side less present."

 

Mikey opened his mouth to respond, but it quickly turned into a scream of terror as something wrapped around his ankle and pulled his feet out from under him. "Holy Chalupa!" he managed to wail before he found himself completely tangled in vines, including some that covered his mouth.

 

Donnie jumped to his feet, and released the hidden blade of his bō staff. "Hold on, I'll cut you down," he said as he hurried to do so.

 

But then he saw Mikey's eyes focus on something behind him, and widen in terror at the sight.

 

Donnie turned around just in time to receive a punch in the face that sent him flying into a tree. Trying to shake off the pain in his head and back, he looked up in time to see his attacker throw an old pitchfork at his head.

 

He screamed, and managed to jerk his head out of it's path, but the spikes still managed to graze his right ear with a small nick, and pin the cloth of the shoulder of his shirt to the tree.

 

"Donnie!" shouted Mikey fearfully (having managed to get the vines out of his mouth) as their attacker stomped towards him once again.

 

With one hand clutching his now bleeding ear, Donnie tried to yank his shirt free of the pitchfork.

 

But as their attacker's shadow was cast over him, Donnie looked up fearfully to finally get a decent look at him.

 

He (at least, Donnie thought it was a he) was over seven feet tall and dressed in a ratty set of Voorhees overalls, and had a brown sack with one glowing eye-hole over his head. The rest of his body appeared to be a nightmarish mix of slime and plant-growth which glowed mutagen green in some places. It was truly a horrific sight to behold.

 

And at that horrific sight made Donnie let out a scream of terror as the monster raised his fist and brought it down on the genius' head.

 

_____________________

 

As Casey and Miwa walked through their part of the forest, a horrifying scream reached their ears.

 

At the sound, Miwa let out a Japanese curse, and bolted in the direction it had come from. "That's Donnie!" she called over her shoulder to Casey who was chasing after her just as quickly.

 

The two raced through the woods as quickly as they could, caring nothing for the branches that seemed to claw at them as they passed.

 

But eventually, Miwa noticed that her own footsteps were the only ones she could hear.

 

Screeching to a halt, she looked around the dark forest in trepidation. "Hockey Boy?" she asked, trying to keep the nervousness out of her voice. "Where are you, Jones?"

 

Suddenly, Miwa heard Casey yell in alarm, and wheeled around to see the vigilante being held up by the hood of his jacket by a hulking figure with a sack over its head.

 

Drawing her tantō, the kunoichi rushed forward to slash at the figure, making him release Casey, stumble back, and knocking the sack off his head in the process.

 

The… whatever it was jerked back at the blow, and brought up its hands to cover its face now that it was free of the sack.

 

Taking advantage of this, Miwa bolted forward and aimed a strike at their attacker's head.

 

Only for her tantō to be jerked out of her hands as it became stubbornly lodged in the creature's head.

 

Disarmed and startled, Miwa stared in horror as the creature didn't seem the least bit concerned about the sword stuck in its head, and instead loomed over her with his glowing eyes bearing into her yellow ones.

 

Then, as if plucking off an unwanted hair, the monster yanked the tantō out of his head, and sent his vines to wrap around the kunoichi faster than she could dodge them.

 

On the ground, and struggling to get free, Miwa cursed herself for freezing up at the sight of this thing's ugly mug. A flash to her left had her turning her head, and see that was lying next to her tantō, and a wicked grin spread across her face.

 

Meanwhile, their attacker had turned his back on them in order to retrieve the sack and attempt to put it back on his head.

 

But before he could do so, Casey leapt up behind him with a baseball bat in hand and a yell of "Goongala!" on his lips. Clobbering the monster over the head, the vigilante proceeded to continue to whack him with the wooden bat, making the creature back away slowly.

 

Just as Casey was starting to get cocky about his progress, the green root-like hand of the creature reached up and caught his bat, halting it in its tracks.

 

"Aw man," was all Casey had time to groan before the creature lifted him up over its head and threw him over ten feet, and causing him to crash into some trees as he went down. The force of it was enough to knock him out cold, and make his mask fall off his head.

 

Seeing the mask, the creature made his way over to the fallen boy and scooped it up into his hands, and placed it upon his own face.

 

"Jones!" shouted Miwa once she had freed herself, but before she could reach the vigilante, the now masked monster started making his way towards her once again.

 

Paling at the sight, Miwa held her tantō in front of her and attacked the monster again, driving the blade into his chest.

 

But just like before, her blade didn't seem to even tickle her attacker, and Miwa once again found herself without a weapon.

 

Knowing her hand-to-hand skills would do no good in this situation, Miwa bolted away in the direction of the farmhouse. She needed to get to the barn, the Boom Stars Donnie had made her were in there, and she doubted this freak would be able to stand up to those.

 

But as she ran, she could see from the corner of her eye that the monster was chasing after her at a surprisingly fast pace, despite the fact he was only walking.

 

Then, suddenly, he didn't seem to be there anymore.

 

Miwa was so busy looking behind herself trying to spot him that she found herself crashing into something, and falling back on her butt.

 

She looked up in horror to see that it had been the creature she'd run into, and he was glaring down at her with glowing green eyes. He then reached for her tantō, which was still buried in his chest, and pulled it out, before raising it above his head.

 

Miwa screamed as he brought the blade down.

 

_____________________

 

On the front lawn of the farmhouse, Leo tried once again to make use of his legs, only to collapse to his knees as the pain became too much.

 

He'd reluctantly admit that the mutagen medicine Donnie had made him seemed to be working. The pain he felt was less than before, and he had been able to stand on his own for a minute.

 

Glaring at the swords in his hands, which he had been using instead of his crutches, he gritted his teeth and tried again. "Get on your feet, Leo," he growled to himself. "Stop whining and get  _up!"_

 

His hands shook with the exertion, but slowly he planted his feet beneath him and forced himself upwards.

 

Groaning in pain, he almost didn't hear the whimpers and ragged breathing behind him until it was too late.

 

Looking in the direction of the forest, Leo's eyes widened at the sight of his sister stumbling out of them, her entire body scratched and bleeding from shallow cuts.

 

Catching sight of him, she tried to hobble faster in his direction, but collapsed on the grass at the edge of the trees.

 

"Mi!" shouted Leo. Momentarily forgetting the pain, he began limping in the direction of his sister.

 

Miwa weakly raised her hand, and called out, "Leo!"

 

But then a vine shot out of the forest and wrapped around her ankle, Miwa had just enough time to scream as it pulled taught and dragged her back into the darkened trees.

 

"MIWA!" shouted Leo as he collapsed to his knees at the edge of the woods.

 

But silence was his only answer.

 

Knowing he didn't have much time, Leo hurried as quickly as he was able to back to where he'd been training, and grabbed the new cell phone he'd been given.

 

When he was unable to reach anyone, he punched the ground and let out a curse.

 

His family was in danger, and there was nothing he could do. Not crippled as he was.

 

Looking at his swords again, he caught sight of the new blue mask that Mikey had made for him, and wrapped it around the hilt of his katana for when he was ready to wear it.

 

Untying it from the hilt, he looked at the blue cloth in his hands, and his eyes narrowed in determination.

 

Crippled or not, he had to try.

 

His family was depending on him.

 

_____________________

 

Meanwhile, April and Metalhead were now far from the farmhouse, still searching for Raph.

 

April suddenly stopped short and glanced behind her at the way they'd come. "Did you hear something?" she asked her robotic companion.

 

Metalhead shook his head.

 

"Hmm," said April. She pulled out her cell phone and scowled at the screen. "No signal. That's another thing I've always hated about these woods. All the dead zones."

 

Glancing back at Metalhead, she smiled. "I'm sure the other's are fine. Let's keep looking for Raph, okay."

 

Metalhead gave her a thumbs-up, and they continued on blissfully unaware that they were going the wrong way.

 

_____________________

 

Donnie came too to a swinging sensation. Opening his eyes he found that he was bound by vines and hanging from the ceiling a few feet off the ground.

 

Groaning at the pain in his skull, Donnie looked around, and caught sight of Mikey strung upside-down next to him. Seeing that he was awake, Mikey silently flicked his eyes in one direction and shook his head.

 

Donnie glanced over in the direction Mikey had indicated, and was met with the sight of Raph glaring up at him, hissing angrily. Then, all of a sudden his neck shot out and he snapped at the two hanging teenagers. He missed, but the motion was enough to set both of them swinging around.

 

"E-e-easy Raph!" called Donnie as the swinging started to slow down. "Try and remember. We're your brothers." Then he yelped as a still swinging Mikey bumped into him with his hard shell.

 

"Yeah," agreed Mikey, undeterred. "You could come home with us. I'll let you lay in the sun and give you leaves every single day, I swear."

 

Raph seemed to think it over, before his face turned into as close to a smile as he could give. He then stretched his neck out more slowly this time, and clamped his beak down on one of the vines tying up Donnie, and began tugging on the vegetation, trying to break the teenager free.

 

But then the door to the shed burst open, and Raph's eyes widened in terror before he vanished inside his shell.

 

Donnie and Mikey both cried out in alarm at the sight of their attacker storming in, dragging Casey and Miwa along with him as he went.

 

"AHHH! IT'S THE CREEP!" screamed Mikey at the sight. He then sent a protective glare at Donnie. "That's what I named him."

 

Donnie rolled his eyes. "I named a monster  _one_  time. Get over it already," he hissed back.

 

The Creep ignored the two of them in favor setting the unconscious two teenagers down in the corner, and turning his attention to Raph's trembling shell.

 

As the Creep grew closer to the turtle, the Donnie and Mikey could only watch and worry at what the monster had in store for their brother.

 

Once he was in front of Raph, The Creep reached down and easily lifted Raph's shell into the air, and began poking his root like fingers into the opening where the turtle's head was supposed to be. There was a loud ' _Chomp_ ' from within the shell, and the Creep quickly pulled his fingers back out and shook them, making it clear that Raph had bit him to get him out of his hiding place.

 

Not liking that he couldn't reach his prey, the Creep glanced over at Raph's brothers, and then drew back his fist and punched at the tied up teens.

 

Mikey and Donnie both yelped both at the pain of the blow, and that they were swinging wildly around again in dizzying circles.

 

Hearing their cries, Raph's head shot out of his shell in concern, only for the Creep to clamp his hand down over top of Raph's face, and seem pleased at his accomplishment. Raph could only let out helpless mewling sounds as the Creep got what he wanted.

 

Even though they were still swinging, the two brothers could only watch in horror as the Creep's arm seemed to pulse, and both he and Raph began glowing mutagen green. The process awoke Casey and Miwa, and they all stared at the sight of Raph getting smaller and smaller in the Creep's grip.

 

"Raph!" yelled Mikey, his eyes wide at the sight.

 

"It's-it's feeding on him," said Donnie as he came to that horrifying revelation. "Like mutagenic fertilizer! Sucking out his mutagen and human DNA!"

 

Raph was now small enough to be completely engulfed in the Creep's massive hands, and the entire plant monster was now glowing brightly, worms and vines hanging from it waving almost happily at the meal it was consuming.

 

"No!  _No! **NO! Raph!"**_  shouted Donnie.

 

"LET MY BROTHER GO!" shrieked Miwa as she struggled against her own bonds, desperate to save him.

 

But the Creep paid their cries no attention. Finally, the glow faded, and the Creep opened his hand.

 

A small box turtle with a cracked plastron and wrapped in a red mask fell from his hand, and vanished into his shell as he hit the floor of the shed.

 

"YOU TURNED MY BROTHER INTO A PET!" yelled Mikey in a rare showing of fury. "YOU TURNED HIM INTO A  _PET!"_

 

"I'LL KILL YOU!" shouted Miwa from her corner, her shock turning to rage. "YOU HEAR ME, I'LL FREAKIN' KILL YOU!"

 

The Creep ignored their yelling and stretched, suddenly seeming bigger than before his mutagen meal. Then he turned his attention over to Mikey, and everyone paled as they realized what he was about to do next.

 

Mikey struggled furiously as the Creep grabbed him by the ankles, and yelled, "Let me go, Creep! I'll bash that mutagen straight out 'a ya!"

 

But the Creep simply clamped his hand over Mikey's face to start feeding again, regardless of the screams. But before he could start, a new shout was heard from outside the shed.

 

"Help!" a voice echoed through the woods.

 

The Creep turned in the direction of the shed door, and dropped Mikey in the process.

 

"Help!" cried the voice again, and the Creep grabbed his pitchfork and left the shed to find the source.

 

Recognizing the voice, Donnie's face fell. "Leo," he said softly.

 

"You leave him alone!" shrieked Miwa as she tried to trip the Creep on his way out, but he merely stepped over her and continued on his way.

 

Snarling in fury, Miwa almost didn't notice the small presence crawling over to her until she felt a small tug on her bonds.

 

Glancing in that direction, she saw that the tiny turtle that was Raph had clamped his beak down on the vines tying her up, and was once again trying to bite through them.

 

Her rage dissipated slightly, and Miwa whispered, "Thanks, Raph."

 

Raph just bit down harder.

 

Outside the shed, the Creep was scanning the dark trees, trying to find the source of the cries, but they had fallen silent the second he'd stepped through the door.

 

Suddenly a shuriken flew from the shadows and wedged itself into the Creep's head, causing the monster to turn around and look in the direction it had come.

 

Standing there with his crutch was Leo, his eyes white as he glared at the Creep. "Give me back my family, freak," he said in dark tone that promised pain if the creature failed to comply.

 

The Creep seemed indifferent about the threat, and started making his way towards Leo.

 

Seeing him coming, Leo dropped his crutch and tried to prepare himself for the fight ahead. Drawing his swords, he paused for a fraction of a second to cast a worried glance at his feet, but quickly filed it away to focus on the battle.

 

The Creep came at Leo, and rammed his pitchfork into the ground, but Leo darted out of its path before the blow could fall.

 

Launching himself forward, Leo aimed a slash at the plant monster, but the Creep blocked his swords with the prongs of his pitchfork, and then stabbed at him again.

 

Leo struggled to dodge the blows as the pain in his legs was becoming more and more noticeable to him, and slowing him considerably. Then the Creep managed to whack one of his katanas away, leaving Leo with just one of his blades to defend himself. The Creep then threw his pitchfork at Leo like a javelin, and the turtle barely ducked it in time.

 

Crouched on the ground, Leo launched himself upwards and slashed at the Creep's face. His blow hit, and knocked the mask off of the monster, who quickly brought his hands up to block his face.

 

Seeing the monster down, and apparently vulnerable. Leo hurried forward to land a finishing blow, but before it could land, one of the Creep's hands shot up and caught his wrist, while the other shot up to wrap around Leo's throat.

 

Leo struggled desperately as the Creep lifted him high into the air, and the turtle finally got a glimpse of the face under the mask, and just as quickly wished he hadn't.

 

While only two eyes had been shown through Casey's mask, the Creep actually had six glowing holes for eyes, and a wide dark one for a nose. His mouth was a grotesque glowing jack-o-lantern sneer and he snarled at the turtle in his hands angrily.

 

The he slammed Leo into the ground repeatedly, determined to take the fight out of him before draining him dry. He then flung Leo away, making the turtle land hard on the forest floor.

 

Groaning in pain, Leo struggled to move, and glanced back at his attacker, only to see the Creep coming at him again with his own katana raised to strike.

 

With no swords, and almost too sore to move, Leo searched desperately for something he could use as a weapon, and his eyes fell upon his abandoned crutch not too far away. Crawling forward as quickly as he could, Leo snatched the crutch off the ground just as the Creep brought the sword down.

 

In a desperate move, Leo rolled over onto his carapace and jammed the crutch upwards and into the Creep's nose, barely dodging the oncoming blade in the process.

 

Howling in rage and pain, the Creep writhed on the ground as he tried to pull the crutch free.

 

With the monster successfully distracted, Leo reclaimed his sword and limped towards the shed to free his family, his body aching with every step.

 

Collapsing in the doorframe, he looked up to see his siblings and Casey tied up within.

 

"Leo!" shouted Miwa at the sight of him. Just then, she heard a snap, and her bonds fell loose around her. Shooting a look at Raph, she deadpanned, "Oh,  _now_  you get through it."

 

Raph tried to nip at her finger in response, but Miwa was too distracted with yanking off the vines and rushing to Leo's side to notice his attempt.

 

She quickly helped him the rest of the way into the shed, and locked the door behind him to keep the Creep out.

 

She then settled her injured brother next to one of the walls, before snatching Raph off the ground and shoving him into Leo's hands. "Here, rest and hold onto Raph, I'll free the others," she said, borrowing Leo's sword to do it.

 

Leo blinked in shock at the small red-wrapped turtle in his hands, and said incredulously, "Raph? What the heck?"

 

Raph just blinked back before hiding in his shell.

 

"Long story," said Donnie as Miwa cut him down from where he was hanging.

 

But the genius didn't get a chance to tell it, as the second everyone was free, the door to the shed gave a mighty shake as the Creep tried to break back in.

 

Screaming at the sound, everyone rushed to barricade the door, before drawing back to see what the Creep would do next. As they waited, they all gathered up their own weapons and moved into fighting positions. Miwa handed Leo back his sword, and the lead turtle nodded his thanks, and held the weapon out in front of him with one hand, while the other cradled Raph to his chest protectively.

 

For a long minute there was nothing but silence as they all waited on baited breath for the coming attack.

 

Only for the Creep's upper body to burst in through the wall on the right, taking them completely by surprise.

 

As the others screamed, Casey recovered first and began smacking the Creep in the face with his hockey stick. He would have continued to do so, but the Creep managed to catch his stick, and break it, making Casey jump back and groan in disappointment.

 

But Casey's place was quickly taken by Mikey, who leapt forward with a cry of "Booyakasha!" and began pummeling the Creep's face with his nunchucks before kicking him in the face.

 

While the Creep was distracted, Miwa jumped forward with her tantō and sliced off one of his arms, and the others joined in at wailing on the Creep with their weapons until the creature was slumped over unconscious and they were all out of breath from the exertion.

 

For an instant, it looked like they had won. But then the glow came back to the Creep's eyes, and his head shot up as he forced the rest of his body through the wood and fully into the shed. Knocking all the teenagers back, and even throwing Mikey, and Donnie out of the shed with his remaining arm, the Creep reached down to pick up the one Miwa had sliced off, and reconnected it to his shoulder.

 

Leo, who was the only one still standing, clutched Raph tighter to his chest and tried to get ready for whatever the Creep would throw at him next.

 

But the Creep used his newly reattached arm to backhand Leo so that he fell back against the table with the jar and candles on it, making said jar wobble at the jostling.

 

The rattling sound the jar made caused the Creep to freeze in his tracks, and for the first time since the start of this nightmare, the creature looked worried.

 

Realizing this, Leo's head snapped around to stare at the jar of what he recognized as his own mutagen mixed puke. Gently setting Raph safely on the ground behind him, Leo snatched up the jar and began waving it in front of himself, and watched as the Creep's eyes followed its every movement.

 

Seeing the advantage of this, Leo quickly tossed the jar to Miwa, who immediately caught it and bolted out the shed door with it, making the Creep hurry after her, growling angrily.

 

Seeing that the Creep was gaining on her, Miwa caught sight of Donnie, who was still recovering from getting tossed out of the shed like a rag doll. "Donnie, think fast!" she yelled as she threw the jar in his direction.

 

Donnie's reflexes were quick enough to catch it, and the Creep immediately turned his attention from Miwa to the genius to get his jar back.

 

Freaking out at the sight of the approaching monster, Donnie quickly turned and tossed the jar over to Mikey. When the youngest caught the jar, he bolted away from the Creep as fast as he could go, shouting, "I've got a jar of dirt! I've got a jar of dirt! And guess what's inside it!"

 

The Creep grew even more enraged and hurried after Mikey as quickly as he could.

 

Meanwhile, Miwa rushed back into the shed, and snapped, "Hockey Boy, grab the chains!"

 

Casey scrambled to follow her orders, and they two hurried back out of the shed to see Donnie and Mikey playing a game of monkey in the middle with the Creep and the jar.

 

But before their eyes, the Creep's vines managed to wrap around Mikey again, and the Creep stormed over to him, and snatched the jar away with one hand, and clamped the other onto Mikey's head to start draining him.

 

Grabbing the pitchfork from where the Creep had previously thrown it, and getting a boost from Donnie, Leo launched himself in the air and flew at the Creep with the weapon pointed out in front of him.

 

The Creep wheeled around at the sound of him coming, but was not able to dodge as the pitchfork shattered the jar in his hands before driving straight through him and pinning him to a tree.

 

Acting quickly, Miwa and Casey ran forward and tied the Creep even more securely to the tree with the chains.

 

"That's what you get for messing with my mask and my friends, freak!" snarled Casey angrily.

 

"That should hold him," said Donnie as he glared at the monster as well. "Now come on, we gotta get him back to the lab."

 

Leo cast a glance at the shed and Raph peering out of it, before turning to Donnie and asking, "Really think you can save Raph?"

 

Donnie wilted slightly, and he cast a glance in the direction of the small turtle as well, and answered, "Honestly, I don't know, Leo. I just don't know."

 

_____________________

 

After a very difficult time dragging the Creep back to Donnie's barn lab, getting a tetanus shot for the new nick in Donnie's ear and Miwa's scratches, explaining everything to a shocked April and Metalhead once they arrived back from their own search, and a debate with the short robot on the best way to go about turning Raph back, Donatello finally believed he'd found the solution and implemented it. Following that was hours of them all waiting on baited breath to see if it worked.

 

Raph hadn't protested when the IV was hooked from the Creep into him, but not long after the mutagen began pumping back into his system he seemed to be wracked with pain that none of them could alleviate until he passed out from the sensation.

 

But even with that, there was no denying that it seemed to be working. Within the first hour he was already twice his size, and looking more bipedal by the minute.

 

Throughout it Leo never left his side.

 

Finally, after hours of waiting, Raph finally looked back to his mutant turtle self, and began showing signs of awakening.

 

Once Raph's eyes opened, Donnie let out a whoop of "YES!" as the feeling of utter relief coursed through him.

 

That relief quickly spread to the rest of the waiting teenagers, and April quickly leaned over to retie Raph's mask to his face as he sat up groggily and looked around. "What the heck is going on?" he asked as sat up on a bale of hay that had acted as his hospital bed, and he rubbed his head as he tried to remember it himself.

 

"A crazy swamp monster sucked out your mutagen and turned you into a regular turtle, dude," said Casey cheerfully. "It was awesome!"

 

"But I used this IV tube to drain all the mutagen and your DNA out of the Creep and back into your body," Donnie continued as he began unhooking all the equipment. "Cool right?"

 

Raph let out a sigh as the foggy memories started coming back to him. "Cool, thanks Don. So what happened to the monster?"

 

"It got turned back into swamp goo," replied Miwa, jerking her head in the direction of the jar of slime.

 

"Pretty wicked, right?" asked Casey, still grinning.

 

"Donnie and Metalhead worked all night to save you," April explained to Raph as Miwa elbowed Casey for taking so much enjoyment out of all this. "Leo never left your side."

 

Raph's head snapped around to stare in Leo's direction.

 

Leo was sitting on a bale of hay with his crutch clutched in his hand. At Raph's surprised expression, he gave a smile and said, "That's what brothers are for."

 

He then pulled himself to his feet and held his hand out for Raph. "We gotta heal up, Raph. We have a city to take back."

 

Raph grinned back and took the hand, allowing Leo to pull him to his feet. The two then bumped fists in agreement, and Mikey leapt onto the bale of hay Raph had just vacated.

 

"I give that a big, fat, sloppy, wet BOOYAKASHA!" the youngest cheered, and the others laughed and echoed his battle cry.

 

Behind them, none of them noticed a small leech float within the depths of the jar of swamp goo, nor did they see the glass give a small crack as the contents glowed dimly in the dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took a few liberties in this chapter. I wanted to make it more similar to the Bloodsucker arc from the Mirage comics. Plus, I liked the idea of Raph turning into a turtle better than him turning into a plant.


	44. Mommy Dearest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Upon discovering the basement, the teens stumble upon a shocking secret.

After the incident with the Creep, things soon fell into a normal routine for those at the farmhouse. With Leo awake, Raph stepped up the training on all of them, and started getting Mikey and Donnie to do more wildlife training to adapt to their new environment.

 

Results were mixed to say the least.

 

Love was in the air as well, (or something was at least) when during their attempts to hide from Raph in the woods, Donnie and Mikey ran into Bigfoot.

 

The real, actual Bigfoot, who quickly became smitten with Donnie despite all his attempts to tell her (apparently Bigfoot was a girl) that he was in a relationship with April already. Said girlfriend was absolutely no help in this situation, as she and Miwa found it too hilarious to properly tell Bigfoot that Donnie was taken. Especially after the hairy giant asked the two of them to help her with a makeover.

 

Fortunately for Donnie, a hunter that was after Bigfoot found out that she was female, and it was love at first sight for the two of them, and they left the farmhouse as contenders for the world's strangest couple.

 

After that things went back to as normal as it could be with a house full of teenagers on the run from an alien invasion in the middle of the woods and with almost half of them being of the mutant variety.

 

At least until April put her foot down one morning and declared that they needed to start on spring-cleaning.

 

The response to that declaration was about what you would expect.

 

"Didn't we, like, just clean this place a few months ago?" Casey groaned as April glared at them all from the head of the table at breakfast that morning.

 

"Yeah,  _months_  ago," she said pointedly. "Since then it's gotten dirty again."

 

"But we cleaned it so much last time, that we don't need to now, right?" asked Mikey, shuddering as he remembered the first few days of arduous cleaning they had all gone through upon first arriving at the farmhouse. "It's not that bad."

 

April raised an eyebrow and pointed in the direction of the living room.

 

The others turned to see that the entire room was a mess. The cushions on the chairs and couch were all lopsided, there was a layer of dust on most surfaces, the floor was covered in dirt and leaves that had been tracked in from outside, and various knick-knacks belonging to the inhabitants of the household were scattered all over the place.

 

The teenagers exchanged sheepish glances, and Leo said, "Looks like it's time for spring cleaning."

 

"I still say it's not that bad," Mikey grumbled unhappily.

 

But despite the youngest's protests, the teenagers still armed themselves with every cleaning supply in the house and attacked the mess with fervor.

 

But even though they had to clean, they did their best to have fun with it by treating the dirt and grime they encountered as like an enemy to battle, and made exaggerated fight sounds as they worked.

 

Raph, armed with rainbow colored feather dusters dove straight up the chimney in order to clean it out with enough force that Santa Claus would have been jealous.

 

Donnie practiced his bō staff moves in between swipes of his mop, making sure to get every portion of the floor with practiced ease.

 

Metalhead stood atop a stool in the kitchen and using his rotating hands to scrub furiously at all the dishes in the sink while April stood next to him to dry them. He even wore the flowered apron in order to keep his circuits from getting wet, leading to a very amusing sight.

 

Mikey stopped complaining so much about cleaning when they agreed to let him string his chain between the banisters of the upstairs and hang upside down from them to dust off the light fixtures.

 

Miwa and Casey had managed to find two vacuum cleaners, and seemed to be racing them around the house to see who could suck up more dirt, while occasionally taking the time to try and elbow or trip each other in the process. April would occasionally throw a sponge or a drying rag at them whenever it looked as though they might knock over a lamp or crash into someone else, and yell at them to be more careful.

 

Even Leo got into the spirit of it by connecting with his inner Karate Kid, and dramatically muttering, "Window cleaner on, window cleaner off," with every swipe of his rag on the glass panes.

 

All was going well, until Casey ran his vacuum too close to where Mikey was dusting, and knocked the youngest from his perch.

 

Mikey yelped as he tumbled down the stairs, crashing into Raph, and rolling to a stop on the rug in the foyer.

 

"Smooth, Jones," said Miwa as she leaned over the banister to check on Mikey. "Real smooth."

 

"It was an accident!" Casey protested, but the rest was no longer paying attention to him.

 

Mikey stared in surprise at the rug he'd landed on. Or more specifically, what was  _under_ the rug that had been revealed when his landing had pushed it askew. "Whoa, guys! Check it out!" he called to the others, and they gathered around for a better look.

 

"A trap door?" April asked as she came over and stared at the square of flooring she'd never seen before. "I didn't even know we had a basement."

 

"What do you suppose is down there?" asked Leo curiously.

 

Mikey paled at what came to mind at that question, and ducked behind Raph fearfully. "Evil clown!" he declared. "EVIL CLOWN!"

 

Raph rolled his eyes, and drew his sais. "Only one way to find out."

 

With that, he jammed his sais into the crevice between the door and the floor, and pried it open to reveal a darkened set of stairs leading downwards.

 

"Uh, who's going first?" Donnie asked hesitantly.

 

"NOT IT!" shouted everyone but Leo and Metalhead.

 

Leo blinked and exchanged a glance with Metalhead before hurriedly saying, "Not it!"

 

Metalhead let out an unimpressed sounding buzz, before shaking his head and making his way down the stairs, the lights from his eyes illuminating the way.

 

The rest grabbed flashlights and followed the short robot down the creaky staircase into the darkness below.

 

Suddenly, Metalhead froze in mid stride and let out an alarmed sounding beep.

 

Pointing their flashlights in the direction he was looking, the seven teenagers let out their own cries of shock.

 

Before them, half buried in the dirt floor of the creepy basement was the crashed remains of a ship…

 

…A ship whose design was instantly recognizable to all those present.

 

"The Kraang!" Miwa spat as if the word were a curse.

 

"It's impossible," said Raph as he stared at the ship.

 

"It can't be," Leo agreed.

 

"It's a Kraang Stealth Ship," said Donnie, recognizing the design of the craft.

 

"Wicked!" cheered Casey, who was immediately elbowed in the gut by Miwa for that response.

 

"But how-how did they find us?" asked April worriedly.

 

"I don't think they did," said Donnie as he examined the ship more closely. Wiping off a layer of grime from its surface, he continued, "This ship looks like it's been buried here for years."

 

"What the heck is a Kraang ship doing underneath my house?" asked April.

 

"Remember your Uncle's journal," said Miwa with a shrug. "He said there was something strange about the people who've been living in this house. Maybe this has something to do with that."

 

April's face pinched as she remembered all that had happened to her Uncle Augie, and all that he had recorded of his investigations in his journal.

 

Before anyone could respond to Miwa's remark, a light on the stealth ship blinked on and a doorway opened into the ship.

 

The teenagers exchanged nervous glances before Leo squared his shoulders and shuffled forward on his crutch saying, "Only one way to find out. Come on."

 

The others reluctantly followed, and Raph move forward to shine his flashlight around the interior of the space ship. All of them were tense, waiting for a Kraang to pop out at them at any second, but the inside of the ship seemed just as filthy and abandoned as the outside.

 

Or maybe not so abandoned, as something in the center of the room caught Raph's eye. "Guys, look," he hissed, drawing them over to him to see it.

 

In the center of the ship was what appeared to be some sort of stasis pod, and within the dark pod they could make out the shape of a still figure.

 

"Is that a person in there?" asked Casey.

 

"And are they dead?" asked Miwa.

 

The others turned to stare at her for the morbid question.

 

Miwa scowled at their expressions, and snapped, "What? Like you all weren't thinking it too."

 

Donnie slowly approached the pod, and said, "Okay, don't touch anything." He then shifted to glare specifically at Mikey as he added, "I repeat, do not touch  _anything_."

 

Mikey fidgeted nervously under Donnie's gaze, and accidentally backed up into a control console and laid his hand on a button upon it.

 

Seeing the pod start to light up as a result, Donnie shouted sternly, "MIKEY!"

 

Glancing at the button he'd pushed, Mikey laughed nervously and said, "Oops, I promise not to touch anything starting now."

 

But all attention was taken off the youngest as the pod let out a hiss of steam and started to open. As it did, the figure inside started to shift and move as their appearance became clearer.

 

When the pod finally opened, the teens all waited on baited breath to see what would come out of it.

 

All but April, who gasped at the sight, and her eyes grew impossibly wide.

 

The steam cleared to reveal a pretty blond woman trapped within the pod. As they watched, she shifted and groaned, her eyes slowly opening.

 

April O'Neil felt as though the floor had been pulled out from under her as she stared at the impossible sight. " _Mom?_ " she gasped breathlessly, unable to fully believe the sight before her.

 

"Mom?" Casey repeated beside her incredulously. Knowing that April's mother had been missing for years, the Hamato teens silently echoed his sentiment.

 

The woman who was apparently Beth O'Neil blearily stepped out of the pod, and stumbled over a raised portion of the floor. Raph and Donnie quickly darted forward to catch her as she fell.

 

"Take it easy, ma'am," said Donnie comfortingly.

 

"Hold on," Raph agreed.

 

Mrs. O'Neil opened her eyes and glanced around at the two holding her up. On one side was a normal (if slightly geeky) looking teenager of Asian descent. But on the other side-

 

"AHH! MUTANT!" she screamed, elbowing Raph in the gut and shrinking against Donnie so much that the genius fell over with her on top of him. Scrambling to get more distance between them (and kicking Donnie a few times in the process), and getting even more freaked out at the sight of Mikey, Leo, and Metalhead standing nearby, she got to her feet and tried to run away, only to trip over the high heeled shoes she was wearing and once again get caught before she could fall, this time by Casey and Miwa.

 

"Oh, uh, don't worry Mrs. O'Neil," said Casey as the two teens set the woman back on her feet. "These are good mutants, and Metalhead's the coolest bot you'll ever meet."

 

Mrs. O'Neil sent him a look that clearly stated she was questioning his sanity, and glanced back to see the three turtles looking very put out at her reaction to them, but not looking particularly threatening.

 

To alleviate some of the tension in the room, Casey continued, "Besides, those guys are harmless. It's Babe, here, you gotta watch out for." He jerked his thumb in the kunoichi's direction as he said so.

 

Miwa was not at all amused by his statement, and punched Casey in the gut for it.

 

Casey doubled over in pain at the blow, but still managed to choke out, "See, what'd I tell you."

 

Mrs. O'Neil looked at all of them like they were nuts.

 

But before Miwa could inflict more pain on Casey for his comments, Mrs. O'Neil caught sight of April standing at the back of the group, and staring back at her like she'd seen a ghost.

 

"A-April?" asked Beth in utter astonishment, momentarily forgetting about the other teenagers, and moving slowly towards the one familiar figure in the room, the blood draining from her face as she approached. "But-but how? Just a few days ago you were… six-years-ooooh."

 

Before Mrs. O'Neil could finish her sentence, she slumped backwards into a dead faint, making Miwa hurry forward to catch her again.

 

"Mom?" April whispered at that, looking as though she were in a daze. Then she swayed on the spot, and fainted as well, Donnie darting forward to catch her as she fell.

 

"Snap," said Mikey softly as it finally sank in what had happened. That one word summing up the situation perfectly

 

____________________________

 

It wasn't until a few minutes later that April awoke again, and Mrs. O'Neil came too not long after. She was still nervous at the sight of the three mutants and the robot, but the four maintained a respectable distance from her, and let human members of their party give her tea and charm her into (hopefully) thinking they weren't dangerous.

 

Even so, the teenagers were well aware of the nervous glances she still shot in the mutants and robot's direction when she thought April wasn't looking.

 

Trying to defuse the tension, April handed her mother a cup of tea, and said, "Here you go, Mom. Just relax."

 

Mrs. O'Neil offered her a tiny smile, and said, "Thank you April. I'm still a little shaky." She took a sip of the tea to try to relax before continuing, "I know this is hard to believe, but…" She trailed off and stared down into the cup as she gathered her courage to continue.

 

"The Kraang ship has been here for years," she said bitterly. "It was your Great-Grandfather who discovered it. He made the mistake of awakening the Kraang, they paid him back by experimenting on him and his entire bloodline. They knew we were the key to unlocking their  _precious_  mutagen. We were their guinea pigs."

 

Mikey's eyes lit up at that, and he said, "Aww, guinea pigs are so cute."

 

Raph rolled his eyes, and smacked Mikey on the head. "I told you not to be stupid, you moron."

 

As Mikey whimpered at the blow, Mrs. O'Neil continued her story, "After you were born it was clear you were very special, April. We knew it was only a matter of time before the Kraang came for you. We escaped, Kirby fled with you to the city, I was recaptured and put into stasis."

 

Mrs. O'Neil closed her eyes sadly as she finished her tale, and the teenagers exchanged uncomfortable glances.

 

April stared sadly down at her hands. "All these years, I never knew what happened to you. I never knew what to think. Dad would never tell me."

 

Mrs. O'Neil smiled and got to her feet. Taking April's hands in her own, she said fondly, "Now you know," she said kindly. "And now we never have to be apart again." She then paused and glanced around the house. "Where is Kirby, anyway?"

 

"Kirby?" said Casey. "Oh, he got turned into a wicked-"

 

Before he could continue, Miwa smacked her hand over his mouth and hissed, "Leave the Mikey-isms to Mikey."

 

Next to them, Mikey laughed and pointed. "Haha, you almost pulled a Mikey." He then frowned as what he'd said sank in. "Wait,  _Hey!_ "

 

"Casey's just kidding, Mrs. O'Neil," said Leo in a nervous attempt to be reassuring. "Kirby's, uh, on a…  _safari!_  In Puerto Rico! H-he won't be back for awhile."

 

As Leo nervously sipped his tea at the end of his speech, Raph leaned over and whispered sarcastically, "Smooth, Leo."

 

Leo shot his brother a dirty look, but Mrs. O'Neil was no longer paying attention. She was once again smiling down at April, and she said, "I'm just so glad to have my April back."

 

April beamed back at her, and mother and daughter pair hugged each other tightly, and the most of the rest of the group smiled at the sight of the heartwarming scene.

 

All but Mikey, who frowned slightly, and leaned over to whisper to the others, "Is it me, or does April's mom seem a little bit off?"

 

"Ha, you're one to talk," Raph scoffed.

 

But Miwa, who was standing next to Raph, caught Mikey's eye and nodded in agreement with him. She then silently signaled that they would talk about it later.

 

____________________________

 

As soon as they could get away, Mikey and Miwa slipped into the kitchen to talk, only to be surprised as Metalhead moved to join them as well.

 

"You don't trust April's mom too?" asked Mikey in surprise at the robot.

 

Metalhead nodded played the Twilight Zone theme song through his speakers.

 

"Yeah, that's exactly my feel," said Mikey brightly.

 

"Shh!" hissed Miwa as she checked out the door to make sure Mrs. O'Neil hadn't paid attention to their departure. Satisfied that the woman was too busy fawning over April to pay the three of them any notice, Miwa closed the kitchen door and turned to her fellow conspirators.

 

"So we're all here for the same reason," she said, looking at all of them seriously. "There is something really wrong with that picture out there. But with the way April's acting, it's going to take a lot of evidence to prove it, and the others won't buy it either to avoid upsetting her." Turning to Mikey, she asked, "So why are you suspicious of her?"

 

Mikey fidgeted nervously and said, "I don't have anything that would count as solid proof, but- I don't know. I've got the ninja vibes that something is just… ya know, wrong. I can't explain it, but I just don't trust her."

 

Miwa sighed as she heard that, but nodded. "I have a similar feeling," she admitted, "but the others would probably just pass it off as me being paranoid and you being weird. But this one thing has just been bugging me ever since we found her."

 

Looking Mikey and Metalhead in the eye, she explained, "We know the Kraang have been after April for years. We've  _seen_  some of the schemes they've hatched to try and capture her. Kidnapping her father and brainwashing him, making her Uncle disappear when he started getting close to the truth,  _Irma_. All of those involved people April cared about being put in danger to lure her out, but why would the Kraang bother with any of that when they  _already_  had her mother available to hold for ransom. It just doesn't make any sense."

 

Mikey's eyes widened at Miwa's explanation. "That's way better evidence than my ninja vibes," he admitted.

 

Miwa shrugged. "But it's not enough to convince the others. They could just say it was the Kraang being stupid about human norms." She glanced over at Metalhead, and asked, "So why are you suspicious of her?"

 

Metalhead let out a beep, and pulled up a holographic screen on his wrist. Projected onto the screen was a rotating scan of Mrs. O'Neil he'd taken upon first laying eyes on her, and various readings the robot had taken that noted there was something off about her biology highlighted in red.

 

The two teens scrutinized the robot's readings, but neither of them was able to make heads or tails on the discrepancies.

 

After trying to make sense of Metalhead's findings, Miwa drew back and said seriously, "We need to take a closer look at that ship."

 

"But we can't leave April alone with  _her_ ," Mikey said, glancing at the door blocking them off from the others. "What if she tries to get April alone and sucks her brain out?"

 

Metalhead beeped again and gave the two of them a thumbs-up, before stepping out of the kitchen and making his way over to Donnie. Miwa and Mikey both poked their heads out of the door to watch what he was up to.

 

The genius (who had been waiting for an opportunity to introduce himself as April's boyfriend) looked down in surprise as Metalhead approached him. The robot waved for Donnie to crouch down next to him so that the couch blocked Mrs. O'Neil's view of them. Metalhead then pulled up a scaled down version of the hologram and showed it to his creator.

 

Donnie's brow furrowed in concern as he saw the discrepancies, and nodded. "I got'cha," he said softly to his robot. "I'll keep a close eye on Mrs. O'Neil to make sure being in stasis so long didn't affect her health."

 

It wasn't what the robot was hoping for, but at least he knew Donnie would be keeping a close eye on Mrs. O'Neil nonetheless. And everyone knew Donnie would rather chew his own arm off than let any harm come to April, so if he saw something suspicious he would protect her without hesitation.

 

Giving his creator a thumbs-up, Metalhead turned and made his way back over to Miwa and Mikey, and the three of them all slipped away to the basement.

 

It was time to get some answers.

 

____________________________

 

Donnie sighed quietly from his hiding place on the roof of the farmhouse. He hated having to do this, but with Mrs. O'Neil turning him down when he offered to give her a health examination, he didn't think he had a choice. If Mrs. O'Neil was ill like Metalhead's scan might have indicated, he'd never forgive himself if she got hurt and he wasn't there to help.

 

And he'd be damned if he let April lose her mother for a second time.

 

Making sure he was well hidden in the shadows of the rooftop, he readjusted his spyglass and kept it focused on April and her mother, who were sitting on a swing set under a tree in the yard. He wasn't close enough to hear what they were saying, but he could tell by the smile on both of their faces that they were thinking of better times.

 

But then, as Donnie watched Mrs. O'Neil suddenly started staring off into the distance with a vague look on her face. April was busy talking and didn't seem to notice her mother was no longer paying attention, but the blank expression unnerved Donatello.

 

Shifting to get a better view through his spyglass, Donnie's foot accidently knocked a shingle loose from the roof, and sent it falling to the ground below.

 

The shingle made a loud clattering sound as it slid off the roof and crashed to the ground below.

 

The sound was enough to shock Mrs. O'Neil out of whatever was happening to her, and both O'Neils looked around wildly for the source of the sound.

 

Spying the fallen shingle on the ground, April glanced up at the roof and scowled. "The farmhouse has really seen better days. I'll try to rope the boys and Mi into fixing the roof tomorrow," she said with a sigh.

 

Mrs. O'Neil smiled and said, "That sounds like a wonderful idea, April."

 

The two then seemed to decide that they'd had enough stargazing for now, and began walking around the farmhouse.

 

Back up on the roof, Donnie peeked out from his hiding place behind the chimney and sighed in relief when it was clear they hadn't seen them.

 

But as the genius remembered the vacant expression on Mrs. O'Neil's face, he quickly made his way to one of the attic windows and climbed in to go out and find them again. Something was wrong with Mrs. O'Neil, and he was determined to find out what.

 

He just hoped his girlfriend didn't end up killing him if she found out he was spying on them.

 

He found a new hiding spot around the corner of the house, and watched as the two surveyed the forest around the other side of the house. He was just in time to hear Mrs. O'Neil say, "I was just thinking about when we'd picnic in the woods by the stream."

 

April smiled fondly, and said, "Those are some of my favorite memories." She then reached over to hug her mother for what had to have been the hundredth time that evening, just to assure herself her mother was really there.

 

Mrs. O'Neil hugged her back, and said, "We should go somewhere. Just the two of us. Just drive off, leave those creatures and punks behind. I don't trust them."

 

Donnie felt his stomach drop at those words, and his respect for April's mother go down just as fast. Those 'creatures' were his brothers, and one of those 'punks' was his sister (and on what planet would a genius like him be considered a punk). No one talked about them like that.

 

Donnie tried to calm down, and reason to himself that Mrs. O'Neil had a good reason to fear the unknown due to her previous imprisonment by the Kraang, but he couldn't fully squash the indignation he felt on his siblings' behalf.

 

He tried to focus back on the conversation, and saw that April looked startled and a little affronted on her friends' behalf as well.

 

"I-I can't do that," April protested, looking away from her mother.

 

"Why not?" asked Mrs. O'Neil, looking confused.

 

"They're like family," said April, trying to find words to describe her relationship with the other teenagers in the house. "They've always been there for me, and-"

 

Mrs. O'Neil scowled, and said, "I'm your mother, your family. Not them. They're just a bunch of  _freaks_."

 

April's jaw dropped at those words, but before she could protest them, her mother turned on her heel and stalked away into the forest, leaving April to stare after her with a lost expression.

 

Seeing that look on his girlfriend's face, Donnie stepped out of his hiding place, and tried to make it look like he had just happened by. "Are you alright, April?" he asked as he approached her.

 

April glanced at him in surprise, before turning her attention to her boots, and heaving a sigh. "I don't know, Donnie," she admitted softly. "I've been dreaming for so long that about getting my mother back, but now that it's happened…"

 

"It's not going the way you were expecting," Donnie finished for her, giving her shoulder a sympathetic squeeze.

 

April nodded silently. "It's just… I was hoping she'd be more open minded about you guys, like how  _your_  mother was when Mikey and Raph mutated. But when I try to tell her how great you all are it's like she doesn't listen," she said miserably. "I don't know what to do."

 

Donnie considered mentioning what Metalhead's scans had picked up, but decided against alarming April just yet. Instead he looked in the direction Mrs. O'Neil had gone and said, "Why don't I go talk to her. Try to get her to see that we're not as bad as she seems to think."

 

April turned to smile at him. "You'd do that?"

 

Donnie grinned and moved to follow after Mrs. O'Neil. "Anything for you, April," he called over his shoulder as he went.

 

April smiled fondly at him as she watched him go, before heading back to the swing-set to wait for the two's return.

 

____________________________

 

Donnie hurried through the trees after Mrs. O'Neil. She'd gotten a decent head start on him, and he was a little worried he wouldn't be able to find her in the dark.

 

But, finally, he spotted her through the trees making her way towards the creek with something in her arms.

 

"What's she doing?" Donnie asked himself softly as he hurried after her.

 

But before he could catch up, he tripped over a tree root, and fell sprawling a ditch beside it. Cursing his clumsiness under his breath, he poked his head up to see if he had lost Mrs. O'Neil again.

 

Only to freeze in horror at the sight that met his eyes.

 

Mrs. O'Neil had apparently heard him trip, and had turned back to try and find the source of the noise. But there was something horribly wrong with her face. A pink glow shone in dark eye sockets of the grotesque visage that was mostly hidden by blond hair and shadows. Donnie couldn't see it very clearly, but he knew one thing for sure.

 

This was  _not_  April's mother.

 

Fortunately, whatever this mother-creature was, she didn't see him, and turned to continue on her way to the creek.

 

Curiosity about what this thing was up to warred with the knowledge that he needed to inform his clan to the truth in Donnie, and he hesitated for a moment, glancing back in the direction of the farmhouse, before turning in the direction 'Mrs. O'Neil' had gone.

 

Deciding on a compromise, Donnie fished his cell phone out of his pocket and sent a quick text to those at the farmhouse about what he'd discovered, before continuing after her, grabbing a long sturdy stick to use as a bō as he went

 

Unfortunately, in his rush to catch up with his quarry, he failed to notice the 'no signal' icon on his phone, or the message informing him that the text had not gone through.

 

As he slipped silently through the trees to catch up with the imposter, he finally caught sight of what she'd been carrying, and paled.

 

_Mutagen!_

 

She had a whole canister of mutagen, and from the looks of things she was about to use it to contaminate the creek.

 

Not on his watch.

 

Before the canister could tip into the water, Donnie darted from his hiding spot, and used his stick like a baseball bat, smacking the canister from her hands and clattering against some nearby rocks, barely avoiding being splashed himself.

 

Pointing his stick at the imposter, Donnie snarled, "Pretending to be our friend, and trying to poison the water I can get over, But impersonating April's Mom is a new all time low."

 

The imposter gave him an equally venomous glare, and snapped, "You foolish whelp. You shouldn't have done that, Donatello. Now you've made mother very angry."

 

"I have a mother!" Donnie snapped. "So does April, and neither one of them is  _you!_  You're with the Kraang, aren't you!?"

 

The imposter smirked in a disturbing fashion. "Yes, I will capture April O'Neil and take her to my masters."

 

She then pulled a sharp pair of scissors out of her pocket and stabbed them at Donnie with a lightning fast strike.

 

But the ninja was faster, and he used his stick to disarm her, and send the scissors flying into a tree a few yards away.

 

"You're crazy if you think I'll let that happen," Donnie scoffed as he pointed his stick in her direction again.

 

He then shot forward to strike at her head, only for the imposter to dodge at inhuman speeds, and suddenly appear behind him instead.

 

Realizing this might be harder than he thought, Donnie tried again, only to miss, get disarmed, and slammed into a tree for his troubles.

 

Groaning and rubbing his head, Donnie looked up again to see the imposter looming over him with a twisted expression on her face.

 

Shrinking back against the tree, Donnie yelped, "What are you really?"

 

A question he quickly regretted as 'Mrs. O'Neil's' entire body began to contort into impossible shapes and she started growing in size. His eyes widened in terror at the sight before him, and only had time to scream before the creature pounced.

 

____________________________

 

Back at the farmhouse, April's head snapped up and stared in the direction of the forest.

 

She wasn't sure, but for a second she could have sworn she'd heard Donnie screaming in terror before falling silent.

 

Keeping her eyes trained on the dark woods, she strained her ears to listen, but heard nothing but the wind in the trees.

 

At first, April tried to convince herself that she'd probably just heard a screech owl or something, but she couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something was wrong.

 

But then she remembered the last time a Hamato boy vanished in the woods at night, and realized that if Donnie was in trouble, her mother would be too.

 

Without a second thought, April leapt off the swing and bolted into the woods, searching desperately for her missing loved ones, not even stopping to get help from those in the farmhouse.

 

But as the redhead disappeared into the shadows of the trees, she failed to notice the form of Donatello lurching out of the woods not far to her right. Nor did she see the strangely blank expression that was on his face as he did so.

 

____________________________

 

Within the Stealth Ship in the basement, Mikey was making use of all his skill with Kraang technology to search and decipher the ship's logs on Mrs. O'Neil.

 

Metalhead was next to him and helping him out, and Miwa kept lookout by the door in case Mrs. O'Neil came snooping around.

 

"What's taking so long?" Miwa asked as the metal and ninja turtles worked.

 

"This ship is, like, super old," said Mikey glancing over at her briefly before focusing back on his work. "A lot of this stuff doesn't work like it used to anymore, so it's making it harder to find things."

 

"Well, hurry up," said Miwa. "I don't like the idea of April being alone with her for too long, even with Donnie on lookout."

 

Metalhead buzzed in agreement, and he and Mikey began working even harder.

 

Suddenly, Mikey's eyes lit up, and he said, "Booyakasha! Found it! Here's the info from the cryo tube's computers."

 

"Well," said Miwa impatiently. "What's it say?"

 

Mikey ran the information through Metalhead's translators, and both let out sounds of alarm as it registered to them what they were seeing. "Oh snap," whimpered Mikey as he read the information.

 

Wheeling around to face Miwa, the youngest said, "We gotta go find April and Donnie now, they're in serious trouble!"

 

"What?" demanded Miwa. "What's going on?!"

 

"Yeah," said a slightly vague sounding voice behind them. "What are you guys up to?"

 

The three's attention snapped to the door of the ship as Donnie stepped through it with a strangely vacant expression on his face.

 

Miwa scowled at the sight of him. "Donnie, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be keeping an eye on Mrs. O'Neil."

 

Before Donnie could respond, Metalhead did a quick scan of his creator, before letting out an alarmed sounding beep and pointing his weapons at him.

 

"Metalhead, wha-" Mikey started to say, but when he saw tentacles start sprouting out of 'Donnie's' back, he caught on quick enough.

 

The tentacles shot in Miwa's direction, and the kunoichi drew her sword and barely dodged in time, cutting the tentacle shooting at her in half.

 

The Not-Donnie creature screeched in pain at that, and then had to dodge as Metalhead tried to blast it with his flame-throwers. Shifting back into her 'Mrs. O'Neil' form, she glared at the three of them hatefully.

 

The three glared back with their weapons out and ready for a fight.

 

"Bring it on you Momster!" shouted Mikey, naming the creature on the spot. "You can't fight all of us!"

 

To prove his point, Mikey converted his nunchuck to a kusarigama, Miwa readied her sword, and Metalhead fired up his flamethrowers again.

 

Momster snarled as she realized he was right, before glancing at the wall and getting a sinister smirk on her face.

 

Darting towards the door, she slammed her fist on a panel of buttons on the wall of the ship, and dove through the Stealth Ship's hatch an instant before the door closed, trapping the three inside it.

 

Miwa and Metalhead began banging on the door to try and force it open, but it was stuck tight.

 

"Get this thing open!" shouted Miwa at Mikey. "We've got to warn the others, and find out what she's done to Donnie!"

 

Mikey was working furiously on the button panel Momster had pressed, but sent a frantic look back at his sister. "I'm trying, Sis! Like I said, this thing is old. Looks like these door controls are part of what's been broken for awhile, and Momster hitting them didn't help any."

 

Miwa snarled in frustration at that, and as Metalhead continued to try and break down the door, she pulled out her cell phone to try and send a message to the others, but seeing the 'no signal' icon on it she threw it across the ship in frustration. She'd just have to hope the others caught on before it was too late.

 

____________________________

 

Outside the ship, Momster smirked as she heard the sounds of the three meddlers trying to get out of their prison. She'd deal with them later.

 

The sound of the basement door opening again, startled her out of her gloating, and she shifted back into her Donatello form to greet the newcomer. From the limping steps and the sound of a crutch, she deduced it was the injured and pathetic Leonardo coming to join the party.

 

Easy prey.

 

Leo limped down the stairs, and blinked in surprise at the sight of 'Donnie' standing at the bottom of the stairs looking up at him.

 

"What's going on?" Leo asked, glancing curiously at the closed up space ship, and hearing the muffled sounds inside.

 

"Mikey was messing around in the ship, and got himself, Miwa, and Metalhead stuck inside," 'Donnie' droned uncaringly. "Nothing to worry about, I'll get them out eventually."

 

Leo glanced at the ship in concern, and said, "That doesn't sound like Mikey at all."

 

'Donnie' shrugged. "What did you expect, an idiot like him has no hope of understanding advanced alien technology like this."

 

Leo's head snapped around to look at Donnie in surprise at that statement, before his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

 

Backing slowly back up the stairs, the wounded leader said, "Okay then, I'll leave you too it."

 

He managed to limp up three steps without 'Donnie' seeming to notice. But as he placed his foot on the fourth step, Not-Donnie suddenly whipped around sent a long pink tentacle shooting from his arm straight at Leo.

 

The turtle barely managed to draw his sword in time, and sliced through it, making Not-Donnie howl in pain.

 

But the jostling to do such a move made Leo drop his crutch, and watched helplessly as it clattered down the stairs and some to a rest at the feet of the tentacled Donnie creature.

 

Using his sword as a replacement crutch, Leo pushed himself back to his feet and forced himself scramble as fast as he could back up the stairs, only for a board to snap under his feet and making him fall on his face.

 

Glancing back down at his pursuer, Leo saw Not-Donnie rushing up the stairs, and in seconds he was upon him.

 

____________________________

 

Trapped inside the ship, Miwa, Mikey, and Metalhead all froze at what they were doing as they heard the sound of Leo letting out a blood-curdling scream just outside the ship.

 

Exchanging horrified glances, they all began working even faster on getting out of there.

 

And under the flame of Metalhead's laser, the door started to weaken.

 

____________________________

 

Momster bit back a snarl as her latest victim continued to fight against her control even though she had almost completely assimilated him now.

 

The basement door opened again, and Raphael rushed through it, no doubt drawn by the commotion Leonardo had caused.

 

Seeing what he thought was his brother sprawled on the floor of the basement, Raph rushed to his side, regardless of the possible danger. "Leo!" he yelled as he reached his side. "Bro, you okay?"

 

"I think so," Momster replied using Leo's voice to try and put Raphael off his guard.

 

"What happened?" asked Raph in concern.

 

To Momster's rage, Leonardo managed to wrest control of himself away from her long enough to say, "Mikey was right earlier, April's mom really is a creature!" She quickly forced his consciousness back to join Donatello's, thus keeping such a thing from happening again.

 

"What!" Raph shouted eyes widened at the news. Drawing his sais, he scanned the darkened basement for his enemy. His eyes were drawn to the closed off space ship as the most likely hiding spot, especially with the sound of those inside trying to break free.

 

"Here."

 

Raph wheeled around to see Leo standing upright without the need of a crutch, and pink tentacles sprouting out of his shell.

 

Letting out a hissing roar, Not-Leo launched himself at Raph, and the angry turtle retaliated by trying to stab him with his sai.

 

But the tentacles were too fast, and caught Raph's wrist before the blow could fall.

 

Not-Leo grinned nastily at his caught prey, before throwing Raph in the direction of the ship as hard as he could.

 

A mistake on his part, as it turned out Raph's flying form was enough to smash through the already weakened hatch of the ship, and send the turtle crashing through, startling the three trapped inside.

 

"Raph!" shouted Mikey as he hurried to help his older brother up.

 

Raph groaned and rubbed his head, but otherwise seemed okay from the blow.

 

Miwa glared through the now open door at Not-Leo, furious that this monster had taken the guise of another brother.

 

Metalhead, meanwhile, let out a series of beeps and motioned for the basement stairs, before launching himself at Not-Leo with guns blazing.

 

Scowling, but knowing it was the right choice of action, Miwa yelled, "Metalhead will hold it off! We've got to warn the others!"

 

Mikey and Raph both nodded, and they hurried past the fight up the basement stairs. They could tell they'd need all the help they could get in this fight.

 

____________________________

 

Outside the farmhouse, Casey was making his way out of the barn after a long day of work on the old hotrod.

 

Catching sight of a worried looking April coming out of the woods, he called out, "Something wrong, Red?"

 

April jumped slightly at the sight of him, before sighing and telling the hockey nut of all that had happened that night.

 

"So that's it," she said as she finished. "She's leaving tonight, and if I don't go with her she's going anyway. She's too scared of you guys. Punks and Creatures is what she called you."

 

Casey gave her a sympathetic look, and said, "That's rough, Red. But… I understand if you want to go with her. She's your mom, it's just…"

 

He broke off at the sight of Raph, Miwa, and Mikey rushing out of the house, and a bolting in their direction.

 

"April! Casey!" shouted Raph as they reached them.

 

"Guys, what is it?" asked April in concern. 

 

As the other two gasped for breath, Raph said gaspingly, "It's your mother, she's not- Mikey was right, she really is some kind of creature, and she's done  _something_ to Leo and Donnie!"

 

"No, no you're wrong," snapped April, looking furious at Raph for saying such a thing.

 

Casey also looked disbelieving, and said, "Aw, come on guys."

 

"She's not!" Mikey insisted, finally catching his breath. "I hacked the ship's computer! It said that thing is something the Kraang were gonna use to catch you April, but it was too crazy messed up for even them to use!"

 

Casey's eyes widened as he remembered the clone lab in TCRI, and all the gooey April Clones he and the others had had to fight awhile back.

 

But April shook her head, refusing to believe it. "No, you're wrong! You're  _lying!"_

 

' _SMACK!'_

 

The boys all froze as Miwa slapped April across the face.

 

April, clutching her stinging cheek, stared in shock at the kunoichi for striking her, but Miwa ignored the look of betrayal on her face.

 

Grabbing the redhead by the shoulders, Miwa shook her slightly and snapped, "Wake up, April! That thing is  _not_ your mother! That is a monster that is out to get all of us! If you don't face reality, then you are  _dead!"_

 

"We all miss our moms too, April," said Mikey sympathetically. "We know what getting yours back means to you. Do you really think we'd be telling you this if it wasn't true."

 

"You really think that little of us?" asked Raph bluntly. "We're just trying to watch your back!"

 

Glancing at April's face, Casey sighed and said, "Sorry, Red, but they've got a good point."

 

April seemed to be numb with shock as denial and reason warred in her head. But before a victor could be decided, a hauntingly familiar voice called across the yard, "April!"

 

The teenager's attention all snapped in the direction of the farmhouse, and the Hamatos all paled at the sight of Mrs. O'Neil standing there glaring at them all.

 

"April, I told you to pack your bags," she said sounding exactly like a disapproving mother, but none of the ninjas were fooled.

 

Making sure to stand between April and Mrs. O'Neil with their weapons raised, Raph snarled, "Stay back!"

 

"What did you do to Metalhead?" demanded Mikey, not seeing the robot anywhere.

 

"And what have you done to our brothers?" snarled Miwa.

 

Mrs. O'Neil ignored them all, and began storming across the yard in their direction. "April," she said firmly as she got close. "Now."

 

"I said stay back, Mom-thing," growled Raph, brandishing his sais at the creature.

 

"Momster," Mikey corrected pointedly.

 

But April had had enough, "Stop it you guys!" she demanded, moving to stand between them and Mrs. O'Neil. "Stop it right now!"

 

But before they could protest, Mrs. O'Neil reached over and grabbed April's wrist and twisted it until the redhead cried out in pain.

 

Looking at what she thought was her mother with betrayal in her eyes, April whimpered, "Mom?"

 

But Mrs. O'Neil simply yanked April's arm painfully and said, "We're leaving! Now!"

 

"Why are you doing this?!" April yelled as she was dragged away.

 

"Because I'm your MOTHER!" snarled Mrs. O'Neil. But when she turned back to look April in the eyes, it was no longer Mrs. O'Neil's face that looked down at her. Instead a horrifying, pink, wrinkled face glared down at the redhead.

 

April screamed in terror at the sight, and tried to pull away, only to find that instead of a hand, her wrist was wrapped in a tentacle that she couldn't pull free from.

 

"Let her go!" shouted Casey as he and the others charged forward with their weapons raised.

 

Miwa managed to slice through the tentacle trapping April, and Mikey and Raph dragged her away from the monster and helped her back to her feet.

 

They watched in horror as the creature screeched in pain at the loss of another of her limbs, and before their eyes they saw her begin to change. Her entire body inflated, growing more and more spider-like limbs. Volcano-shaped holes peppered her back, and her hideous head was mounted upon a veiny neck.

 

"Oh my gosh," April said weakly as she stared at the horrifying creature.

 

"I think I'm gonna puke," said Casey with a disgusted expression on his face.

 

"Move!" shouted Raph, and they all bolted in the direction of the barn, Casey only pausing long enough to grab the axe from the wood chopping stump to use as a weapon.

 

Momster let out a screeching wail before scuttling after them. Gaining on them with every step.

 

Once everyone was in the barn, Raph slammed the door shut, and Casey shoved the padlock in place.

 

Most of the teens' attention stayed on the door as they heard Momster beat against it from the outside, but the wood seemed to hold. Miwa, however, turned her attention inwards, and rushed over to Donnie's workbench, and grabbed the supply of Boom Stars that were kept there.

 

Just as she made her way back to the others, they all froze as they heard the sound of Momster beating against the door fall silent.

 

For a minute, everyone held their breath as they waited for what would happen next.

 

Then, suddenly, the ground burst up beneath their feet, and Momster rose up out of it with a screech.

 

One of her tentacles shot towards April, only to be sliced in half by Raph.

 

Casey tried to get some height and jump down at the Momster with his axe, but he was tossed into the hayloft for his troubles.

 

Miwa and Mikey were attacking at the creature's legs, and while they distracted the Momster, Raph took that as an opportunity to land a roundhouse kick to her face.

 

Furious at this, Momster tried to crawl up to the ceiling and shoot green slime at them from the holes on her back, but Casey swung down from the hayloft and attacked her with his axe.

 

As Momster crashed back to the ground and screeched at them again, Raph said, "There's no way to stop this thing!"

 

"She was frozen when we found her, maybe we can freeze her again!" said April.

 

"No!" shouted Casey. "We fry it!"

 

Catching onto his meaning Mikey let Casey plant his foot in his hands, and launch the vigilante over Momster's back and land in front of the circuit breaker of the barn.

 

"Goongala!" called Casey to catch the Momster's attention, and when one of her giant hands shot in his direction, he ducked to the side and opened the circuit breaker. Momster's hand hit that instead, and she screeched as the electricity shot up her arm, and engulfed her body.

 

While Momster was writhing in pain at the electrocution, Miwa began pelting her with Boom Stars for good measure.

 

As the explosives went off, and the circuit breaker shorted out, the others waited on baited breath to see if that had worked.

 

But when the smoke cleared, Momster was still glaring down at them, and let out another screech.

 

"Okay, that didn't work," said Mikey as they all backed away from the beast. "Now how are we supposed to freeze her again?"

 

"We just got to hack it to pieces!" Casey replied, and all those with blades launched themselves at the monster.

 

Only for a giant tentacle to shoot out of the largest hole on her back and snatch all four of them out of the air.

 

Mikey, Raph, Casey and Miwa struggled fruitlessly against the tentacles grip, but before they could break free they were all dragged down into Momsters biggest hole.

 

April screamed at the sight and began backing away. "This is not happening!" she shouted to herself, clutching her head in despair. "It's not! It's  _NOT!"_

 

" _April."_  said Momster, making April's head snap up to stare at the creature in horror.  _"We can be together. No more pain. No more sorrow."_

 

As April watched in horror, the faces of Leo and Donnie appeared in Momster's neck, their expressions blank and unnerving.

 

Unbidden, April remembered Raph telling her that this monster had done something to the two of them, and it looks like she now knew exactly what.

 

" _Join us,_ " Donnie's face groaned unemotionally.

 

" _Become one,"_ Leo's face said, just as disturbingly blank.

 

Momster's main head then lowered into April's line of sight, and she was horrified to see it had once again morphed into the visage of her mother smiling kindly, as if her head wasn't attached to a monstrous horror.  _"One of us!"_ she said, her face splitting into a disturbing grin.  _"One of us!"_

 

Clutching her ears to block out the horrible sound, April shouted, "You are  _NOT_ my mother!" before she tried to bolting for the barn door.

 

But the giant tentacle that had dragged her friends to their fate reappeared and wrapped around April, dragging her back towards the monster.

 

" _We will be a family again!"_ Momster crowed happily to her as April struggled to get free. " _It's all we ever wanted!"_

 

As April was lifted up to be dragged down into the monster, she let out one last scream and felt something inside her go ' _snap!'_

 

A golden light burst out from April's head, growing brighter and more blinding by the second, and was accompanied by a powerful pulsing wave.

 

Momster let out a wail as the golden light scorched her skin, and she was engulfed by the glow.

 

Just as suddenly as the light appeared, it was gone, and so was Momster, leaving the seven teens sprawled across the barn floor surrounded by shredded tentacles and green slime.

 

Groaning, they all climbed back to their feet, and April looked around at her friends in concern. "You guys okay?" she asked.

 

"Let me put it to you this way," said Donnie woozily as he got up, and immediately began to teeter over, and April had to reach over to catch him before he fell. "I'm pretty sure I swallowed about fifteen pounds of slime."

 

"I feel like if puke could puke it would be us," groaned Mikey, before clapping his hands over his mouth, and darting out of the barn to throw up.

 

Leo, meanwhile, sent April a kind smile. "Thanks, April."

 

April managed to return his smile, but they could all tell that on the inside she was heartbroken.

 

____________________________

 

They found Metalhead back in the basement. He had a few new dents in him and his legs and rockets were busted, but it wasn't anything Donnie couldn't fix. The little robot was up and running again in a heartbeat, and was very happy to see they were all safe.

 

With Metalhead's help, Mikey showed the others the files they'd found on Momster.

 

"Like I said before, the Kraang made that thing to catch April," he said as Donnie looked over the information. "Looks like they somehow stuck all her real mom's memories into it to make it more real. Like in that comic  _Attack of the Bodyjacker_ issue ten."

 

"So what was it?" asked Raph.

 

"Some sort of early infiltration experiment that utilized a combination of Mrs. O'Neil's DNA and Kraang DNA," Donnie answered as he read through the logs. "But it was too dangerous."

 

"So the Kraang put it in stasis," said Miwa darkly, glaring at the cryo tube that had once housed the monster.

 

Glancing at April, who hadn't said a word since they'd left the barn and was now sitting in a corner nearby, Leo said, "Guys, do we have to talk about this right now?"

 

Wincing in sympathy, Casey went over to sit next to April, and asked, "April, you okay?"

 

April sighed gloomily, but said, "Yeah. It just feels like I've lost my family all over again. Even if it really wasn't my mom. Maybe she really is gone forever, but maybe… maybe she's still out there. Somewhere…"

 

Mikey and Metalhead both shot glances at Miwa, remembering her theory about the real Mrs. O'Neil from the kitchen earlier that day, but Miwa shook her head and signaled for them to stay silent about it.

 

Oblivious to that silent conversation, Leo limped over to April and said, "You can't give up hope. Trust me on that."

 

He held out his hand for her to take, and April managed a small smile and took it, allowing Leo to pull her to her feet.

 

"And you haven't lost your family, 'cause we are your family," said Mikey brightly, wrapping his arms around Donnie and Raph's shoulders as he did so.

 

He then leaned over to whisper in Donnie's ear, "Literally, if you and her get married someday (by the way, I dibs best man)."

 

Donnie turned bright red and jerked away from Mikey, sputtering as he did so.

 

April snickered slightly at the sight, only for her to quickly switch to concern as she saw Donnie freeze and turn his face turn ashen in the dim light of the ship. "What is it?" she asked.

 

"I-I just remembered," he said, looking horrified. "Before Momster got me she had this canister of mutagen that she was going to poison the creek with. I saved the creek, but the ooze still spilled somewhere nearby."

 

The other teens all paled and bolted out of the house to try and find it before some creature came into contact with it.

 

But when they arrived there the mutagen was gone, and they all failed to realize that the constant croaking of the frogs that lived by the creek had now gone silent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, Beth is the name of April's mother in the IDW comics, so I decided to use it here. Quite a bit different this time around. I figured Miwa would be more suspicious, and Metalhead would see something in his scans to get them on Mikey's side of the argument, therefore adding more weight to it. The part about Leo warning Raph before the creature completely took him over is a headcanon of mine, as is the name Momster. Also, it's looking like the slapping thing is working fore everyone but Leo.


	45. Dream a Little Dream of Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strange things are once again happening around the farmhouse. Meanwhile, Miwa's over training is starting to come to a head.

After the fiasco with Momster, April was gloomy for almost a week before the combined efforts of all the teens managed to cheer her up.

 

Unfortunately, during that time Mikey went a little overboard with his goofing around and trying to cheer her up while watching his favorite cartoon, resulting in him making a complete mess of the house all over again.

 

Not happy at the thought of having to clean the house  _again_ after having just finished doing that the day Momster was found, Mikey's siblings ended up being more harsh than usual when they yelled at him about it. This led to Mikey deciding to run away from the farmhouse, and find out just what had happened to the mutagen Momster had spilled in the woods.

 

Apparently a whole tribe of frogs had gotten into it, and now lived in a massive tree house in the middle of the forest. Mikey found himself befriending one of them, a sarcastic amphibian named Napoleon Bonafrog.

 

This led to a miscommunication about Mikey's home at the farmhouse, and the frogs believing Mikey's turtle brothers were being held hostage by the human members of the farmhouse.

 

Chaos ensued, and Donnie, April, and Casey were dragged off into the night, while Raph, Leo and Miwa (who refused to be captured, and had managed to scare off any frog who tried) followed to rescue them.

 

Needless to say, Mikey was not happy to see his brother and two friends strung up in cages when they got to the tree.

 

"Hey!" he shouted as he ran towards where Donnie and the others were. "What is this? What are you doing to my brother and my friends!?"

 

"Brother? Friends?" asked one of Napoleon's brothers, Attila the Frog. "You said these humans were terrible to you. You escaped."

 

"Really, Mikey," said Donnie dryly as he heard that. "I know we were jerks, (sorry about that) but isn't saying you 'escaped' from us a little dramatic?"

 

Mikey chuckled weakly, and tried to explain things to the frogs, but the second they heard he used to be human too, they threw him into another cage for good measure.

 

Fortunately, Napoleon proved to be a true friend, and helped release Mikey and the others from their cages, before standing up to his brothers about their intolerance of humans. Unfortunately, Leo, Raph, and Miwa showed up at exactly the wrong moment, and the top of the tree quickly dissolved into a brawl.

 

During the fight, a candle was knocked over, setting the tree ablaze. Mutants and humans alike had to flee to avoid being burned to a crisp with Napoleon leading the evacuation, and in the confusion, April and Casey managed to pull Attila out of harm's way, saving his life before the tree could explode and kill him.

 

After they all regrouped on the ground, Attila decided to reevaluate his opinion on humans, and promoted Napoleon to general.

 

The frogs left to travel south to Louisiana, but not before Mikey made his new pal promise to friend him on facebook the second he got a computer.

 

But what none of them saw in the explosion of the tree, was that the mutagen the frogs had been using to expand their tribe had gone flying and landed on a freeway, where it was later run over by a purple sports car.

 

____________________________

 

Donnie gasped for breath as he ran. He could tell he was barely getting enough oxygen in his lungs, but he couldn't slow down. He couldn't stop. If he did, that  _thing_...

 

Donnie shuddered and dismissed the thought before it finished. He didn't know what that thing would do to him, and he didn't want to find out.

 

But as he bolted through the empty streets of New York, he found himself skidding to a stop in front of the reflective glass of a shop window, and stare in shock at his reflection.

 

"What the heck?" he gasped.

 

What was looking back at him wasn't his reflection. Instead a tall, lean, mutant turtle with a purple mask over Donatello's own brown eyes stared back in shock.

 

Donnie opened his mouth question what was going, only to start in surprise as the turtle mimicked him perfectly, and he caught sight of a gap in the turtle's teeth just like his own.

 

Realization slowly sank in, and Donnie looked at his green hands, then reached up to touch his face and said aloud, "So this is what I look like as a turtle. But hold on, when did I-?"

 

But before he could fully voice the question (or freak out at the fact he was somehow inexplicably a turtle), he caught sight of a dark shadow looming over him from behind.

 

Screaming in terror that his pursuer had caught up to him, Donnie bolted away as fast as his now green legs could carry him. Though, in the back of his mind, he wondered how it was possible for him to move this well if he'd apparently just mutated. It felt as though he'd been in this body his whole life, rather than only just gaining it.

 

But a reappearance of the creature chasing Donnie had the genius having to dodge quickly as it tried to capture him had him, banishing the inquiry from his mind. Strange or not, he wasn't going to complain about being able to move if it kept him alive.

 

But just as soon as he dismissed that question, another one occurred to him as he ran through a back alley of New York City. "Wait, how did I get here?" he asked himself.

 

But before he could contemplate it, he spotted his pursuer out of the corner of his eye, and pushed himself to run faster and escape it.

 

But then, the creature appeared directly in front of him and let out a loud roar. Donnie let out a yelp, and changed directions quickly to avoid it, and continued his running as fast as he could.

 

But no matter how fast or how far he ran, the creature was always right behind him, and that terrified Donnie to the very core.

 

____________________________

 

Outside the farmhouse, the Hamato siblings sans Donnie were once again training in the lawn.

 

It was uplifting for the siblings to see Leo was doing much better now. He was no longer in constant pain whenever he tried to stand on his own, and was quickly picking up on how to properly hold his swords when only having three fingers. As Leo and Miwa practiced their sword katas side by side, Raph and Mikey spared not to far away.

 

"So is Donnie comin' down or what?" Raph called to the others as he dodged a blow from Mikey, before darting behind a tree to avoid his shuriken.

 

"Couldn't wake him up, so I put some dirty underwear on his face!" called Mikey as he ran after Raph, only to blink in surprise as he rounded the tree, and found that his brother was nowhere in sight. He then rolled to the side to avoid Raph attacking him from above.

 

Off to the side, Miwa barely glanced at the two of them as she continued through her katas. "I don't even want to know just whose underwear you stole for that," she called over to them.

 

Mikey just grinned impishly, before blowing a raspberry at Raph to taunt him into attacking him again.

 

Raph scowled as Mikey once again dodged his blow, before catching sight of Leo. With a smirk, he darted forward to sneak attack Leo. Fortunately, Leo was quick on the uptake, and managed to dodge Raph's blows before throwing him a good distance away.

 

Far from angry at this, Raph grinned up at Leo for how much he was improving. "Nice!" he called over to his big brother. "Looking good, Leo. You're really coming along."

 

Leo grinned and sheathed his sword.

 

Just then, April and Casey stepped out of the house and April called, "Hey guys! We're heading down to the store!"

 

"Any requests?" asked Casey as he climbed into the party wagon's driver seat.

 

Mikey ran forward waving his hand in the air. "Oh, oh, oh, I need some spicy gummy worms.  _NEED!_ " he yelled dramatically.

 

Casey rolled his eyes. "Yeah, he's not gonna have that."

 

"The store is tiny, Mikey," April elaborated upon seeing his kicked puppy expression. "It's the kind of place that has peanut butter  _or_  jelly."

 

"Donnie not going with you?" called Miwa as she saw the redhead climb into the van. Even though Donnie wasn't jealous of Casey's friendship with April, and he trusted her, but he still didn't like his girlfriend going off alone with other guys (especially since some of the local teenagers tended to hit on April every time they went into town).

 

"I knocked on his door, but all I heard was snoring," April replied as she buckled her seatbelt. "I think he was up all night working on the retro-mutagen again. Better to let him get some sleep. Metalhead is keeping watch in the barn for him"

 

With that, Casey called, "Be back in a few," before pulling the party wagon out of the driveway and driving off.

 

Once they were gone, Leo turned to Raph and said, "Okay, let's do this."

 

Raph nodded and readied his fists once again, and the two backed away from each other to resume their spar.

 

He then ran at Leo for a punch, and Leo blocked him, and managed to land some blows. But then Leo tried for a jump kick and Raph brought his fist up to block it, and Leo cried out in pain as their limbs connected.

 

Landing on his other leg, Leo fell to the ground in a crouch, clutching at the leg that had hurt him.

 

The positive feeling the siblings had had evaporated in that instant, and they gathered around the blue wearing turtle to make sure he was all right.

 

"Leo, you okay?" asked Mikey in concern. "You need more medicine?"

 

Leo scowled at the thought of the foul tasting mutagen. "How much more of that stuff do I have to take?" he asked impatiently.

 

"The bottle is almost empty," said Miwa in hopes of calming him down. "Donnie said that by his calculations you shouldn't need any more than that."

 

Leo groaned, and pushed himself back to his feet and began limping towards the farmhouse. Mikey moved to help him, but Leo batted his hands away insisting he was fine. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm just- I'm gonna take a minute."

 

"Good," Raph called after him in concern. "Some rest should help."

 

With training pretty much over for the day, Raph and Mikey both started heading for the farmhouse as well. Glancing over his shoulder at Miwa, Mikey called, "You coming, Sis?"

 

"Nah," said Miwa as she started doing her katas again. "I'm gonna keep going. You go make sure Leo's okay."

 

Mikey hesitated. Miwa had been out there training long before the brothers had come to join her, and he didn't like how red-faced and sweaty Miwa looked, or how she seemed to be short on breath.

 

But he knew if he said anything about his concerns Miwa would shoot him down faster than you could say 'chocolate-jalapeno-jellybean-pizza'. So instead he said, "How about I bring you out a water bottle. Need to keep those fluids up."

 

"Yeah, that'd be great, thanks," said Miwa distractedly as she kept most of her focus on her sword strikes.

 

Mikey sighed, and hurried into the house to get that water bottle. Honestly, Miwa's constant training was starting to worry him, and he knew he wasn't the only one.

 

____________________________

 

Inside the house, Leo was trying to take a nap on the couch despite the TV playing reruns of Crognard the Barbarian in the background.

 

But then, another painful twinge in his leg had the newest turtle bolting upright and massaging the appendage ruefully.

 

"Sleeping isn't gonna help," he growled to himself as he reached for his crutch. "Guys, I'm going for a walk!" he called to the other inhabitants of the house.

 

"Rock on, Bro!" Mikey called back to show he heard him, and Leo made his way out the door.

 

Upon seeing the star filled sky above him, Leo realized he must have been napping for longer than he'd thought. Though strangely, he didn't feel at all refreshed. If anything, he felt even more tired and sore now than he had when he'd laid down. He blamed the feelings on his mutation, and wished the elixir Donnie had made would do its work already.

 

As he made his way across the yard, he consoled himself with the fact that at least Miwa wasn't still out practicing. His sister had been working herself to the bone lately, and he was growing concerned. Especially since his brothers told him that she'd been acting like that even before he'd woken up.

 

As he limped through the forest with each step seeming more painful than the last, he began grumbling to himself about how it was taking far too long for him to be able to move properly. Raph and Mikey didn't have the problems he'd had, and both had managed to overcome the strangeness of their mutation in far less time than it was taking Leo. So what was so wrong with him that it was taking forever for him to be able to move on his own?

 

Finally, as his frustrations hit it's peak, Leo threw his crutch to the ground and groaned, "I'm never gonna get better!"

 

Staring upward at the star-filled sky, Leo caught sight of shooting stars flying across the horizon. As he absentmindedly wondered if he should make a wish on them, another bright spot in the sky caught his eye. As he watched, the blue glow got bigger and bigger, until Leo had to scramble for cover before a meteor flew out of the sky and nearly took his head off.

 

The meteor crashed into the Earth a few yards away, and Leo blinked at it owlishly.

 

Curiosity won over caution, and Leo pushed himself to his feet and walked over to get a better look at the meteor.

 

It was a big, black, crater-covered ball with glowing blue veins covering its surface. Unable to help himself, Leo reached out and laid his open palm against its surface, and smiled as the warm blue glow spread across his body.

 

The smile quickly turned to a shout of alarm as the glow shocked him worse than Casey's taser. There was a pulse, and Leo felt himself getting flung away from the meteor.

 

He hit a tree, then fell and landed hard on his stomach. But his eyes popped open the second he hit the ground, and he muttered, "Weird, that didn't hurt."

 

Then he caught sight of his hands and he felt as though his heart stopped in his chest.

 

The hands before him were not the large, green, three-fingered hands he'd been slowly getting used too. They were  _his_  hands. His  ** _human_**  hands!

 

Leo jumped to his feet, and quickly drew his sword to get a glimpse of his reflection.

 

Staring back at him was the face he'd seen in the mirror for fifteen years. Short black hair, Asian features with dark blue eyes, and the blue mask and ninja garb he wore on missions.

 

"I'm me again," he whispered to himself in wonder as he nearly dropped his sword in shock at this revelation. Donnie wouldn't have to spare their precious retro-mutagen supply on him, Tang Shen, Mikey and Raph, and all the people of New York could be human again too without the need for a mammoth amount of the ooze and the time it would take to prepare.

 

It was a dream come true.

 

In ecstasy at this news, Leo turned and bolted towards the farmhouse on his now healed and painless human legs. Already plans were flying through his head of what he and his team could do now that he was better. They could take back New York. They could beat the Kraang back to the freaky dimension from whence they'd come. They could reunite with their  _families_  again. Suddenly everything was looking up.

 

But then as he ran, Leo noticed that he was moving much faster than he had ever gone before. The trees were flashing by him in a blur, and he skidded to a stop in surprise.

 

"Whoa!" he said as he realized what had happened. To test it, he started running again, shooting past the farmhouse at breakneck speeds. Letting out a whoop, Leo tried jumping off the trees and found himself leaping higher and farther than he's ever had before. With one kick he was able to split a thick tree in half without even breaking a sweat.

 

Coming to a stop, Leo let out an exhilarated laugh, feeling utter amazement at what he was now able to do.

 

In his opinion, the night couldn't get any better.

 

____________________________

 

The warm spring sun reflected brightly off the party wagon's vivid paint job as April and Casey pulled into the parking lot of  _Bernie's General,_  the closest store to the house.

 

The two stepped into the store and April began browsing the aisles. Casey made his way to the front of the store, and paused as something behind the register caught his eye.

 

April, meanwhile, was keeping an eye out for what they needed, when she stopped short of nearly bumping into someone.

 

Looking up, April jumped back with a yelp at the sight of the man's wrinkled old face, bad teeth, and sunken eyes that looked like he hadn't slept in a long time.

 

But then the man grinned and said in a friendly tone, "Hey there. The name's Bernie, I just bought this place."

 

Casey raised an eyebrow at that, and glanced around the rundown store. "On purpose?" he asked in disbelief.

 

Bernie ignored the question and began unloading a box of merchandise onto a nearby shelf. "Finding everything you need?"

 

April glanced around the store, and decided she owed it to Mikey to at least ask. "You got any spicy gummy worms?"

 

"Is that bait?" asked Bernie, leaning uncomfortably close to April as he asked. "You mean bait?"

 

"It's candy," April said, taking a hesitant step back.

 

Bernie didn't seem to notice her discomfort and moved down the aisle to a large glass jar. "Oh ho, I got candy," he said as he pulled off the lid, and peered down into the jar.

 

"What kind?" April asked.

 

Bernie frowned slightly as he studied the jar in his hand, as if trying to remember the answer. "Brown… but it used to be yellow."

 

April made a face at that. Despite Mikey's cast-iron stomach, she figured she'd better spare him from putting it to the test. "No thanks," she said.

 

While April was distracting the shop owner, Casey made his way around the counter to get a better look at what had caught his eye.

 

Locked inside a wood and glass box behind the counter was a freaky looking book that reminded Casey of something out of a horror movie. There were also some strange words scrawled across some pieces of tape pasted down on the surface.

 

"Ob-Obturaculum Som-Somniorum?" he read aloud, having some difficulty sounding out the words.

 

As he reached out to touch the case, his hand was caught in mid air, and he turned to see an angry looking Bernie glaring back at him. "No one touches that book," he hissed angrily. "Understand?"

 

Casey gasped and nodded as he jerked away from the creepy guy.

 

Oblivious to this, April came up to the counter with a box full of groceries. "Hey, I got what we need," she said brightly. "Should last a few days."

 

As she placed the food on the counter to ring up, Bernie glanced over it and raised an eyebrow. "So I thought nobody lived around here," he said pleasantly, as if he hadn't just freaked Casey out.

 

"Why would you buy a store where you thought nobody lives?" asked April in confusion.

 

Bernie shrugged. "Eh, I like my alone time." He sent them a suspicious look. "The amount of stuff you're buying must be for six or seven people."

 

Casey shrugged nervously. "Nah, just four. The two of us and some friends."

 

Bernie frowned like he didn't believe them. "Uh-huh. Tell me, you been tired lately?" he asked suspiciously. "Real tired?"

 

Casey and April exchanged creeped-out looks and quickly ducked out the door. "Nope," April called as they left. "We're fine." Then they slammed the door behind them and hurried for the party wagon, eager to put some distance between themselves and the crazy old man.

 

After they were gone, Bernie glanced back at the locked up book, and sighed. "Maybe it won't happen this time."

 

____________________________

 

Under the starry sky, Leo leaped through the air with a whoop. "Check me out!" he cheered. "I am a superhero!"

 

Skidding to a stop, Leo pumped his fist in the air. The Kraang didn't stand a chance now. And for that matter, maybe not even the Shredder.

 

But before he could ponder this further, a voice rang out in the darkness. "What does every superhero need?"

 

Leo whipped around and scanned the forest for the source of the voice. He was slightly disappointed that the meteor hadn't given him X-ray vision, as he wasn't able to catch sight of whoever was with him.

 

"Who's there?" Leo called suspiciously.

 

The response came as a whisper right into his ear. "Dire Beaver!"

 

Leo jumped and turned towards the voice, only to freeze when he saw no one there.

 

"I'm everything you've ever feared in one convenient horrifying package," the voice continued smugly as Leo continued to try and spot the source. "And I'm gonna teach you somethin' about  _PAIN!_ "

 

The last word was shouted right in Leo's ear, but the second he turned he saw nothing.

 

A second later, he cried out in agony as long claws raked across his back, and made him fall forward onto the grass. He rolled over to try and get back up, but a furry foot came down on his chest, and he looked up to see a giant purple beaver with a white mark on its stomach that looked like an exploding skull, laughing his head off.

 

Leo struggled to get out from under his foot, but Dire Beaver just pressed down harder making it hard for Leo to breathe.

 

His dream come true was now starting to look a lot like a nightmare.

 

____________________________

 

Mikey grinned as he bit down on the marker cap in his mouth and worked on his masterpiece.

 

Raph, who was observing his baby brother's antics, rolled his eyes and remarked. "Man, he must have been tired."

 

Mikey looked up from where he was doodling all over Leo's face as he slept on the couch, and beamed.

 

Raph then raised an eye-ridge and asked, "Aren't you kinda stealing Mi's thing? She's the one who loves to draw on us when we sleep, not you. You usually just hit us with water balloons."

 

"Yeah, her drawings are always super hilarious," said Mikey with a laugh. Then his face sobered, and he added. "I went out and told her Leo was a prime target right now, but all she said was 'That's nice,' and kept training. I'm getting worried about her."

 

Raph let out a sigh. "You and me both, little brother," he admitted. "You and me both."

 

They were silent for a moment, before Mikey brightened and pulled back to see his handiwork.

 

Leo now had a nose drawn where his human one used to be, and several arrows pointing into his mouth with the words ' _insert pizza here'._

 

"He looks good, don'tcha think?" Mikey said. "Handsome."

 

"Nice work," said Raph dryly. "Maybe if you're lucky he'll think Mi did it and won't kill you when he wakes up." He then yawned, and said, "You know, I'm pretty tired myself. A little shut eye wouldn't hurt anything right?"

 

The red wearing turtle then settled himself into a reclining chair next to Leo's couch and allowed himself to relax.

 

Mikey let out his own yawn, before saying. "Me too."

 

But first…

 

Mikey inched over to Raph with his marker at the ready, but without even opening his eyes, Raph said, "Don't even think about it."

 

Mikey wilted and pulled back. He then curled up in the rocking chair and said, "Naps are nature's hugs," before drifting off to dreamland.

 

Outside the house, Miwa looked up from her training as she heard the sound of the party wagon pulling in the driveway.

 

The momentary distraction was enough to break the kunoichi's concentration and allow her body to tell her just how tired it was. The exhaustion hit her like a tone of bricks, and even with her stubbornness, she knew she wouldn't be doing any more practice until later.

 

With her arms suddenly feeling like lead, Miwa sheathed her sword, and decided it was time for a break before she passed out from exhaustion. Scooping up the water bottle Mikey had brought her, and thirstily downing its contents in a long, chugging gulp, she made her way towards the party wagon to see if the two shoppers needed help unloading.

 

"How'd it go?" she asked as she approached.

 

April looked up at the sight of her, and said, "Well, the shop owner was a real weirdo, and there were no spicy gummy worms. But other than that, it went fine."

 

"Evil weirdo, or just backwater yokel weirdo?" asked Miwa, knowing that with them, the former was far more common than the later.

 

"For once it looks like it was yokel weirdo," replied Casey. "Just a really weird dude with a freaky book." He then looked Miwa over and took in her disheveled appearance, and asked, "You okay Babe? You don't look so hot."

 

Miwa shrugged off his concern with a brisk, "I'm fine. Nothing a snack and a nap won't fix in a jiff."

 

"Well," said April as she shoved the groceries into Casey's hands and started steering him towards the house. "Now that we have food, a snack should be no problem."

 

The three entered, and placed the groceries into the kitchen. "Hey Mikey!" shouted April as she began unpacking them. "Come help me with this! You'll complain you can't find anything otherwise!"

 

There was no answer.

 

"Mikey?" called April again, searching the house orange masked turtle.

 

The sound of snoring drew her, Miwa, and Casey to the living room where they saw the three turtles passed out there.

 

"We're out taking care of business, and what are they doing?" Casey scoffed. "Squat."

 

"It's fine, I was out on lookout," said Miwa as she munched on the apple she'd snagged from the groceries to eat.

 

"Casey, go wake Donnie up," said April as she headed back to the kitchen. "He's been napping long enough."

 

"On it, Red," Casey called as he headed up the stairs.

 

Miwa finished her apple, but her stomach was still growling. As much as she wanted a nap herself, she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep restfully unless she satisfied her hunger first.

 

So with one last envious look at her siblings, she followed April back to the kitchen to find something more substantial.

 

In one of the upstairs bedrooms, Casey let out a laugh at the sight before him.

 

Donnie lay on his bed, snoring softly. He would have been the picture of serenity were it not for the pair of dirty underwear spread across his face that fluttered every time he breathed out.

 

"Those teeth of yours make you whistle, D?" Casey asked with a wide grin as he shook Donnie's shoulder to wake him up.

 

Initially, he didn't want to move the underwear, wanting to see the look on the genius' face when he woke up with it there, but then the hockey jock noticed something.

 

"Hey! Those are mine!" he squawked, snatching the underwear off, and tossing them away. "Stupid Mikey."

 

He then turned his attention back to Donnie, and was a little impressed that he hadn't woken up from that. "Hey, D, rise and shine," he said, shaking Donnie's shoulder again.

 

Donnie snored on.

 

"Donnie?" asked Casey, shaking him harder. "Earth to Donatello. Wake up, man."

 

No response.

 

Casey took a deep breath and bellowed right in the genius' ear,  ** _"WAKE UP!"_**  He then grabbed a glass of water from the bedside table and splashed it in Donnie's face for good measure.

 

His only answer was more whistle-filled Zzzs. Something was  _really_  wrong.

 

Rushing from the room, he yelled down to the kitchen, "Guys! Something's wrong! Donnie won't wake up!"

 

Miwa, who had been about to drift off at the kitchen table, jerked awake and shared a horrified glance with April, before they both rushed up the stairs, not even noticing that the other three brothers had not even twitched at the sound of the shouting.

 

____________________________

 

Donnie stared in horror at the sight before him.

 

He was finally getting a good look at the monster that had been chasing him, and he was really wishing that he hadn't.

 

"Peek-a-boo," said the creature maniacally. "I see you."

 

Donnie turned tail and ran as fast as he could, but he didn't get far before he found himself crashing into a red, fuzzy tummy with the image of a flaming skull on it.

 

Backing away in terror, he saw the monster grin down at him with his glowing red eyes, and over-sized yellow teeth. "I am Dark Beaver," he said almost conversationally. "May I eat you? You look salty."

 

Donnie screamed his head off and dodged as Dark Beaver tried to chomp his head off. He dodged two more times before he had to pull his head into his shell to avoid a third bite.

 

Running blindly through a door, Donnie slammed it behind him, before pulling his head back out of his shell.

 

"So that's what that feels like," he muttered to himself as he searched for a place to hide.

 

He barely registered that he was now somehow inside his school, when suddenly all of the classroom and locker doors flew open and school supplies were thrown violently out of them.

 

Down the hall, two Dark Beavers appeared in the doorways of adjacent classrooms, and gave Donnie a hungry look.

 

"This can't be real!" Donnie yelped, as more Dark Beavers began crawling out of the woodwork and making their way towards him. "I must be  _dreaming!_  I-I just have to wake up! That's it! Wake UP!" he shouted hysterically as he slapped himself across the face.

 

The Dark Beavers only laughed as they drew ever closer.

 

Slapping himself repeatedly, Donnie screeched at himself, "Wake up! Wake UP! WAKE UP!"

 

Dark Beaver loomed over him with his claws coming down at Donnie's face, seeming to be amused by Donnie's attempts.

 

Donnie clenched his eyes shut and gave himself one last slap.

 

He then sat bolt upright in bed with a cry of "NO!"

 

Breathing heavily, Donnie searched the darkened room for Dark Beaver, even checking under the bed like he used too when he was afraid of the dark as a child.

 

Seeing no sign of the nightmarish beaver, Donnie sat back on the bed with a sigh of relief.

 

Only to tense in horror when he realized that even though he'd 'woken up' he was still a turtle.

 

His horror only mounted when a voice rang out next to his ear. "Still here," said Dark Beaver sadistically, running one of his claws down the side of Donnie's green face. "Still going to eat you, my salty, salty friend."

 

Donnie leaped from the bed with a terrified wail, and bolted out the door, the sound of Dark Beaver's laughter following him as he went.

 

____________________________

 

In the real world, Casey and Miwa carried the very human, but completely unconscious Donnie down the stairs to lay him next to his brothers. It hadn't taken the three teens still awake to notice the three turtles were not waking up either. And with it being far too warm for them to be hibernating, that could only mean that whatever was affecting Donnie was affecting them too.

 

"Come on, dude, wake up already," Casey groaned as he and Miwa deposited Donnie none to gently on the ground.

 

"That's not going to work," April snapped as she saw their manhandling of her boyfriend.

 

"It was worth a try," said Casey with a shrug. "Plus, like this he can't hit me back."

 

April rolled her eyes, and turned her attention to Metalhead.

 

The short robot scanned all four brothers, before pulling up the holograms of their vitals for the others to see.

 

April frowned at the holograms and said, "I don't understand it. According to this all four of them are fine physically. They just won't wake up. It's like they're trapped. Trapped in their dreams."

 

Miwa stifled a yawn, and turned to look at Raph, whose face was pinched as if he was having a nightmare.

 

"Well how do we un-trap them?" she asked as she shook her brother slightly in a vain attempt to wake him.

 

Casey and April had no answer to that.

 

____________________________

 

Raph could only blink at the sight before him.

 

He was seated at one end of the kitchen table in the Renaissance Dojo. Staring back at them from their seats at the table was his family, but something about them was… off.

 

Then, for an instant the scene flashed in front of his eyes, and his family's faces were replaced by those of horrible creatures, and a hole was bunched through the middle of the table by a massive orange claw.

 

Following the claw came a giant orange beaver with glowing red eyes and a swirling skull on his stomach. "I am Dread Beaver!" the monster announced. "And your soul is  _mine!"_

 

Before Raph could even blink, he found himself bound to his chair by snakes as blue flames lit the area in an eerie glow, and swinging punching bags flew all around him.

 

The kitchen table was replaced by a massive stage made of orange stone, where his siblings were playing heavy metal music upon it. Donnie was playing a single string guitar, Leo was head-banging on an electric guitar, Mikey was beating wildly at the drums, and Miwa was wailing into a microphone even though the lyrics she was singing were indiscernible. All four of them had their faces hidden in shadow, and had eerily vacant looks in their glowing yellow eyes.

 

Dread Beaver then clapped his paws together, and a massive snake appeared and loomed over the heads of Raph and his siblings.

 

All Raph could do was scream.

 

____________________________

 

Mikey laughed happily as he skipped through a sugar-filled world that would give Willy Wonka cavities.

 

Slapping a high-three with a lollipop as he ran past, Mikey skidded to a stop in front of a giant blue beaver with a pink heart on his belly, and a wide grin on his face.

 

"I'm Dave Beaver," said the beaver with a stupid sounding laugh, "I'ma supposed ta scare you."

 

"Really?" asked Mikey with a chuckle at the absurdity of that statement. "Then I guess you should have left your adorable buck teeth at home, Dave."

 

Dave's grin widened, showing off said teeth. "They are adorable, aren't they," he said as he wagged his tail happily.

 

"And check out your widdle paddle tail," Mikey cooed as he saw it. "You wanna play ping-pong?"

 

Dave laughed happily. "I kinda do, yeah."

 

"Sweet!" Mikey cheered, and a peppermint ball came flying out of nowhere and bopped Mikey on the head. As the ball giggled gleefully, Mikey bunted it into the air, and began a game of ping-pong with Dave.

 

This was too much fun.

 

____________________________

 

In the real world, Miwa and Casey looked surprised as they examined Mikey's face. "Mikey actually kinda looks okay," Casey remarked as the orange wearing turtle sighed contently.

 

"Except for the fact he won't, you know,  _wake up!_ " Miwa snapped.

 

April, who had been pouring over Metalhead's scans of the brothers, spoke up. "Guys, Metalhead just took another scan, and it's really bad. They're pulses are getting weaker, all of them."

 

"So they're sick?" asked Casey in confusion, concern growing on his face.

 

"No, you think," Miwa asked sarcastically. Her exhausted state and worry for her brothers was making her more irritable than usual.

 

Metalhead let out a negative sounding beep, and April shook her head. "No other signs of any illness, but I feel something strange," she said as she crouched next to Donnie, and lay her hand on his head. "Like something is draining the life out of them."

 

"And if it got them, it could get us too," said Miwa. "We can't stay awake forever." It looked like her nap would have to wait. "Can you get through to them somehow?" she asked April.

 

April lifted Donnie's head into her lap, and said, "I can try." She'd never actively tried to use her psychic powers before, but if there was ever a need for them it was now.

 

Suddenly, Casey snapped his fingers as something occurred to him, and said, "Wait! That Bernie guy asked if we've been feeling tired!"

 

April hugged Donnie's head to her chest as she caught on to what Casey was thinking. "And that book he had! Somniorum! I-it's Latin for dreams, or of the dreams I think."

 

"Just plain ol' backwater yokel weird, huh?" said Miwa bitingly. "Should have known."

 

Casey nodded in agreement and hurried over to his golf bag and grabbed his bat out of it. "Babe and I will go see what's in that book," he said to April as he made his way to the door. "Red, you do what you can here."

 

Both girls nodded in agreement, and as Miwa picked up her tantō and followed Casey out the door, April pressed her fingers to Donnie's head and concentrated. Then the world fell away as April put all her mental focus on finding Donnie, and getting him back to her.

 

____________________________

 

Miwa glared out the window as Casey drove the party wagon as fast as he safely could towards the store. Once again she had failed to protect her family, and who knew what was happening to them now. Anything that slowed one's heartbeat had to be bad, and if that shop owner had anything to do with this there would be hell to pay.

 

As she focused on the happy thoughts of just how she would make the man suffer for endangering her brothers, Miwa almost didn't notice her eyes drifting closed, or how her body was starting to relax in the car seat.

 

Fortunately for her, Casey did.

 

With one hand on the steering wheel, Casey leaned over and punched Miwa hard on the shoulder. "Wake up Babe!" he shouted, as Miwa jerked out of her almost slumber. "We can't lose you too!"

 

Miwa shook herself to attempt to clear the drowsiness from her mind, when that didn't fully work, she scowled. "To hell with it," she muttered.

 

She rolled down her window as far as it could go, and one glare sent his way had Casey doing the same. She then reached for the radio controls on the party wagon and turned it to Mikey's favorite station (the one that played the most annoying earworm pop songs available) and cranked it up to full volume.

 

With the party wagon filled with rushing air, and loud perky music, Miwa tensed herself up in her, seat and kept her eyes wide open and glued to the road ahead. "Can't this crate go any faster?" she snapped.

 

Casey winced at the tone of her voice, and pushed the party wagon to speed up. He  _almost_  pitied whatever fate she had in store for Bernie if he did turn out to be the cause of the brothers' sleep.

 

He then scowled as he remembered his friends sprawled in the living room, all but dead to the world as he and the girls tried to wake them to no avail.

 

_Almost._

 

____________________________

 

Donnie had to wonder if it was possible to die from running, because if it was, he felt he was getting dangerously close to it.

 

His breath was coming in short gasps, his chest ached under the shell he didn't remember getting, and his feet felt like they'd fall off his ankles any minute now.

 

But still he kept running, even though no matter how far he went Dark Beaver was right behind him appearing in doorways, or at sudden turns.

 

The world had long stopped making sense, as Donnie had found himself running through the sewers at one point, only to find himself at a TCRI office the next.

 

As Dark Beaver poked his head out of one of the cubicles, Donnie narrowly dodged it and darted into the elevator, only to suddenly burst out of the refrigerator in the Renaissance Dojo's kitchen.

 

Pausing for a brief moment to attempt to catch his breath, a large can of coffee caught Donnie's eye. Quirking an eye-ridge at the image on the can, he picked it up for a closer look.

 

Advertised on the can wearing a poofy, yellow dress and braided pigtails was a girl that bore a striking resemblance to- "Wait? Is that April?" he asked as he peered at the image.

 

Suddenly the coffee girl turned to look Donnie directly in the eyes and yelled, "WAKE UP!"

 

Donnie yelped and dropped the coffee can. Only to pale upon seeing that the kitchen was now filled with multiple Dark Beavers, all of whom were roaring at Donnie.

 

Donnie let out a scream, and started running again.

 

____________________________

 

Leo panted as he tried his best to fight Dire Beaver, but apparently his new superpowers weren't working on the buck-toothed menace.

 

Instead, Dire Beaver's clawed fists pummeled him, each blow hurting more than the last.

 

Finally, with a mighty upper-cut, Leo felt himself flying off his feet and shooting upwards towards the starry sky.

 

As he tumbled through the air, Leo was able to look down and see Dire Beaver launch himself after the him at great speeds.

 

The beaver shot towards him with his fist raised to continue Leo's beating, when suddenly a cheerful jingle filled the air, effectively ruining the tension of the moment.

 

Leo and Dire Beaver found themselves frozen in mid air as they both stared at the pocket of Leo's ninja garb as his cell phone rang within it.

 

"Well," said Dire Beaver impatiently. "Aren't you gonna answer?"

 

Leo blinked, then scowled at the monster. "Okay," he said gruffly as he grabbed his phone and held it to his ear.

 

"LEO!" cried April's voice through the phone. "You have to wake up _! Wake up!"_

 

"I am awake," said Leo exuberantly. "I got superpowers from a meteor, and now I'm fighting a giant  _beaver!_  And-!" Leo paused, and his eyes widened as everything clicked into place. He then frowned and rounded to look at Dire Beaver. "Heyyy, am I dreaming you?" he asked suspiciously.

 

"Not a chance!" Dire Beaver snapped, and he punched Leo in the face hard enough to send him flying into the sun.

 

____________________________

 

Raph screamed his head off as the snakes wrapped him their constricting binds, forcing him to watch as the monster-sized snake eyed him and his siblings hungrily.

 

The Monster-Snake flicked its tongue before diving downwards and snapping Mikey up from his drums. Donnie, Leo, and Miwa all vanished into the snake's jaws soon after, all of them too busy playing music to even try to dodge.

 

With his siblings devoured, the mammoth snake turned its attention to Raph, and began shooting in his direction.

 

Raph struggled fruitlessly against the snakes coiled around him, trying to get away, but he was pinned to the chair, and the monster-snake drew ever closer.

 

An instant before the snake could snatch Raph up in its jaws, April's voice rang out, causing the heavy metal music to come to a screeching halt.

 

"RAPH! YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP!  _NOW!"_ shouted April's voice.

 

Raph blinked as best he could with the smaller snakes coiled around his face. "Huh?" he asked in confusion.

 

The monster-snake drew back and looked almost sheepish. It cleared its throat and said, "Pardon me." Before diving at Raph again with its jaws open wide.

 

____________________________

 

Mikey heaved to catch his breath as Dave Beaver continued to bounce the peppermint ball of his head and shell.

 

"Man, this Ping-Pong is really wearing me out," he groaned to the exuberant looking Dave.

 

Dave grinned gleefully. "That's because I'm draining your life force," he said stupidly.

 

Mikey, not seeing anything wrong with that statement, shrugged and said, "Oh right."

 

Suddenly a lollipop shuffled over to Mikey and whispered, "Psst! Hey, Mikey, April says you should wake up."

 

Mikey rolled his eyes. " _Please_ , I know better than to listen to a giant talking lollipop. Heh, I learned that one the hard way."

 

Just then Dave sent the peppermint ball slamming into Mikey's face, drawing his attention back to the beaver and completely forgetting about the lollipop's message.

 

____________________________

 

Casey breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled the party wagon into the parking lot of  _Bernie's General._  The sheer amount of tension that Miwa had been giving off had had him worried that she would literally bite his head off before they reached their destination. At least now she could focus it on someone who probably deserved it.

 

Though, if Bernie was innocent in all this, then she'd likely turn her anger back on him for wasting their time…

 

Oh man, he hoped Bernie was the bad guy!

 

The two entered the seemingly deserted store, and looked around for any sign of Bernie.

 

As they did, Miwa noticed an empty plaque on the wall above the cash register. "Did there use to be something there?" she asked softly.

 

Casey glanced up at the wooden plaque and frowned, he remembered that there had been  _something_  hanging there, but for the life of him he couldn't remember what. "Let's just find that book and get out of here," he whispered back, sidestepping the question. "Come on, it was over here."

 

With that he led her over to behind the counter, and as Miwa kept lookout, Casey picked the lock on the book's case and lifted it out.

 

But before he could open it, a voice rang out through the shop. "They sent you, didn't they!" shouted Bernie as he appeared from behind a shelf.

 

"Who?" asked Miwa as she glared at him.

 

" _Them!"_  raved Bernie. "The Dream Beavers!"

"Nobody sent-" Casey started to say, but stopped when his brain caught up to what Bernie had just said. "Did you just say Dream Beavers?"

 

"Didn't I tell you no one touches the book!" shouted Bernie, not really listening to his question. Then to Casey's horror, Bernie pulled out a chainsaw and began revving it up.

 

But as Bernie pulled the string to start it, Miwa shot forward in the blink of an eye, and sliced through the string, making Bernie tumble over backwards and drop the now useless chainsaw onto his foot. His shout of pain was cut off as he found Miwa's tantō a hair's breadth from his throat.

 

"I don't give a damn about your Dream Bears, or whatever the hell you just said," said Miwa as she stood over him, and dared the man to give her a reason to gut him. "But if you have something to do with what's happening to my brothers, then that's the last thing you have to worry about."

 

Bernie gulped audible, and stuttered, "T-That book is the o-only thing s-s-standing between this w-world a-and total destruction," he yelped.

 

Miwa's glare hardened, and she crouched down so that she was eye to eye with the shop owner, not once even moving her sword from its position at his throat. Then in a low dangerous voice she hissed, "I. Don't _. Care._   ** _Fix it!"_**

 

Bernie let out a wail and declared Miwa was a demon and he refused to give in to her whims. The look that Miwa leveled at him was utterly terrifying, and Casey was just glad that her wrath wasn't directed towards him.

 

____________________________

 

On the streets of New York, Donnie stood with his bō staff at the ready as he waited for Dark Beaver to show up again, only for him to pop out of nowhere and backhand Donnie hard enough to send him flying into a building.

 

Donnie hit the wall hard, then lay on it like it was the sidewalk. "April," he groaned to himself. "She's trying to tell me some-"

 

Before he could finish his sentence, a newspaper flew by and hit him in the face. Pulling it off, he caught sight of a picture of April on the front page.

 

"You have to wake up!" begged April from within the picture. "Wake UP!"

 

Donnie's eyes widened in realization, and he came to the conclusion for a second time. "This is a… dream!"

 

Dark Beaver scowled from the top of the building, and dove down towards him, only for Donnie to leap to his feet and smack the beaver in the face with his bō.

 

Dark Beaver cracked his jaw from the hit, and glared at Donnie. "So, you figured it out, eh? Very clever. Clever Salty-Boy."

 

With that Dark Beaver dove at Donnie again and slashed him with his claws.

 

Donnie screamed as he felt the claws hit and something seemed to snap. He fell backwards off the building, but upon landing he heard three other thuds next to him as more than just he landed on the street.

 

Looking up, he saw Leo, Raph and Mikey sprawled on the ground next to him looking confused.  _'Four teenage mutant ninja turtles,'_  Donnie thought to himself ruefully.  _'We're finally a matching set.'_

 

"Woah," said Leo as he sat up and rubbed his shell (and looking disappointed at it for some reason). "What's going on?"

 

"I'm having the weirdest dream," Donnie whimpered as he sat up to look at them.

 

All three of his brothers looked at him in confusion until they recognized his voice and gaped at the sight of him, the shock of his appearance making them all momentarily forget their situation.  ** _"DONNIE!"_**  they all shouted in unison.

 

"When did you mutate, bro?" asked Mikey in confusion. "And where'd all the candy go?"

 

"I haven't mutated!" snapped Donnie. "I'm just dreaming what I'd look like if I did!" The 'I hope' went unsaid in his answer, but all three of his brothers heard it anyway, and exchanged concerned glances.

 

"Wait," said Leo. "You can't be dreaming, Donnie. I'm here."

 

Donnie scowled. "'Cause I'm dreaming you!" he shouted in reply.

 

Leo scowled back. "Maybe I'm dreaming you, but you are  _not_  dreaming me!" he snapped.

 

Donnie looked like he was about to shout a denial, then frowned. "You dream about me being a turtle?" he asked in confusion.

 

As Leo floundered for an answer, Raph's eyes widened in realization. "Hang on. Guys, I think we're all in the same dream!" he said.

 

"That's impossible," Leo protested, but the voice Donnie had almost forgotten about rang out above their heads.

 

"Nothing's impossible for the Dream Beavers!" said Dark Beaver as he crawled down the side of the building towards them. He then paused as if expecting them to tremble in terror.

 

Instead, Donnie let out a small chuckle and said, "I'm sorry, but did you just say  _Dream Beavers?_ "

 

Dark Beaver just smirked back at him. "Olly olly oxen free!" he called out.

 

The entire world began to shake as maniacal laughter echoed down the streets, and the entire dream world started to warp.

 

Then three more fuzzy bodies burst from the walls of the building, and soon there were four giant beavers crouched on the side of the building, grinning wickedly down at the turtles.

 

"You think you are alone in your dreams," said Dire Beaver sadistically as the world around them faded to a swirling cosmos. "But no! For years we have lurked in this Dream Dimension, stealing the life force of humans, draining them dry, and leav-"

 

"But dudes!" shouted Mikey, interrupting him. "We're not human anymore!"

 

But Dread Beaver just slid over to them and grinned. "That is precisely what makes your life force so delicious," he said, licking his chops.

 

Donnie frowned. "Wait, is that why I look like this?" he asked Dark Beaver. "So that you don't have to eat human while your buddies get my brothers."

 

Dark Beaver laughed. "Far be it!" he said jovially. "Your dreaming yourself as thus is your doing and yours alone. Not that I'm complaining, Salty Boy. It only adds to your flavor."

 

Donnie frowned as he filed that information away for later. Why would he dream himself as a turtle like his brothers currently were? He was human.

 

"Seriously though," Dark Beaver continued. "Human life force every meal for thousands of years, then one day… turtles!"

 

"I like chocolate chip cookies," said Dave Beaver stupidly.

 

"SHUT UP, DAVE!" roared the other three beavers at their slow companion.

 

Dire Beaver then grew to mountainous size and cupped the turtles into the palm of his hand. "We're gonna drain you dry, and spit out the shells." With a laugh he tossed them into the air, and the tormenting of the brothers once again resumed.

 

____________________________

 

After what he'd just seen, Casey wanted to curl up into a ball and hide in a corner for the rest of his life. And he wasn't even the one being targeted.

 

He'd thought Miwa was scary before, but now… now he knew he'd barely scratched the surface.

 

Miwa wasn't scary.

 

Miwa was downright  _terrifying!_

 

Casey knew he'd be having nightmares for months, and mentally reaffirmed to himself that he would never,  _ever_  do anything to make her this mad at  _him_.

 

Though strangely, despite how terrifying she was, he still found it kinda hot.

 

' _What is wrong with me?_ ' Casey wondered to himself as he observed Bernie wailing that he would tell Miwa anything she wanted so long as she didn't hurt him.

 

"I'm sorry!" Bernie groveled. "I'm sorry! I'm just a little high-strung! I haven't slept in forty years, because of the  _Dream Beavers!"_

 

"What  _are_ the Dream Beavers?" asked Miwa, still glaring furiously at the man. "What do they have to do with what's happening to my brothers?"

 

"They're beings of pure evil from another dimension," Bernie explained. "You see it all began forty years ago-"

 

"Nobody asked, dude," Casey said with a roll of his eyes.

 

Bernie ignored him and continued with his story. "I was a physicist trying to prove my theory that-" he was cut off abruptly as Miwa's tantō resumed its position at his throat.

 

"Get to the point, old man," she snarled.

 

Bernie gulped, and quickly held up the book and said, "The book contains a defective portal to the Dream Dimension, and serves to keep the Beavers contained."

 

"Inside the book?" asked Casey.

 

Bernie nodded proudly, and opened the book to show the device. "Obturaculum Somniorum means Dream Plug. For forty years I have protected the plug to ensure that the Dream Beavers remain trapped. For forty years I have remained-"

 

The tantō was at his throat again, and Miwa said impatiently, "I'm still not seeing what this has to do with why my brothers won't wake up. Get to the point!"

 

"The Beavers want this plug destroyed," Bernie said rapidly. "They attack anyone close to me, and drain the life from them when they sleep. That's why I came out here, far away from everyone."

 

"Not far enough," said Casey with a frown. "They're draining my friends right now. And you're gonna do something about it."

 

With that, he shoved Bernie out the shop door and towards they party wagon. The man opened his mouth to protest, but one glare from Miwa shut him up, and had him getting into the van without complaint.

 

Casey and Miwa then jumped into the front seats and took off as fast as they could back to the farmhouse.

 

____________________________

 

The dream had once again shifted around the four brothers as they tried to defend themselves against the Beavers. It was still New York, but it had turned black and white, and had taken a much more comic book like feel.

 

"…What?" asked Raph as he poked the side of the comic panel they were currently in. "Where are we?" He tried to ignore the speech bubble that appeared by his mouth as he said that.

 

The panel changed and Mikey breathed a sigh of relief. "Whew! Back in the real world at last!"

 

"This looks real to you?" Donnie asked sarcastically, gesturing at his still mutant appearance, proving they were definitely not in the real world.

 

But Mikey just shrugged as the panel changed again. "More or less! Except for those guys…" He pointed upwards, and his brothers followed his gaze.

 

From the tops of the surrounding buildings, the Dream beavers looked down upon the turtles and laughed wickedly.

 

"I spy with my little eye something green," Dave Beaver called down to them.

 

"SHUT UP, DAVE!" shouted the other three beavers in unison.

 

"Destroy them!" shouted Dire Beaver as he dove off his building, and landed on top of the turtles, causing them to crash through several panels before landing hard on some darkened pipes.

 

The four ninjas scattered as the beavers came at them again, drawing their weapons and preparing to fight for their lives. But nothing any of them threw at the beavers would work, and all that happened was the turtles getting their shells kicked.

 

Then Dave Beaver unleashed the flood gates of the sewer system they were in, and sent the brothers tumbling through the air as the world flashed around them in rapid succession until they landed in a heap in the butcher shop freezer they had confronted Tiger Claw in after he'd kidnapped Mikey.

 

Only instead of meat carcasses hanging from the frozen racks, it was instead turtle shells.

 

With a burst of flame, the four found themselves with their limbs trapped inside their shells, and lying next to each other on their back while moving slowly down the conveyer belt that dropped into a furnace.

 

Laughing sadistically at the looks of terror on the turtles' faces, the beavers began gathering up knives and forks, and tossing various spices and ingredients onto the turtles as the conveyer belt jerked to life and began slowly moving the brothers towards the furnace.

 

The brothers all screamed and struggled to get free from certain doom, but it was useless. They were stuck tight, and could do nothing to free themselves.

 

Above them, the Dream Beavers licked their chops and got ready to finish off their meal.

 

It wouldn't be long now.

 

____________________________

 

In desperation, April had taken to slapping Donnie repeatedly across the face regardless of Metalhead trying to stop her. His pulse was now so weak she could barely feel it anymore, and she was desperate to wake him up.

 

"You said that wouldn't work," said Casey as he, Miwa, and Bernie arrived and saw what she was doing.

 

April looked up at him frantically. "I don't know what else to do!" she shouted. "I can barely find their pulses anymore. If we can't wake them up, they won't make it!"

 

Hearing this, Miwa got a dark look on her face, and she shoved Bernie forward. "Fix it!" she snarled at him.

 

Bernie, who had been staring blankly at their TV set, gulped at the sight of her face, and said, "You can't," he said quickly. "The Obturaculum keeps the beavers trapped in the Dream Realm, and as long as they're there, their dream powers are unbeatable. That's why I don't sleep!" He then glanced around and said, "Got any coffee by the way?"

 

"He's not breathing!" said April with a gasp as she cradled Donnie's head in her hands, and Metalhead began charging his hands like a defibrillator. "Donnie's not  _breathing!"_

 

Miwa looked like she was going to murder Bernie, and the man quaked under her gaze.

 

Casey had a better idea. "So this is what keeps them in the Dream Realm?" he said, holding up the Dream Plug, which they'd brought with them.

 

"Yeah," said Bernie nervously. Then his eyes widened as he caught on to what Casey was planning. "Wait, what are you-?"

 

But Casey had already tossed the device on the ground, and brought his bat down upon it, shattering the plug.

 

____________________________

 

In the Dream Realm, the conveyer belt screeched to a halt just before Donnie could fall into the furnace. Sparks of lightning flickered all around, and the Dream Beavers exchanged sinister grins.

 

"What's this?" asked Dire Beaver.

 

"The barrier is broken!" shouted Dark Beaver.

 

"We are free!" cheered Dread Beaver. "Free!"

 

The four beavers didn't even notice the four turtles on the conveyer belt vanish as the brothers woke up.

 

____________________________

 

As one, Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey groaned from their sleeping positions, and opened their eyes.

 

"You're Okay!" April cheered as she kissed Donnie on the cheek in sheer relief, and Metalhead stopped charging his defibrillators.

 

Donnie let out an embarrassed giggle at that, before glancing down at his very human hands, and shared a look of relief with his brothers that his mutation had just been part of the dream.

 

"I could kiss you right now," Miwa remarked to Casey, her own relief evident on her face, and failing to notice how red Casey's got at the suggestion.

 

The only one not happy was Bernie. "The Obturaculum is broken!" he wailed. "The beavers are free! Free to destroy our world! All is lost! All is-"

 

Before he could finish, a purple swirling vortex appeared where the remains of the book were, and the others drew back in fear.

 

All but Miwa, who stepped forward with her tantō raised. "Bring it on," she said darkly. "I've been wanting to gut something all day."

 

Her brothers blinked at her back in confusion.

 

"Is something wrong with Sis?" Raph whispered to April.

 

"She's been exhausted and worried about you guys all afternoon," April whispered back. "I don't blame her for being cranky."

 

Just then the Dream Beaver's laughter echoed through the house, and four shapes flew from the book.

 

For a moment, the Dream Beavers stood menacingly as they stared at their prey, only to blink as something very important registered to them.

 

"Wait a second," whispered Dire Beaver as he realized that he and his brethren didn't even come up to the teenager's knees.

 

"Aw dang," groaned Dread Beaver as he came to the same realization.

 

"Hi, Dave!" called Mikey to the blue beaver cheerfully.

 

"Hi, Mikey!" replied Dave with a wave.

 

"SHUT UP, DAVE!" bellowed the other three beavers.

 

But then a dark shadow was cast over the four of them, and they looked up to see Miwa standing over them with a horrifying expression on her face.

 

"What's this I hear about you plush toys trying to  _eat_  my brothers?" she said with a dangerous hiss.

 

The beavers barely had enough time to gulp in fear, before Miwa's foot flew forward, and she kicked all four beavers with enough force to send them crashing through the glass of the window and flying off into the sky.

 

"We're leaving, you big bullies!" wailed Dire Beaver as they vanished into the distance.

 

Bernie had been gaping upon seeing the beaver's minuscule forms, before letting out a defeated sigh. "April, Casey, Demon Girl, boy I don't know, giant talking turtles, I've been awake for forty years for no good reason. So if you'll excuse me," paused to let out a large yawn and collapsed on the ground, snoring peacefully.

 

Miwa rolled her eyes, and said, "Now there's an idea I can get behind."

 

She then shoved Leo off his position on the couch, and curled up on it before drifting off herself.

 

Casey shook his head at her actions, before glancing at Bernie and saying, "Well, who wants to help me carry him back home?"

 

Metalhead raised his hand, and he and April both moved to help Casey carry Bernie back to the van.

 

After they went out the door, and making sure that Miwa was dead to the world, the four brothers headed for the kitchen for a private talk.

 

As they walked over there, Leo glanced down at his legs thoughtfully. "'Kay, I know that was terrifying, and we nearly bought it and everything, but my legs really feel a lot better."

 

Raph grinned and punched on the shoulder. "See, I told you some rest would help."

 

Once they were shut inside the kitchen, Leo turned to Donnie and asked, "Okay, so, why were you a turtle in that dream, Donnie? Is there something you're not telling us?"

 

"No… Yes… I don't know," said Donnie as he rubbed his head and tried to put his thoughts into words.

 

"So which is it?" asked Mikey.

 

"I-I have a couple theories for why," Donnie said. "One being, well, remember the Kraathatrogon incident? Miwa was tossed though a bunch of dimensions, and saw the four of us as turtles in every single one."

 

The three turtles nodded slowly.

 

"Ever since that, she's been worried that it might be, I don't know, some sort of destiny or something that is in store for us. And with Mikey and Leo mutating not long after, she's been getting more worried that she was right. And if she is, then I'll be next. And I guess I've been kinda worrying about it too."

 

"That's crazy," said Raph.

 

"It is," agreed Leo thoughtfully. "But it also makes some sort of twisted sense. I mean, how likely is it that all three of us would have almost the exact same mutation?" he asked pointing to himself, Raph and Mikey.

 

Donnie frowned at that. "Calculating the odds in addition to all that we know of the mutagen, it is highly unlikely, and yet it happened," he said.

 

"But you know how to make retro-mutagen, D," said Mikey with a small frown. "Even if it is your destiny to mutate like us, that doesn't mean it's permanent. We'll be fine. Plus, who says we gotta do what destiny says. If you wanna stay your rad human self, then do it."

 

The three older brothers smiled at his reasoning. "You have a point there," said Donnie. "But that might not be the only reason I may have dreamed myself that way."

 

"What else is there?" asked Raph, looking uncomfortable that it might be more destiny talk.

 

Donnie glanced at each of his brothers in turn and sighed. "I think… maybe a part of me actually  _wants_  to mutate into a turtle too."

 

"WHAT?" was the unanimous shout from all three turtles.

 

"Why the heck would you want something like this to happen to you?" Raph demanded. "You seriously want to turn into a-"

 

Donnie held his hands up defensively. "Just hear me out okay," he said, making Raph calm down slightly. He then gestured at all four of them and explained, "We're  _quadruplets_. The four of us have always been together since the day we were born. That's a connection not many people have, but now I…" he broke off, then cast his gaze downwards. "But right now I'm the odd one out of the four of us. The only one still human. We're brothers, but no one would be able to tell that about me by looking at us," he said quietly. "I guess I feel a little left out."

 

The other three exchanged silent glances, before turning their attention back to Donnie. Mikey then let out a sad sounding squeak and darted forward to hug his immediate older brother to his shell.

 

"When have we ever cared about looks," said Leo firmly. "We've never been identical, and we never let that stop us from being brothers before, and we're not going to let it stop us now."

 

Leo reached over and laid a hand on Donnie's shoulder. "You are our brother, Donnie. Looks or mutation don't matter. And we'll get our family resemblance back soon enough."

 

"And we sure as hell better not catch you mutating yourself on purpose just to be a matching set," said Raph gruffly. "'Cause if I catch you doing something like that, I'll beat the green off you."

 

Donnie smiled as he felt a weight he hadn't even known was there be lifted off his shoulders. "As if I'd do something stupid like that," he scoffed good-naturedly. "Who do I look like, Mikey?"

 

"Yeah," said Mikey, who was still hugging Donnie around the waist. Then he blinked as what was said registered in his mind _. "Hey!"_

 

The sound of the four brothers laughing drifted out of the kitchen, and could be heard form the couch Miwa was napping on. At the sound, she rolled over in her sleep and smiled softly.

 

All was well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do you think, is Donnie a turtle in dreamland as a subconscious desire, or is it something else? I had a lot of fun with cranky Miwa. I know I'm irritable when I'm tired, and I bet it'd be worse for her. I admit, I kinda copied the part with her in the party wagon with Casey from an episode of Justice League. It just seemed so fitting.


	46. Shut Up and Drive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When a crazy driver is loose on the streets, it's up to the teens to take him down.

After the fiasco with the beavers, things went back to whatever was considered relatively normal around the farmhouse.

 

There was also the added bonus that now that Bernie knew about the three mutant turtles, the three teens could come on shopping runs to the store whenever they ran low on groceries. This would give the turtles a much needed break from the farmhouse, which had been driving the three stir-crazy in the time they'd been there.

 

Which led to the current argument on the way back from one such run.

 

"Seriously, why can't I drive?" Leo griped as he sat in the back of the party wagon with the latest batch of groceries. "We all know I can do it. I drove the Shellraiser all the time back home. Donnie, tell him."

 

In the front seat, Donnie and Casey exchanged glances at Leo's whining. The lead turtle's recovery was still going slow, and he had wanted to help do something useful, and had somehow gotten it into his head that driving might be the best way to do it. There was just one problem.

 

"Because a giant turtle driving a hippie bus seems a little suspicious, don't cha think?" said Casey behind the drivers seat.

 

"I hate to say it, but he's right, Leo," said Donnie apologetically. "These roads may not have many drivers on them, but all it takes is one to send the word out. And, uh, let's just say the police around here aren't too fond of us as it is."

 

"Besides, it's not like you even have a license, anyway," Casey added.

 

Leo let out a huff and sulked in the backseat.

 

Donnie, meanwhile, raised an eyebrow at Casey. "Do  _you_  even have a license, Jones?" he asked skeptically.

 

"Umm, yeeeessss," said Casey, suddenly looking nervous, and the way his voice cracked on the 'yes' had the two brothers shooting him suspicious glances.

 

There were a few seconds of uncomfortable silence before it was broken by a purple car suddenly cutting in front of them and then slowing down enough for them to bump it before speeding up again.

 

The three boys yelped as they were all pitched forward, and some of the groceries flew from their bags and into the front seat.

 

"A little jump and chase, huh?" said Casey as he began speeding up the party wagon, and glaring at the car that had hit them. "Nobody forces Casey Jones off the road!"

 

Leo and Donnie both yelped as Casey swerved the party wagon to collide with the car in retaliation. "Are you out of your mind!" Donnie shouted as he grabbed onto his seatbelt to keep from flopping around.

 

"It wouldn't surprise me," said Leo as he clung to the inner wall of the van to keep himself stable. "This wouldn't happen if you let  _me_  drive."

 

Donnie sent his brother a flat look, and said, "Let it go, Leo."

 

Just then, the purple car slammed them back, and the party wagon spun out of control. Casey fought with the wheel to get them to stop safely, but the side of the wagon still slammed into a tree.

 

The four boys groaned after the impact. "You guys okay?" asked Leo as he pushed the groceries that had been piled on top of him to the side.

 

"Nobody forces Casey Jones off the road, huh?" said Donnie sarcastically as he glared at Casey for his stunt. "You're the one who's gonna explain to April why there a huge dent in her car when we get back."

 

Casey just seethed in his seat, and began beating against the steering wheel in rage.

 

In the end, it was Leo who drove them home, and the turtle was the only one happy about it.

 

____________________________

 

Within the farmhouse, Mikey let out a wail as Crognard the Barbarian was suddenly cut off for a 'Special Report'.

 

"A word of warning for those planning on driving tonight," said a woman's voice pleasantly over the speakers. The pleasant sound abruptly shifted as she insisted, "Stay! HOME! Reports are coming in of a mysterious driver running people off the road."

 

Raph rolled his eyes and scoffed at the report. "That qualifies as breaking news out here?" he asked.

 

"Back in the city, every driver is a reckless driver," Mikey agreed. "Bring back Crognard!" he shouted at the TV.

 

"It was him!" shouted Donnie as he, Leo, and Casey entered the room with their arms filled with groceries to catch the tail end of the report. "That's the maniac who nearly trashed us."

 

April looked up from her seat in concern. "You saw that loony?"

 

"More like he ran into us," Casey growled as he put down the groceries and punched his palm. "Over and over. We gotta get back out there and teach that guy a lesson!"

 

April frowned, and said, "Casey it's not worth it. I'm just glad you three are okay."

 

"Yeah, we're mostly okay," said Donnie as he rotated a shoulder he'd banged in the crash, and winced at the bruise that was forming. "Just my shoulder got hurt."

 

Leo nodded as he remembered the crash. "Yeah, for once I was glad to have a shell."

 

Mikey grinned at Leo and said, "See, told'ja it'd come in handy."

 

April moved over to massaged Donnie's shoulder from him, and the sight of the happy couple reminded Casey of his own crush. "By the way, where's Miwa?" he asked as he glanced around the living room and saw that the kunoichi was absent.

 

Instantly, the semi-relaxed mood evaporated, and Mikey, Raph, and April exchanged uneasy glances.

 

Raph let out a sigh, and said, "Where do you think?" He jerked his thumb at a nearby window, through which they could see Miwa out in the yard, practicing once again.

 

Casey's face fell at the sight. "I was hoping that after that thing with the Dream Beavers she'd take it easier," he said in disappointment.

 

"We all were," Raph agreed. "But no. Now she trains 'til she can't anymore, then collapses asleep wherever is available, but once she's up again, she gulps down a meal and is out practicing again. Rinse and repeat."

 

"That is really not healthy," said April looking very concerned. "Isn't there anything we can do? I tried talking to her, but she brushed me off and said she was fine."

 

The brothers exchanged glances, and Leo said, "I think I speak for everyone when I say we've all tried talking to her, and got the same treatment. It's like nothing we say is getting through to her. I can't think of anything else we can do that won't just push her away."

 

"So we've got nothing?" asked Casey, not liking that answer.

 

"Nothing until Mi is ready to accept our help," said Donnie. He then tapped his chin thoughtfully and said, "But you know, now that I think about it, I remember her being like this before."

 

The other three brothers exchanged glances, and said, "You do?" in unison.

 

"I don't remember that," said Mikey with a small frown.

 

"We were really young back then," said Donnie, "Five or six maybe. So you probably don't remember."

 

He then cupped his chin in his hand, and pinched his eyes shut as he concentrated on the memory. "I remember it happened when Father and Mi came back from a trip. The rest of us and Mother didn't go along on it for some reason. Mi had only a few years of training at the time, and we were just starting, but the second they got back, Mi started practicing a lot harder than before, and begging Father to teach her more advanced moves. She acted like that for a few days, before Mother took her aside to talk to her for a bit, and wouldn't let any of us hear. After that, she was almost back to her regular self, though she still took training more seriously after that. Just not to the extent she'd been doing then… and like she's doing now."

 

Raph frowned as he rubbed his head. "Now that you mention it, I do sort of remember that. It was when she took me down extra hard in training that Mother went to talk to her."

 

Mikey's face broke into a smirk. "I remember now, you started crying when she pinned you to the mats," he teased, poking a finger in Raph's direction, only for the red wearing turtle to grab it in a painful grip and twisted it.

 

Pouting as he held his now sore finger to his chest, Mikey sighed and said, "It's too bad Mom's not here to talk to Sis this time."

 

Everyone flinched as they remembered the fates of Tang Shen and Yoshi, and failed to squelch down the worry and heartache that came from thinking about the missing adults, and the rest of their city.

 

Outside, Miwa continued training, oblivious to the worry she was causing those she loved.

 

____________________________

 

The next day dawned bright and sunny, and after the dark gloom of the night before, the teens welcomed the change.

 

Despite being told to let it go, Casey wasn't ready to give up on his grudge against the maniac driver just yet, and knew just how to get it settled.

 

"Hey, Armpit!" he called to Donnie as he hunched over the rusted hotrod car in the barn, "hand me the quarter inch socket."

 

"Sure thing, Barferonie," Donnie replied as he tossed the tool in Casey's direction without really looking.

 

Casey also didn't look up as he snatched the tool out of the air, and continued his work on the car. The name game was by now a time-honored tradition when they worked in the barn at the same time. It was simple really, they just had to insult each other in order of the alphabet.

 

Metalhead shook his head at their antics, and both boys knew the robot probably thought they were nuts.

 

Casey grinned down at his work, and said, "This baby's almost ready to roll, eh, Kraang-Breath."

 

Donnie rolled his eyes as he worked on his experiment, and said, "Uh, Kraang is with a K, not a C."

 

"Says who?" asked Casey, not wanting to admit he was wrong.

 

Metalhead raised his hand and gave a loud beep.

 

"He does," said Donnie, nodding to his robot. "Along with the Kraang, Leatherhead, Kurtzman," Donnie listed as he turned to look at Casey. "That one doesn't count, come up with another C word."

 

"Okay, Camel-Face," said Casey with a shrug as he added the last piece he needed to the hotrod. Shooting the genius a grin, he said, "Let's take her out for a test drive."

 

A few minutes later, Casey was behind the wheel of the car, while Donnie and his brothers (sans Leo) stood a mile down the road with a timer in his hand.

 

"You guys ready for Casey Jones to break some speed records?" he asked into his cell phone, as he got ready to go.

 

"We're ready," said Donnie into his own cell phone. "On my mark."

 

But before he could say it, Mikey snatched the phone from his hand and yelled, "GO!"

 

With that, Casey floored the throttle of the car, and shot down the road at break neck speed.

 

Donnie hit the button on his timer as Casey shot past, and blinked in surprise at what was recorded upon it. "Amazing," he said with an impressed tone. He'd known Casey was the star pupil of the auto-shop class, but it was amazing to see the proof of it before his eyes.

 

"Casey's car is light speed, yo!" Mikey cheered, already planning to beg a ride off the vigilante at a later date.

 

"Great time," Donnie agree, still staring at the timer.

 

"You two knuckleheads pulled it off," said Raph with a smirk. "I'm almost impressed."

 

The brothers glanced after Casey and his hotrod as they continued down the road, only to see him shoot around the corner and out of sight.

 

"Um, he's not stopping, is he," said Donnie redundantly.

 

"Doesn't look that way," Raph drawled.

 

Donnie growled, and turned to storm towards the party wagon. If he was right in his thinking, Casey was about to do something really stupid.

 

From his position far ahead down the road, Casey grinned as his car cruised down the road at a wicked speed. "Don't need a stopwatch to know this baby's fast," he said to himself with a cocky smirk. "Best way to test her out is to find that road creep."

 

With that thought, he put the pedal to the metal, and shot off to lure his quarry out of hiding.

 

Only for several minutes to go by with no sign of him.

 

Casey scowled as he grew impatient. "What a drag. The minute you're actually looking for a maniac, they're nowhere to be found."

 

As if on cue, the purple car showed up in his rearview mirror, before shooting past him at breakneck speeds.

 

Grinning wildly, Casey pushed his car to go faster, and soon he was neck and neck with his opponent.

 

But as he squinted at the driver's side window of the purple sports car, a flash from inside allowed him to see past the tinted glass, and get a good look at the warped creature sitting inside.

 

Casey screamed as he caught sight of the one-eyed, fleshy  _thing_ with Elvis hair that was staring back at him. "He's a… mutant!" he shouted in alarm.

 

The Mutant driver stared back. "You!" he hissed with his wide, deformed mouth. "You're the kid who tried to stop me last night!"

 

Casey only scowled back, and tried to think of a way to take this monster down. Racing a reckless driver was one thing. Racing a crazed mutant with who knew what powers was a different matter entirely.

 

But then, to Casey's horror, a small red car with a little old lady in the driver's seat was driving slowly down the road in front of them, not seeming to notice the danger she was in.

 

"Speed Demon's king of the road, baby!" shouted the mutant driver as he headed for a collision course with the old lady.

 

Paling at the soon to be disaster, Casey used his car to ram Speed Demon's to the very edge of the road, then pulled back to the other side, allowing both cars to shoot past the old lady's on either side.

 

The old lady continued on, still oblivious to the danger she'd almost been in.

 

Speed Demon was not at all pleased at Casey's manhandling of his ride. "You rat!" he snarled. "I'm gonna smash you all! Every stinkin' human on this road's going for a wild ride!"

 

With that, he began forcing Casey's car up against the guardrail along side of the roar, giving Casey a terrifying view of the sheer drop off the cliff past it.

 

Casey managed to shake him off, but in doing so, he span out of control and crashed into the guardrail anyway. "NOT COOL!" he bellowed as Speed Demon drove out of sight.

 

Furious at being bested again, Casey began beating his fists against the steering wheel the second he caught his breath. The sight of which was not at all impressive to the Hamato brothers as they drove up along side him in the party wagon.

 

"Casey, you okay?" asked Raph as he jumped from the van and ran over to him.

 

Seeing what was left of the car, Mikey added, "Dude, what happened to your sweet ride?"

 

But then Donnie pushed his way between his brothers and glared furiously at Casey. "You trashed it! You went after that road maniac alone, didn't you?" he accused.

 

"I thought I could take him!" Casey snapped defensively. "And besides, he's no road maniac, he's a road mutant!"

 

"Whoa, a mutant," said Mikey, and they could all tell from the look on his face he was trying to think up a new mutant name for Speed Demon.

 

But Donnie wasn't so easily distracted. "You totally ditched me," he snapped, "I coulda helped!"

 

"That Speed Demon challenged me!" Casey snapped back. "It's the code of the road, man. Mano a' mano."

 

Mikey's eyes snapped to Casey, and he started glaring too. "You  _named_ him? That's my thing!"

 

As Casey tried to explain Speed Demon had named himself, Raph had grabbed a hook and line from the back of the party wagon. "Come on!" he called to his best friend, and two disgruntled siblings. "Let's get this scrap heap back to the house!"

 

Sending Casey one last dirty look, Donnie and Mikey turned to help, only for the youngest to pause and blink in surprise as he caught sight of a green glow on the asphalt of the road.

 

"Hey guys! Check this out!" he called to the others as he reached out one had to poke the ooze.

 

Donnie dove forward and used his bō to bat Mikey's hand away just in time. "Don't touch that!" he shouted in alarm. The he studied the ooze himself. "Hmm, looks like some kind of mutagenic fuel. Fascinating, must be mutagen still out there."

 

____________________________

 

After taking a sample of the mutagen to study, the four boys used a stash of water balloons Mikey had kept in the party wagon to clean the mutagen off the street before it could infect anything else, before heading back to the farmhouse.

 

When they pulled up in the driveway with the totaled car attached to the back of the van, April and Leo ran out of the house to greet them, and even Miwa stopped her practicing to come over and find out what happened.

 

"Casey, what happened?" asked Miwa as they reached them.

 

Casey scowled and looked away, and Donnie 'helpfully' replied, "Speed Demon two, Casey Jones zip."

 

April's worried look turned into a glare of disapproval. "You went after that guy?" she said accusingly.

 

"The cops can't catch him," Casey said in determination. "Someone's gotta bring that mutant down."

 

"Wait, what's going on?" asked Miwa in confusion. She'd been outside during the conversation about Speed Demon the night before, and no one had thought to fill her in. Raph quickly leaned over to whisper the information she was missing into her ear.

 

"And that's gotta be Casey Jones, right?" asked April sarcastically, not paying attention to Miwa's question.

 

"That's right," said Casey cockily. "'Cause I'm the only one that can."

 

With that he had the hotrod moved back into the barn, and immediately began fixing it up again for another rematch.

 

"So, find the problem with that clutch?" asked Donnie sarcastically as he and Metalhead entered the barn.

 

"I found part of the problem," snapped Casey as he pulled back out from under the car with a chicken in his hands. The bird squawked and struggled free from his grip, before scuttling back out the door.

 

"Hey Mikey!" shouted Casey out the door. "Keep your chickens out of the barn, man!"

 

Metalhead turned to Donnie and let out a series of beeps.

 

Donnie frowned down at his creation, then shrugged. "I'm sure that poor chicken wasn't stuck under there the whole time, Metalhead," he said. He then winced as he remembered what the car had gone through. "I hope."

 

Metalhead let out a sound to say he was unconvinced.

 

Unable to better answer his robot, Donnie made his way to his lab table and began taking a closer look at the mutagen fuel he'd found on the road earlier that day.

 

As he worked, Casey stared at his back with a thoughtful expression on his face. Then he stood, and made his way to stand behind the genius and said, "Listen, Donnie, I'm sorry I went after Speed Demon without you."

 

"It's fine," Donnie snapped in reply without looking at him. "Me and the others have been making our own plan to bring that freak down."

 

"Donnie, you and I know the hotrod is the best chance we got," Casey insisted. "We need to team up on this."

 

Donnie glanced at his earnest expression, before turning back towards his work. "I don't know," he said with a sigh.

 

"I need your sweet scientific genius, Don," said Casey. Then he gave Donnie his best puppy dog pouting face, and said, "Pleeeeease!"

 

Donnie scowled and tried to ignore him, and Metalhead glanced back and forth between the two boys, trying to calculate which of them would cave first.

 

It was Donnie. A few too many glances at Casey's pleading look had him heaving another sigh, and saying, "Alright, I have an idea." He got up from his chair and looked over at the hotrod. "A crazy, awesome idea."

 

Casey let out a whoop, and followed Donnie out of the barn to find out just what that idea was.

 

As he watched them go, not for the first time Metalhead wondered if he would ever understand humans.

 

____________________________

 

Donnie's 'crazy, awesome idea' was for the two of them to strip the Kraang Stealth Ship in the basement down, and use the parts to give the hotrod an edge.

 

It was so simple, yet so brilliant, Casey had to wonder why he hadn't thought of it sooner. Either way, he wasn't complaining, and the two quickly got to work.

 

Soon the hotrod was sporting shiny silver and glowing pink additions as Donnie worked his magic on its mechanics.

 

They worked in comfortable silence, so it took Casey completely by surprise when Donnie suddenly piped up, and asked the last question he'd been expecting to hear.

 

"So how long have you been crushing on my sister?" he asked as calmly as if asking about the weather.

 

Casey, who'd just taken a sip from his Wake Up Coffee can, spat the contents out, nearly spraying Metalhead with the caffeinated drink (making the robot let out an angry grinding sound and glare at him).

 

Staring at the genius with a gob smacked expression, Casey struggled to regain control of his mouth, but only managed it enough to stammer, "I-! Wha-? H-how-?"

 

Donnie glanced up at him with a deadpan expression. "Please, Jones, I see the way you look at her. I used to have the exact same expression on my face before I was able to get the courage to ask April out."

 

Casey sighed, and set his can down. "That obvious, huh?"

 

"Well, not too much, since the others haven't caught on," said Donnie with a shrug. "Though, I'm surprised none of us figured it out sooner, what with your petname for her being pretty obvious."

 

Casey nodded slightly, before answering, "I think it started that time in the park, when we were fighting all those Foot-Bots before Chrome Dome showed up. She was just so amazing, taking down those bots like they were nothing…" He trailed off as he remembered that night, then shook himself out of his reverie, and glanced at Donnie sheepishly. "So how screwed am I?" he asked.

 

"Depends on what you mean," said Donnie fairly, though Casey didn't miss the calculating expression on the genius' face.

 

"On everything!" said Casey, throwing his hands in the air in frustration. "On the likelihood that she'll kill me if I ever tell her? On how much you and the other guys are going to be acting all protective of her now that you know? Of how dead I'll be on the off chance Miwa agrees to go out with me and I do something to screw it up?"

 

Donnie couldn't help but let out an amused snort at the questions. "I don't know about the others, but I'll be lenient on the protective brother thing in this case. If only because I know no matter what I do to you, it would be nowhere near as bad as what Mi would do to you if you hurt her. Though I will gleefully assist her in any way if that were ever the case. As for her killing you if you ask…" Donnie frowned thoughtfully before saying, "Hard to say. Mi's never been one to care much about dates or boys aside from a preteen crush on Jackie Chan. But she got over that quick." He then sent a warning glance. "But I'd refrain from springing any question of that sort onto her right now. Especially with how stressed she is. Wait until she cools off before you even think about asking, and even then, it's at your own risk."

 

"I know, man," said Casey with a roll of his eyes at the thought of asking her now. "I'm not suicidal."

 

"That's up for debate," Donnie couldn't help but mutter, but his expression made it clear there was no malice behind it.

 

There was an awkward silence in the barn for a long time as the two continued to work on the hotrod, both trying to pretend the conversation they'd just had had never happened. By the time April came in to ask if they wanted lunch, they could almost say it never had.

 

____________________________

 

Finally, the hotrod was done, and Casey had to grin widely at the sight of it. "This. Is.  _Amazing!"_  he emphasized, as he admired their hard work.

 

"Yeah, I know," said Donnie smugly. "And it's almost ready. I just have to figure out the problem with the artificial intelligence for the onboard computer system. Originally I was going to have Metalhead link up to it and control it from here, but, well…"

 

Both teenage boys winced as they remembered what had happened when the tested Metalhead's driving ability in the party wagon. Apparently Mikey had been playing too many  _Grand Theft Auto_ games against the robot, and reckless driving a breakneck speed before finally crashing into things was now ingrained into his programming. Not something they wanted behind the wheel of the vehicle they'd just spent so much time working on.

 

As if sensing their thoughts, Metalhead hung his head and let out an embarrassed sounding warble.

 

"Aw, don't worry, Metalhead," Donnie called to his creation. "We blame Mikey for that, not you."

 

That made the robot perk up somewhat. Only for his glowing eyes to me attracted to a small, white, feathered creature making its way through the barn, going completely unnoticed by the teenage boys.

 

The robot followed the chicken's progress, and let out an alarmed beep as the hen hopped up onto Donnie's worktable and began pecking at the mutagen gasoline the genius had collected.

 

Donnie and Casey looked up to see Metalhead trying to shoo away a chicken, who was giving the robot a disgruntled look. But what caught the boys' attention was the green glow at the chicken's feet, and the fact that its head seemed to be inflating like a balloon.

 

"Here, chick, chick!" called Mikey as he wandered into the barn too late to be of any help. "Where are you, little chickie, chickie, chick chick?" Then he noticed the other two's staring and followed their gaze. He gaped at the sight that met his eyes. "Oh snap!"

 

Both Donnie and Casey agreed wholeheartedly as they stared at the white hen with a large pulsing brain on the top of her head.

 

"Oh, not again, Mikey!" Donnie groaned as the chicken walked past his and Casey's feet towards the hotrod.

 

"Oh just what we need, another mutant," Casey griped. "How long 'til this one turns evil."

 

But then to all of their surprise, the chicken hopped over to Donnie's computer and began typing at it with her beak.

 

"Whoa! What's she doing?" asked Mikey as a grin spread across his face at the sight.

 

"It's-it's communicating with us!" said Donnie in awe as he watched the chicken type. "Those are complex equations. Maybe we don't need a new AI, maybe we just need-"

 

"Dr. Cluckingsworth, M.D!" shouted Mikey before Donnie could 'accidentally' name another mutant.

 

"Uh, yes," said Donnie with a roll of his eyes. "Maybe Dr. Cluckingsworth-"

 

"M.D. bro," Mikey added pointedly. "M. D."

 

"Do you even know what the M.D. stands for?" Donnie snapped in annoyance.

 

The blank expression on Mikey's face was answer enough.

 

Shaking his head at his brother's antics, Donnie leaned over to talk to the chicken. "Um, so, Doctor, can you interface with the hotrod's computer?"

 

Dr. Cluckingsworth M.D. let out a loud cluck, before turning back to the computer and typing at it again, showing off her advanced knowledge as an answer.

 

Behind her, the boys grinned, and Casey and Donnie shared a fist bump.

 

Looks like they had their ride. Now they just needed to catch Speed Demon.

 

____________________________

 

After presenting the new and improved hotrod to the others, they made plans to catch Speed Demon and beat him at his own game.

 

That night, Casey and Dr. Cluckingsworth drove along the deserted backroads with April and the Hamato siblings following behind in the party wagon. Metalhead had stayed back at the farmhouse to use Donnie's computer and an old police scanner to run interference with any police that might stumble across their mission, and lead them in the wrong direction.

 

With everything set, Casey sped up his car, and began showing off its improved speed, knowing that would bring Speed Demon crawling out from whatever hole he was hiding in.

 

As the chicken copilot kept careful watch of the navigation system, she began clucking loudly as her monitors picked up an incoming vehicle, and she quickly pecked out a message to inform Casey of it.

 

Hearing her restless behavior, Casey glanced back to ask, "What's wrong, Doc?"

 

The answer quickly became apparent on the screen next to him, as the words 'Speed Demon Approaching' flashed across the screen in green letters.

 

Looking back towards the front, Casey caught sight of Speed Demons car approaching him fast. "Guys, look out! Here he comes!" Casey called into his cell phone, to the others in the party wagon.

 

"Roger that, Casey. And remember, stick to the plan," said Donnie in reply.

 

Seeing that Speed Demon seemed to be on a collision course with the hotrod, Casey's eyes narrowed as he caught on. "So you want to play chicken, eh!" he shouted in Speed Demon's direction.

 

Behind him, Dr. Cluckingsworth let out an indignant squawk and he quickly amended, "Sorry, Doc."

 

Casey then put all his focus into his driving, determined not to be the first to freak out and turn his car. The two cars came within a yard of each other when it became clear to the vigilante that Speed Demon wasn't stopping, and he yanked the steering wheel hard to the right, narrowly avoiding getting hit.

 

Not far behind him, Leo was doing the same in the party wagon, and just barely avoided getting plowed over by the purple car as it zipped by.

 

Growling at his adversary's actions, Casey pulled a sharp U-turn, and took off after the mutant driver.

 

"He's doing it again!" shouted Raph angrily as Casey shot past them and the party wagon. "He's  _ditching_ us!"

 

"Nope," said Donnie cheerfully, making them all turn to stare at him. "This time it's all part of the plan."

 

Meanwhile, Casey was gaining on Speed Demon, and getting closer every passing second.

 

As he pulled up along side the mutant, Speed Demon let out an angry strangled sound as he recognized him. "I'm gonna splatter you across the road! I'll grind ya in my grill like the bug you are!"

 

Then the purple car slammed into hotrod's side forcing it far too close to the wall of cliff side beside them for comfort, and Casey yelped as he had to pull back to get away.

 

Scowling at the dirty move, Casey pressed a button on the dash and shouted, "This'll slow you down, freak!"

 

The missile that Donnie had installed to the hotrod fired, and shot the marshmallow shaped weapon forward until it exploded in the street right in front of Speed Demon.

 

The mutant let out a screech as a large cloud of smoke blocked his view, and he began spinning out of control, allowing Casey to shoot past him.

 

Furious, Speed Demon skidded to a stop, before gunning his engine to take off after Casey again, not even noticing the party wagon coming up behind him.

 

But before the mutant driver could catch up, the party wagon pulled along side him and the doors flew open.

 

"What the hell are you doing?!" shouted Raph from his seat to Donnie for opening them.

 

But Donnie paid his brothers little attention as he leapt out of the van and onto the purple sports car. Ignoring their cries of alarm at his reckless move, he focused on holding on tight to the speeding vehicle, knowing if he fell off he was street pizza.

 

Screaming as he clung to the roof, he nearly lost his grip more than once, but he dug his fingers into grooves in the roof, and pulled himself along until he was next to the driver's side window.

 

Speed Demon only had enough time to yelp and slam on the breaks, before Donnie smashed the glass on the window, and forcibly yanked the mutant from the driver's seat.

 

They both tumbled from the car, which smashed into a tree a few feet away.

 

Groaning in pain at the bruises and road rash that was no doubt forming on his skin from the fall, Donnie slowly pushed himself upwards, and pulled out his miraculously undamaged cell phone. "Casey, we got him," he said into it softly, as even talking hurt at the moment.

 

In his car, Casey pumped his fist into the air, and shouted, "That'll show you not to mess with Casey Jones!" He then registered the way Donnie was speaking, and asked, "You okay, D?"

 

Donnie groaned again, and admitted, "I feel like I just went a round with Slash and Mutagen Man both at the same time, but I'll live."

 

"I'll turn back and pick you up," said Casey in reply. "Just hold on a sec."

 

Donnie sighed in relief, and put down his phone, before turning to look at Speed Demon, who had been making a strange combination of choking and gagging sounds since pulled from his ride. "Not so tough without your car, huh?" he asked, managing to put sass into the statement despite the pain.

 

Only to blink in surprise at the person before him. Instead of the one eyes mutant freak that Donnie had pulled from the car, instead a regular looking man in a white wife beater, and hair with too much gel in it stared back.

 

"Where am I?" he asked with a groan, clutching his head. At the sight of Donnie and the state he was in, his eyes widened in horror. "Oh my god!" he shouted, climbing to his feet, and hurrying towards the injured ninja. "Are you okay? What happened?!"

 

Donnie could only gape at the man as a horrifying realization washed over him.

 

It hadn't been the driver that was the mutant.

 

It was the  _car!_

 

The second Donnie processed that horrible realization, both he and the man were blinded as the floodlights of Speed Demon burst on.

 

The man squinted at the source of the light, only to pale at the sight of what had once been his car. Screaming in terror, he turned tail and ran before the monster car could catch and possess him again.

 

Donnie was not so lucky, and in his injured state, he could do little more than scramble backwards painfully on all fours as Speed Demon slowly came towards him.

 

But there was no escape.

 

Donnie's last coherent thought before hood of the car opened up and swallowed him whole, was to kick himself for not realizing this sooner.

 

After that, all he felt was unimaginable pain.

 

____________________________

 

Casey drove at a much safer pace back in Donnie's direction. Even so, he still had to slam on the breaks as a man in a white shirt came running down the road screaming his head off.

 

"THAT CAR IS HAUNTED!" the man wailed as he ran right past Casey, and continued on down the road, not even seeming to notice how close he'd come to being run over.

 

Casey blinked at the randomness of that, but it quickly became clear as the purple sports car once again came careening down the road. For an instant Casey thought that Speed Demon had gotten his car back, only for a light to go on within the vehicle, and the face behind the wheel made Casey go pale from shock.

 

"Donnie?!" he shouted in alarm.

 

There was no mistaking it. Even with his features horribly warped, and his head inflated to inhuman size, it was definitely Donatello sitting in the front seat with a demented and sinister grin upon his face, and his eyes white and blank.

 

Speed Demon shot past him, nearly side swiping Casey's hotrod, before careening down the street leaving the mangled sound of Donnie's laughter in its wake. "Whoo hoo hoo hoo! Yeah baby!" shouted Demon-Donnie from the front seat.

 

"You stupid, ugly, pickle head!" shouted Casey in utter rage as it sank in to him what happened. As he hurried to start the car again, the party wagon came around the corner and stopped next to him.

 

"What happened?" asked Leo from the front seat, concern written across his face.

 

"It's the car!" said Casey as he started the hotrod up again. "The car is the mutant! It's alive somehow and it's got Donnie!"

 

Donnie's siblings looked horrified, and April let out a strangled sound of denial, but Casey didn't stick around to explain further. He slammed down on the gas, and shot away from them after Speed Demon.

 

"Casey, wait!" said Leo's voice over his cell phone. "We need a plan!"

 

"I've got one!" Casey snapped back. "Get Donnie out of that mutant monstrosity, pronto!"

 

"Sounds like a good plan to me," he heard Miwa say in the background as the party wagon drove as fast as it could after him, but he was no longer paying attention as he focused on the road, and catching up to the mutant car.

 

"How far is it, Doc?" he asked his copilot as they went.

 

Dr. Cluckingsworth clucked, and pecked out her response on the screen.

 

Casey glanced at the dashboard to see an image of his car closing in on another one up ahead. "Time to see what this baby can really do," he muttered to himself as he pushed to go even faster.

 

Soon Speed Demon was once again in his sights, Donnie's mangled form howling in laughter from the front seat.

 

Shooting forwards, Casey slammed the back of the hotrod into Speed Demon's bumper, making the possessed Donnie lean out the window to glare at him. "You  _again!_ " Demon-Donnie snarled angrily.

 

As Casey moved to pull along side the mutant car, Speed Demon slammed into his side, and Casey slammed his breaks to keep in control. He then shot forward to ram the bumper again.

 

"Let my friend go, freak!" Casey shouted over the roars of both cars engines, and prepared to ram him a third time if he didn't comply. As he did so, he glanced at the sheer drop of cliff along the side of the road next to them and added, "Or I'll take us both down!"

 

"Never gonna happen,  _Casey Jones!"_  Demon-Donnie snarled, saying the vigilante's name as if it were a vulgar slur. "Donatello belongs to Speed Demon now, baby!"

 

Gritting his teeth, Casey made good on his promise, and shot forward, ramming the back tire of Speed Demon in such a way that it made them both spin out of control. Casey fought with his wheel to keep in control, but Speed Demon crowed his laughter to the heavens as if enjoying the possibility of crashing to his death.

 

Both cars slammed into the guardrail, sending it flying off the cliff side, but fortunately, the two of them did not fly off with it.

 

At that, Demon-Donnie leaned out his window to regard Casey thoughtfully. "You know, I'm a sporting guy," he said with all the oily charisma of a used car salesman. "So how about we race for it. You win, you get your friend back. I win, I get your super hotrod, and all that sa- _weet_ technology."

 

Casey scowled at the warped version of his friend, and snapped, "Fair enough."

 

"And," Speed Demon piped up, "I get you,  _Casey Jones_. The only driver worthy of my competition."

 

Casey's face momentarily twisted in disgust at the idea of being possessed by this evil piece of machinery like Donnie currently was. But that quickly vanished, and a cocky grin took its place. "Well, I am super dope," he said confidently, with Dr. Cluckingsworth squawking her agreement. "It's a deal."

 

"First one to dead-man's curve, wins," said Demon-Donnie, pointing at the very sharp and dangerous curve in the road a few miles away. "Starting  _NOW!_ "

 

With that Speed Demon shot off down the road, and Casey followed right behind him.

 

Fortunately, their conversation had allowed the party wagon to nearly catch up with the two cars, giving its occupants a good view of the race as they trailed behind.

 

"Dude, we need some faster wheels!" shouted Mikey as the party wagon was beginning to once again be left in the dust.

 

"What are they doing?" asked Leo as he squinted to see the two cars in front of them.

 

"Looks like a race to me," Raph deadpanned.

 

"Obviously," Miwa added dryly.

 

Leo sent them both withering looks.

 

April, meanwhile, stole Leo's spyglass and focused it on Speed Demon, and paled at the sight of the driver. "Is that… hideous thing  _Donnie?"_  she asked in a strangled sounding voice at the sight of her boyfriend.

 

Mikey snatched the spyglass from her, and whistled at the sight of Demon-Donnie. "Well, at least he's not a turtle," he said, trying to lighten the mood.

 

His siblings all gave him deadpan expressions, and Miwa and Raph both reached over to swat him on the back of the head.

 

But April's attention was on the road ahead. "Turn right here," she said, pointing at a barely visible dirt road up ahead. "It's a shortcut, and it should get us ahead of them."

 

Leo nodded and turned the wheel to take them onto the road. They all would just have to hope Casey could handle Speed Demon on his own until they caught up.

 

Meanwhile, Casey and Speed Demon were both roaring down the roads at high speeds. The two were neck and neck, and despite all the cheap shots Speed Demon made to take out Casey's car, that didn't seem to be changing anytime soon.

 

Finally, after falling behind to dodge another sideswipe, Casey once again found himself stuck behind Speed Demon's bumper, and the evil car kept slowing down and speeding up in order to ram the hotrod's front.

 

"I can't pass him," Casey called over to Dr. Cluckingsworth, who ruffled her feathers worriedly.

 

In front of him, Demon-Donnie whooped, and called out, "Speed Demon's gonna win the race, the car, and a brand new driver! Yeah, baby!"

 

Just then they turned a sharp curve that had Casey fighting the wheel, and his copilot flapping her wings in fear as they veered way too close to the edge.

 

But, miraculously, they managed to make the turn, and Casey narrowed his eyes, and pulled down his hockey mask in determination. "Time to win this thing!" he shouted.

 

He quickly punched some buttons on the dash that Donnie had told him about when they were working on the car.

 

Unbeknownst to Dr. Cluckingsworth, a small firecracker got lit behind her tail feathers, before going off with a loud 'BANG!'

 

Dr. Cluckingsworth squawked in fear at the sudden noise, and in her panic she laid an egg. Ever since her mutation, her eggs had been glowing green and radioactive, something Donnie had thought they could use to their advantage as fuel when he was making the adjustments to accommodate the mutant hen.

 

The mutagen egg dropped down a hole in the back of the cage, and into the fuel tank, causing a chemical reaction that had the hotrod shooting forward faster than Casey had ever gone before.

 

"GOONGALAAAAAA!" Casey shouted as he shot forward and nearly over took Speed Demon, and would have if the purple car hadn't tried to side swipe him again.

 

Gritting his teeth at the thought of what he was going to do next, Casey called out, "Alright, Doc! Time for autopilot."

 

Dr. Cluckingsworth let out a sound of confirmation, and pulled up the driving controls on her computer screen to take over driving the hotrod.

 

With the steering taken care of, Casey pressed some buttons to make a pair of wide wings pop out of the sides of the car to give him some more maneuverability, and waited until Dr. Cluckingsworth got him closer. "Yo, freak! You're going down!"

 

Demon-Donnie glanced back to see Casey standing on one the wings, ready to fight. Snarling, Demon-Donnie's already mangled body began to warp even more as his arms and hand began stretching out until they were big enough and long enough to reach all the way out of the car and then some. Dr. Cluckingsworth soon had her wings full with dodging the massive fists as they tried to crush Casey and the hotrod into the asphalt.

 

Casey fought to keep his balance as the hotrod swerved around, as well as swing his hockey stick at the massive hands to beat them back in his own way.

 

Then with a leap, he jumped from the hotrod and landed on top of Speed Demon.

 

The monster car screeched in rage as it felt Casey land on its hood, and Demon-Donnie's giant fists began groping blindly at in his direction, trying to bat him off the hood.

 

Casey managed to get one of the hands with his taser, but the shock made it flail even more than before, and toss him off the car.

 

Casey screamed as the ground started rising up to greet him, but before he could hit it, one of the hotrod's wings appeared underneath him, keeping from certain death.

 

"Thanks, Doc!" he gasped as he pulled himself back to his feet. Then taking a leaf out of the Hamato's ninja playbook, he signaled for Dr. Cluckingsworth to drive behind Speed Demon, before shooting forward on the other side.

 

Only when the chicken and the hotrod pulled forward, they were short one masked vigilante.

 

Demon-Donnie craned his neck to try and spot Casey on the car. "Where'd he go?" he asked, scratching his head.

 

Suddenly, Casey appeared on the roof of the car, and leaned in the window with a can of spray paint in his hand. "Suck on this!" he shouted as he sprayed the paint right into Demon-Donnie's eyes.

 

Demon-Donnie howled in pain and clutched at his eyes with his giant hands. But before he could recover, Casey had jabbed his hockey stick into the window so that it hooked around Donnie's body. Then with a mighty heave, the vigilante pried Donnie free, sending them both tumbling onto the road, and making Speed Demon crash into the cliff side by the road.

 

Casey groaned as he pushed himself to his feet. If hitting the road hurt this much with all his padding under his clothes, no wonder Donnie had sounded like he was in pain before Speed Demon got him.

 

_Donnie!_

 

At the thought of his friend, Casey surged to his feet despite the pain, and looked in the direction his friend had fallen.

 

To his relief, he saw Donnie slowly pulling himself to his own feet, looking dazed, but otherwise okay, and, more importantly, completely human.

 

"Donnie!" he called, running over to the genius. Seeing no visible injuries aside from some tears in his clothing, he asked, "Hey, you alright? I thought you'd be worse off then this."

 

Donnie shook his head as he tried to clear the fog of pain from Speed Demons possession from his mind. "Yeah, I-I think so," he said, rubbing his head. "I have a theory that mutagen, or at least mutation process has some form of healing properties, so that cleared up my road rash."

 

Casey winced at the mention of the injury, but before he could question Donnie further, the sound of an engine starting up had both boys turning to stare in horror as Speed Demon began encroaching on them once again.

 

"I'm gonna chew you up and spit you out, Jones," snarled Speed Demon as its hood opened like a wide mouth, and roared at the teenagers.

 

"Aw no," Casey groaned.

 

But before he could get too worried, Donnie shoved him out of Speed Demon's path with a shout of, "I've got it this time, Casey."

 

With that he pulled out his bō staff, and ran headlong at Speed Demon. The car sped up, determined to swallow both boys for their interference, but before he could, Donnie jammed his bō into the monster's mouth, forcing it open, and keeping it from closing.

 

"Leave my friend alone!" Donnie shouted as he back flipped off the car, and threw some activated Boom Stars into the mouth.

 

Snarling in rage, Speed Demon snapped the bō in half, but could do nothing to dislodge the Boom Stars. Determined that if it was going down, it would take the boys with it, Speed Demon shot towards the two, determined to run them over.

 

But before it could reach them, the party wagon appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and rammed the mutant car through the guardrail and flying off the cliff.

 

"I'LL BE BACK!" Speed Demon cried as it fell, but then the Boom Stars ignited, and the mutant was blown to bits, its burning wreckage falling into the forest below.

 

Once the shock of all that had happened had worn off, the teenagers all cheered at their victory, though none did so more loudly than Casey and Donnie.

 

____________________________

 

At the Northampton Police Department, Officer Howard's eye twitched, and wondered, not for the first time, if he should apply for a transfer out of this insane town.

 

"Let me get this straight," he said slowly, as if talking to an infant. "You were driving along the back roads about a week ago, and suddenly your car came alive... and  _ate_  you?"

 

The frazzled man in front of him nodded emphatically. "Yes!" he said with an air of desperation.

 

"After that you completely blacked out until tonight when some kid managed to pull you out, and you ran off before your car could eat you again?" Howard continued, looking like he couldn't believe he was saying any of this.

 

"Yeah, exactly," insisted the man, not even seeming to notice Howard's skepticism.

 

Howard rubbed his temple in annoyance. It was way to late at night to be dealing with crazies. And he didn't have nearly enough coffee to get him through it.

 

"Can anyone confirm your story?" Howard asked dryly.

 

"That kid!" the man practically shouted. "That kid who pulled me out! He can tell you!" The man paused as something seemed to occur to him. "And get an ambulance out there to him, quick! He wasn't in good shape last I saw him!" He then paled. "If my car hasn't eaten him already!"

 

Howard frowned, crazy or not, if there was a hurt kid out there, he should take that seriously. "Can you describe him?" he asked as he picked up the phone on his desk to dial and ambulance. "What he looked like? What his condition was? Where was it you saw him?"

 

"He was tall and kinda scrawny," the man said as his face pinched to remember the details. "About fifteen, Asian, floppy hair, and I think he had a big gap in his teeth that I don't think was from what hurt him."

 

Howard froze with the phone halfway to his ear, and stared at the loony as he perfectly described one of the crazy kids he and his men had been looking for since the Golden Puck fiasco.

 

He definitely needed to put in a transfer notice soon. Really, really soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Howard's back, yay! I couldn't fit him in to any of the other chapters, but I thought it'd be funny to put him in here. More development on Casey's friendship with Donnie, and now Donnie knows about his crush on Miwa. This chapter was fun.


	47. Keeping Sight of What's Important

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An experiment with April's powers goes wrong at the worst possible time. There's another mutant lurking in the woods, and it's hungry.

It was a typical night in the Northampton woods. A hawk was flying through the air on the hunt, fish was swimming through the creek, also looking for food, and a worm accidentally managed to find its way into the water and was trying not to drown.

 

But these three animals had the great misfortune of crossing paths that night. The fish caught sight of the worm in the creek, and swam over to snap it up, only to be snapped up itself as its mouth closed around the worm, and the hawk lifted it into the air to be carried to its nest for feeding.

 

But as the hawk flew past the cliff side road that wound through the hills, it happened to do so just as Leo rammed his party wagon into Speed Demon, and sent the mutant car flying off the cliff just as the bird passed by. The Boom Star within Speed Demon detonated, and the hawk, fish, and worm were all caught in the flaming green explosion, and hurtled into the forest below.

 

During the fall, the hawk and its prey were covered in the mutagen fuel that Speed Demon had run on, and its transformation began even before it hit the ground.

 

As the teens cheered at their victory on the cliff, they had no idea that they had managed to create and even bigger monster in the forest below.

 

And it was  _hungry._

 

_____________________

 

In the barn one fine spring day, Donnie was in the middle of conducting a new experiment.

 

April, however, was dubious about it. "Um, Donnie, is this thing safe?" she asked, looking upwards at the metal frame Donnie had placed atop her head.

 

"Absolutely," Donnie said cheerfully as he attached high-voltage power cables to either side of the frame, making April twitch as she heard the sound of electricity coursing through her new 'hat'. The fact that Metalhead was also standing nearby with a fire extinguisher and a first aid kit in each of his hands was also not inspiring confidence.

 

"Now let me adjust the straps, and plug this baby in," Donnie continued, mostly to himself as he finished setting everything up.

 

April winced as the electric current in the frame on her head increased and let off sparks along with the lights in the barn flickering from the power drain. Metalhead raised the fire extinguisher in anticipation for something exploding. But then, everything settled down, and Donnie shot his robotic friend an annoyed glance for his actions.

 

"Whoa, April, check you out," said Mikey as he stepped inside the barn to avoid training with the others. "Is that a tiara? I  _love_  tiaras!"

 

"No kidding," Donnie said dryly to his girlfriend. "He used to wear pink one to school everyday when we were six. Raph would beat up anyone who laughed at him for it aside from us."

 

April muffled a giggle behind her hand, and Donnie turned to Mikey and explained, "It's not a tiara. It's a psycic-neuro transmitter."

 

Mikey's eyes widened in amazement, and he said, "Whoaaa, that was my second guess."

 

"Donnie salvaged it from the Kraang ship," April explained to the turtle as her boyfriend made some last minute adjustments to the transmitter. "He's gonna use it to test my psychic powers."

 

"Cool!" said Mikey appreciatively, and move over so he could watch.

 

He hovered behind Donnie, who was fiddling with the last piece, before turning on a radio he'd modified for the test. "Okay," Donnie said. "Starting-"

 

He paused to glare at Metalhead, who had once again raised his fire extinguisher. "Would you stop that!"

 

Metalhead lowered the fire extinguisher, and hung his head dejectedly, making Mikey and April laugh. Donnie just rolled his eyes, and turned back to the radio. "-Now!" he said as he turned the dial. "Feel anything?"

 

Instantly the Kraang tech lit up with its pink glow, and a set of bars on April's transmitter tiara lit up, but otherwise the redhead shrugged and said, "Nope."

 

Donnie frowned and fiddled with the radio some more, including banging on it with his fist for a bit, before glancing at her again. "How about now?"

 

The tiara made a fizzing sound, and April twitched and said, "Oop, that tickles."

 

Donnie figured that was as good as they were going to get, and picked up a set of cards with pictures on them. "Okay, now April, focus on the card. Close your eyes, and tell me what you see."

 

April squeezed her eyes shut, and did her best to do as Donnie had said. "I see… I see… a  _bird!"_ she said as the image came into her mind.

 

Donnie and Mikey both glanced at the card, which showed a picture of an airplane. "Oh, so close!" said Mikey brightly. "It flies like a-"

 

"Shh," Donnie hissed to stop Mikey from giving it away. "You'll spoil the test."

 

He the put down the airplane card and picked up an new one, this one showing a monkey. "Try again," he said gently to April.

 

April pressed one of her hands to her temple as she tried to focus on what the picture could be, barely noticing when Mikey started jumping and making monkey noises behind Donnie's back, causing Metalhead to use the fire extinguisher on him to make him stop.

 

"Hmm, I'm gonna say…" said April as she opened her eyes again. "A fish?" She then blinked at the sight of foam covered turtle that met her eyes. "Did Mikey catch on fire somehow?" she asked.

 

"Something like that," said Donnie with a smirk, ignoring the dirty look Mikey sent him and Metalhead. He then picked up another card, and said with a wiggle of his eyebrows, "Okay this one's easy."

 

Mikey and Metalhead both leaned over to look, and blinked in surprise as they saw a selfie of Donnie taped to the card.

 

April pressed both hands to her forehead as she tried again. "It's… It's…  _A Worm!_ Definitely a worm!"

 

Donnie was crestfallen at being compared to the slimy creature, and the mutant and metal turtles behind him both let out sounds of mirth at the look on his face.

 

April also saw his expression, and her face fell. "No? Really? But- these images in my head… they feel so right."

 

Donnie and Mikey exchanged glances. "Maybe you're picking up the wrong radio frequency," Mikey said with a shrug as he began brushing the foam off himself.

 

Donnie rolled his eyes at that, and decided to try again.

 

_____________________

 

Casey leaned against the rail on the front porch and watched as Miwa was once again training her butt off in the yard.

 

As much as he had to admire her talent, he didn't like how red her face was, or how she seemed short on breath. Plus, it was bugging him more than ever what was causing her to work so hard these last few months. In the time he'd known her, Casey had known Miwa tended to be a perfectionist, especially with her ninjutsu, but this was taking it to the extreme, and not in a good way.

 

"Yo, Babe!" he called. "Take a breather! You don't want to over do it like you did with those beavers!"

 

Miwa scowled at him, though whether it was for telling her to stop, or for calling her Babe, or both he couldn't be sure. But before she could give him a scathing remark that would no doubt clear up the confusion, Leo stepped out of the house on his crutch with Raph at his side.

 

"Casey's right, Mi," he said leaning his crutch against the porch steps. "Take five for now. Raph and I need the yard for some training. I think my legs are about ready for anything again."

 

Miwa's expression hardened, but she complied with his request, and went to sit on the porch steps, and took a swig from the water bottle she'd left sitting there.

 

Catching sight of the dirty looks she was shooting him for speaking up, Casey quickly vacated the porch to go help Raph and Leo.

 

Leo was doing warm up stretches for their training, and Raph stood off to the side watching him with an amused expression.

 

"Come on, let's get to it," said Leo eagerly. "I'm feeling a lot better. Today, I'm taking you both down."

 

Raph scoffed at that remark. "Hah, in your dreams, Leo," he said as he spun his sais in his hands.

 

Casey frowned slightly, and leaned over to Raph and whispered, "Dude, the guy's been down for like, ever. Cut him some slack, okay."

 

Raph nodded in agreement. "I know," he said back softly. "Just don't let Leo know we're doing it." At Casey's answering smirk, the two bumped fists and got ready to go against the eldest turtle.

 

"Yeah, Leo," said Raph in a semi-sarcastic tone. "I bet you'll take us both down." He then smirked and added dryly. "Casey anyway."

 

"No doubt there," called Miwa from the porch, still steamed at being made to sit out.

 

Casey shot them both dirty looks.

 

Leo, meanwhile, grinned and spun his swords in his hands. "Let's find out," he said confidently, and the fight was on.

 

Leo moved like lightning, his blades flashing in the sunlight as he went at Casey first. The vigilante was stuck on the defensive for the entire time as Leo came at him faster than he could retaliate, until a kick to the stomach got past his bat and sent the boy tumbling across the grass.

 

Raph was on Leo the second Casey was out of the way, and the two parried at a speed that was difficult to follow. It seemed about even, until Raph managed to disarm Leo of one of his swords. Undeterred, Leo continued to go against Raph with his remaining sword until he landed funny on one of his legs, and let out a cry of pain.

 

Crouching down to clutch his knee, Leo squeezed his eyes shut and groaned. "No, no, not again!"

 

Casey, Raph, and Miwa shared a concerned look, and they all gathered around their fallen leader. The boys slung his arms over their shoulders and helped him back over to the porch, and Leo insisted that he be set down by the steps.

 

Shooting his knee a morose look, he sighed and said, "It's hopeless."

 

"Aw come on, Leo," said Raph, trying to encourage his older brother. "You just need to stretch it out."

 

"You could still spar with us," Casey offered in his best encouraging tone.

 

"No!" Leo snapped, and he looked up at them furiously. The anger quickly faded, and he said, "I mean, I'd just hold you back. You train, I'll…  _watch_ ," he spat the last word like it was a curse. "'S all I'm good for anyway."

 

The other three exchanged glances, and reluctantly turned back to the yard to continue sparring.

 

"I don't get it," Miwa said softly as they got into position. "He's taken  _all_  of the mutagen medicine that Donnie made. He should be better now. Why is he still feeling pain?"

 

Raph sighed as he lifted one of his sais into his hand, but made no move to reach for the other. "Shredder beat both of us pretty bad," he admitted, rubbing the crack in his plastron that was his most prominent scar from that fight with his free hand. "Leo way more than me. I was half out of it, and nearly hibernating during the fight, so the Foot might have done something to him I couldn't see that… that hasn't healed yet… or ever will."

 

The three barely refrained from shooting pitying looks in Leo's direction, knowing the blue wearing turtle would not appreciate it. Instead they tried to bury their dark thoughts, and launched themselves at each other with gusto.

 

_____________________

 

Back in the barn, Donnie was still fiddling with the radio dial, trying to somehow boost the signal, and help April see the cards.

 

Next to him, April was starting to get impatient on how long the whole process was taking. "Um, I don't think it's working, Donnie," she said as gently as she could, but not fully managing to mask her irritation.

 

"Hmm," said Donnie, shooting her a sympathetic look, before exchanging a glance with Dr. Cluckingsworth, who had hopped up onto his worktable to help. "Maybe if I make some adjustments…" he said, giving the radio dial one last once twist.

 

Instantly there was a mechanical humming sound, and the lights began flickering. The transmitter tiara on April's head sparked as electricity danced across it, causing her to cry out in pain.

 

But as she screamed, waves of yellow light burst from her head, blinding both the brothers, and making Metalhead short-circuit and shut down like he did the last time he'd been caught in such a wave.

 

When the light vanished, both brothers gaped at the sight before them.

 

The cards that Donnie had been using to test April, along with Dr. Cluckingsworth were all hovering in mid air, as if held up by invisible wires.

 

"I didn't do that, I swear!" shouted Mikey as he stared at them, hoping Donnie wouldn't somehow blame him.

 

But Donnie's attention was focused on April. "But that means- April, you are telekinetically levitating the cards," he said in awe.

 

April remained silent, and stared upwards blankly.

 

Concern flooding him, Donnie crouched down in front of her and waved his hand in front of her face. "April?" he asked worriedly. "April, you okay? Can you hear me?""

 

He then jerked back at the sight of April's eyes. A strange film had covered them, making them appear as white and blank as his three turtle brothers could be when angry.                            

 

April didn't seem to notice the film, and turned her head in the direction of Donnie's voice. As she did so, all of the cards, and Dr. Cluckingsworth fell to the ground instantaneously. Said chicken let out an indignant squawk, and made her way over to reboot Metalhead.

 

April then got to her feet, and began waving her hands out in front of her, confusion etched into her face despite the white eyes. "What happened to the barn?" she asked in confusion. "Where are we?"

 

Donnie and Mikey exchanged confused glances as April's reaching hands brushed over their faces as she tried to find her way around. "Uh, still in the barn," said Donnie in confusion as April turned and walked into one of the barn walls.

 

April winced in pain, and pressed her hands to the wall in confusion. "What is this? Is it invisible?"

 

"Uh, looks pretty visible to me," said Mikey, looking utterly clueless as to what was going on.

 

Frowning, Donnie made his way over to stand by April. Taking her hands in his, he asked, "April, where do you think you are? What do you see?"

 

April was silent for a moment, before saying softly, "Clouds. I think I'm…  _flying!"_

 

Mikey leaned over, and smiled brightly. "Totally understand. I get that way when I eat pizza."

 

But Donnie grew even more concerned. "You're seeing things," he said as he reached for the transmitter tiara. "I'm taking this off."

 

But when he removed the device from her head, he was disappointed to see that April's eyes were still milky-white. Hoping that it was temporary, he asked, "Did that help."

 

April shook her head slightly. "I'm still in the air," she said. "Soaring. But-but now I'm heading down." Her eyes then widened in horror. Reaching out, she clasped Donnie's arm in a death grip, and said frantically. "Outside! I see Casey, Mi, and Raph! They're under attack!"

 

With the fear evident in her voice, neither Donnie nor Mikey even hesitated. Both turned and bolted towards the barn door. Pushing it open wide, they stared at what they saw in the yard.

 

Hovering in the air in front of the three in the yard was a monstrous creature unlike any they'd encountered before. It was pink and lumpy, with a bird-like head attached to a long flexible neck with gills along the side. Its body was a bulbous and long tentacle like appendages attached to the bottom, and great bat-like wings sprouting from either side and flapping to keep the creature airborne.

 

The two brothers pulled their weapons from their pockets, and raced out into the yard to help, heedless of April trailing after them blindly, and calling, "Uh guys? Guys, wait for me!"

 

But they were already too busy trying to avoid the creature's snapping beak.

 

As Casey tucked and rolled to avoid one such attack, he shouted, "What the heck? Another mutant!?"

 

"Where'd it come from?" shouted Raph, just as a tentacle smacked him in the stomach, and sent him tumbling away.

 

"Kill it first, questions later!" Miwa snapped as she launched herself at the monster's neck, for it to swing wildly, and catch her in the stomach, winding her and sending her flying into Leo, who had come out to help.

 

"Booyakasha!" shouted Mikey as he aimed a flying kick at the creature's head, and managed to land it. Taking a closer look, it hit him what the creature looked like. "Oh, bird, worm, and fish. Three animals, one body. I know this one! There's, like, a perfect name for it in mythology!"

 

As Donnie dodged a blow the creature sent his way, he called to Mikey questioningly, "Chimera?"

 

"No, Turducken, but Chimera works!" Mikey called back cheerfully.

 

The newly dubbed Chimera let out a screech, and snapped its razor sharp beak at Mikey, which the turtle barely dodged.

 

While it was distracted, Donnie used his bō to poll vault into the air and land a kick on the Chimera's face. Before it could recover, Raph leaped forwards and punched in the beak. The combined blows had the Chimera collapsing to the ground, but it was quickly up again, and angry as could be.

 

It tried to snap them up with it's beak, and tentacles, but the ninjas were too fast for it, and Mikey managed to launch himself forward with a cry of, "In yoh beak!" and smack the monster with his nunchucks.

 

But even that wasn't enough to take it down, and it turned its attention on to Leo, seeing as he had been the slowest moving of the teens, and likely the weakest of them. It managed to smack Leo's injured leg with its tentacles, and throw him into a blindly-stumbling April, sending them both sprawling to the ground in a heap.

 

Pushing himself back up, Leo said sternly. "Careful, April, you've got to find cover," he said, failing to notice the film over her eyes.

 

But April was staring in the Chimera's direction in unseeing shock. "What?" she asked, clutching her head as the image of her sitting next to Leo filled her mind. "Is that me I'm looking at?" Then she sensed what the creature would do next, and shouted _, "Look out!"_

 

Leo needed no further prompting, and dragged April out of harm's way just as the Chimera launched itself at the place they'd been.

 

As it plowed its head into the dirt where the two had once been sitting, Miwa too that as an opportunity to aim a strike at the creature's neck. The Chimera screeched in pain at the blow, it rounded on Miwa, and started chasing after her instead.

 

Leo limped as he led April around the corner of the house to keep her safe while she couldn't see, but that didn't stop April from berating herself. "This is my fault! I-I summoned this thing!"

 

Then to their horror, the Chimera circled around to their location and tried to go after them again, Leo barely tackling April out of the way in time. But then a shuriken struck the side of the creature's head, and distracted it once again.

 

Raph launched himself at the monster, only to be caught in its beak in midair, and flung around like a ragdoll. "Little Help!" he shouted as he fought to keep his lunch down, and hold onto his weapons.

 

Donnie and Mikey ran forwards to try and free him, only to be caught in the creature's worm-like tentacles, and unable to get free.

 

Casey climbed onto the roof of the house to try and get it from the air, but only managed to get caught in the tentacles too.

 

Apparently satisfied with what it had caught, the Chimera turned to fly off. Acting quickly, Miwa ran forwards, and managed to grab ahold of the monster's tail, and clung to it in a death grip as the mutant shot upwards in the direction of the mountains, leaving a distraught Leo and April behind at the farmhouse.

 

"NO!" Leo yelled as he tried to run after them, only to collapse as his knee once again gave out under him. Clenching his eyes shut in self-loathing, and said despairingly, "They're gone! I couldn't do  _anything!"_

 

April pushed herself up from where she had once again fallen, and strained her ears to locate the remaining ninja. "Leo!" she called. "My eyes…"

 

Seeing her, Leo hurried over to crouch next to her, registering her blank gaze for the first time since the chaos had started. "Y-you're blind?" he asked worriedly, wondering how that could have happened.

 

"Not exactly," she said fervently. "Somehow, I-I got a psychic connection to the monster. Maybe from Donnie's neuro-transmitter." She then reached up to point at her white gaze. "I'm seeing through its eyes," she clarified as the image of a mountain filled her head. "I know where it's taking them and-"

 

She broke off and clutched her stomach as it growled from hunger, despite the big lunch she'd had not to long ago. "Uh oh, I know why it took them too. I feel  _really_  hungry. Like, Mikey hungry."

 

She then fell silent as she tried to focus on where the Chimera was taking her friends.

 

_____________________

 

Miwa swore obscenities under her breath as she clung with all her might to the tail of the Chimera as it flew through the air. Grabbing onto it was probably one of the stupidest, and most reckless things she'd ever done, but she wasn't about to let some monster fly off with her family if she could help it.

 

As she dragged herself farther up the monster's body towards where her brothers and Casey were dangling, she heard the vigilante let out an indignant squawk as he was smacked into several trees.

 

"This is not cool!" he shouted angrily as his head knocked against a particularly tall pine.

 

"Put us down!" she heard Mikey shout to the Chimera.

 

"That's not a good idea!" shouted Donnie in reply, looking fearfully down at the sheer drop below them.

 

Miwa blotted their yelling out, and focused on reaching them.

 

Once she was on the back of the Chimera and felt she had a good enough grip, she drew her tantō and stabbed it deep into the Chimera's flesh.

 

The effect was instantaneous as the Chimera screeched in pain, and pulled into a steep dive, making all of the teenagers scream in fear.

 

It then dove into a wide and fast moving river near the base of the mountain, and everyone barely had time to hold their breath before they went under the water.

 

The Chimera thrashed around underwater, and Miwa felt her hands slip free of the sword still wedged in Chimera's flesh, sending her tumbling along with the river's strong current, and cracking her head a submerged log, knocking her unconscious.

 

Seeing this through the river's murk, Casey jammed the spiked nails of his goalie glove into the tentacle the Chimera was using to hold him, making the mutant release the vigilante, and shoot back out of the water with Mikey, Donnie, and Raph in tow.

 

As worried as he was for them, Casey focused his attention on swimming (not something that was easy to do in his equipment), and catching up to Miwa.

 

He quickly caught up with the unconscious girl, and dragged her up to the surface with him.

 

Gasping for precious air as he broke the surface, Casey looked frantically around for a way to get to shore, only to realize with a jolt that the river had swept the two of them into a dark cave.

 

"Aw man," he groaned as he began dragging Miwa in the direction of a low rocky ledge he could see up ahead, all the while making sure to keep Miwa's head above water.

 

Reaching it, he clung with one arm to it, and with great difficulty hefted Miwa up on top of it, before climbing out himself.

 

Casey only spared enough time to check that Miwa was breathing, and that her head wasn't bleeding, before collapsing next to her gasping for breath.

 

"Saving damsels in distress ain't all it's cracked up to be," he said dryly to Miwa, but received no reply.

 

Once Casey could breathe without feeling a stitch in his side again, he pulled himself to his feet, and glanced around for a way out of the cave so he could go rescue his friends.

 

Seeing none save for the rapid river that had brought them in there, Casey gathered Miwa up onto his arms, and started walking deeper into the caves, hoping to find a way out in that direction, allowing the glowing green algae that coated the walls light his way.

 

"One of these tunnels has to lead outside, right," said Casey hopefully.

 

Miwa mumbled in her sleep, but otherwise gave no answer.

 

_____________________

 

When the Chimera burst out of the water minus Casey and Miwa, it flew upwards towards the mountain and dropped its remaining prey.

 

Raph, Donnie, and Mikey screamed as they fell through the air, before landing with a crunch on something wooden and spiky.

 

Mikey breathed a sigh of relief as he pushed himself to his feet. "That was close," he said. "Maybe it'll leave us alone now, and we can find Casey and Mi."

 

Donnie looked down as his foot crunched on something that wasn't wood. Looking down, he was horrified to see that the nest they'd been dropped into was lined with several skeletons, their bones picked white and clean of any flesh. "Um, no," he whimpered fearfully. "I think we're supposed to be dinner."

 

Just then, the Chimera circled past the nest as it prepared to land.

 

Seeing this, Raph bellowed, "What are we waiting for?! Let's move!"

 

That jolted the three brothers into action, and they scrambled out of the nest towards the cliff side.

 

Not happy that its remaining prey was trying to flee, the Chimera swooped down, and began pecking at Mikey, which the youngest barely dodged. As the Chimera tried again, Donnie leaped forward with his bō, and smacked the Chimera across the face, making it cry out in pain and outrage.

 

The three took that distraction as a chance to bolt.

 

_____________________

 

In the woods between the mountain and the farmhouse, April was crying out in pain, and clutched her head.

 

"April?" said Leo worriedly as she fell to her knees, but then a twinge of pain in his legs had him joining her on the ground.

 

"I-I'm fine," said April slowly. "I could feel the creature's pain. It got dizzy, and its back really hurts for some reason, like there's a thorn in it." She then stood, and looked at the mountain ahead of them. "Casey and Miwa got away from the monster, but I don't know where they are now. Your brothers are at the top of Talbot peak, and the Chimera still has them in its sights. We better hurry."

 

Leo sighed as he got back to his feet, and leaned on his crutch. "Hurry? April, look at us," he said despairingly.

 

"That's a little difficult right now," April snapped angrily.

 

"My point exactly," said Leo, undeterred. "You can't see, I can't walk, we'll never make it."

 

"We'll make it," April insisted as she stormed onwards, annoyed at how easily Leo was giving up. "No matter what."

 

Her words would have been impressive, if she didn't walk right into a tree a few seconds later. "I meant to do that," she said sheepishly as she clutched her nose, not needing eyes to know Leo was giving her a dry look behind her back.

 

_____________________

 

Waking up being carried princess style in the arms of Casey Jones was not exactly on Miwa's top ten things to wake up to, the fact that she was cold, wet, and had a headache the size of Texas wasn't helping her mood any either.

 

When Casey felt her shift, and saw she was awake, he quickly set her on the ground and crouched next to her. "You okay?" he asked in concern.

 

Miwa rubbed her head as everything that happened came rushing back to her. "I'll live," she grumbled. "Where are we?" As she asked, she glanced around at the dim light of the cave they were in.

 

"No idea," said Casey honestly. "That freaky worm-chicken dropped us in here, and took off with the others. I've been trying to find a way out, and I've been marking a trail with my spray paint, but…" He trailed off with a helpless shrug, telling Miwa he had no idea where he was going.

 

"Perfect," she grumbled sarcastically as she pushed herself to her feet. "Let's keep going. We need to save my brothers."

 

Casey nodded, and the two continued on through the tunnel.

 

They walked in silence for a few minutes, keeping their eyes peeled for the faintest glimmer of daylight in the dim cave.

 

Finally, Casey broke the silence, and said, "Since we're alone, uh, could I ask you something…?"

 

Miwa looked at him dubiously, and raised an eyebrow. "Yes?" she asked.

 

"You- uh- that is…" Casey stuttered, trying to find the right words.

 

Miwa rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to eat you, Jones. Spit it out."

 

Casey took a deep breath that he hoped would not be his last, and blurted out, "But I want to know what's eating  _you?"_

 

Miwa blinked at him owlishly. "Me?"

 

"Yeah," said Casey nervously. "You- you've been really tense ever since we got here. Like you've been moody, anti-social, and training like you're the freakin' Terminator. What gives?"

 

"I told you-" Miwa started to say, but Casey cut her off.

 

"I know you said you felt you didn't do enough during the invasion," he said quickly. "But I gotta hunch that it's more than just that. What's the deal? Why are you so scared of screwing up?"

 

The two teens had come to a halt as they spoke, and now they were at an utter standstill as a battle of wills went on between them. Miwa stared hard at Casey for his words, and he met her gaze dead on, determined not to blink first.

 

Finally, Miwa looked away and heaved a heavy sigh, before saying softly, "I'm afraid… I'm afraid of leading the Foot to my family a second time…" she confessed, refusing to meet his gaze and starting to walk through the tunnel once again.

 

"A second time?" he asked as he followed after her. "But I thought back in New York was the first time Shredder found you guys. That's why he didn't know Tang Shen was still kicking."

 

Miwa's face twisted into a bitter smile. "You do know the Hamato Clan didn't used to be just us right. It had our Aunts, and Uncles, and cousins, and loads of people not related to us in it. It was one of the last great ninja clans of the modern age. And the Shredder made it his life's goal to wipe us all out."

 

Miwa seemed to wilt even further, and added, "And it's all my fault he found some of them. When I was a kid, Father was asked to come aid some of our members hiding in China, family on my mother's side, and he brought me along, and- I-" She heaved another sigh and said, "Let's just say, bad things happened, and they were all my fault…"

 

_____________________

 

Meanwhile, Donnie, Raph, and Mikey were all running for their lives to try and escape the Chimera. The creature had not been happy that they'd vacated its nest, and was swooping after them as they edged along the steep cliff side, and tried to get down.

 

"We gotta get off this mountain!" Donnie yelled to his brothers, as the Chimera swooped at them again.

 

"Easy, Turducken!" shouted Mikey as he smacked it's head with his nunchuck. "I bet we can take this thing," he called back to Raph and Donnie.

 

"Not on its turf!" Donnie protested.

 

But before any of them could say anything else, the Chimera's fish-like tail whipped out and smacked the three of them off the cliff, and sent them tumbling downwards into a wide dark hole.

 

The brothers screamed as she slid down the smooth surface of the rock, before landing hard on some rocky shelves jutting out from the wall.

 

Raph and Mikey immediately reached out to grab Donnie's flailing arms, and pull him to safety as he teetered on the edge of the shelf. Once he had his balance, the three took a moment to catch their breath, and take stock of what just happened.

 

They were now on a narrow ledge in a deep dark hole, with no apparent way out, and, from what they could hear, the Chimera was perched at the entrance above, screeching its head off.

 

Raph peered up at the opening above their heads. "Doesn't look like that thing can fit down here," he said. He then glanced around at the area they were trapped in, and added dryly, "And that's about the only good news about this mess."

 

"Raph, we're trapped inside a giant hole," Donnie snarked. "I'm pretty sure good is the last thing I'd use to describe this situation."

 

"Um, did you feel something move a little?" asked Mikey nervously from his position next to Donnie.

 

A second later, the portion of the ledge the two were standing on gave way, and Raph rushed to the edge to see that his brothers had fallen and landed on another smaller ledge close to a pool of steaming water that was emitting a pale glow.

 

"You guys okay down there?" he asked as he pulled out his grappling hook and rope, and lowered it down to them.

 

"We're cool," Donnie called back. Only to pale as he got a better look at the bubbling water before him.

 

"Hot tube time!" cheered Mikey in delight when he saw it. "All  _Right!_ "

 

"Not 'all right'!" Donnie shouted, grabbing his little brother's hand before he could dive in. "That water's boiling at around two-hundred degrees Fahrenheit. It's under intense pressure." He paused as he and Mikey grabbed hold of Raph's rope and allowed their red wearing brother to start pulling them both up. Then he continued, "I think we're stuck in some sort of geyser. Which is strange, since they're so rare to this area. But that would explain why the walls are so smooth. It must erupt all the time."

 

"How long do we got?" asked Raph as the two joined him on the upper ledge. "An hour?"

 

"Less," said Donnie grimly. "Then we're turtle soup with a side of genius."

 

"So how do we not become turtle soup?" asked Mikey nervously. "'Cause I don't wanna be turtle soup, man. I didn't even like the stuff before I mutated."

 

"No problem," said Raph confidently. "We'll tie all our grappling hooks together, and climb out."

 

"Okay," said Mikey, looking even more nervous now. "One problem, I forgot my grappling hook."

 

The look Raph gave him made Mikey almost wish he had jumped into the boiling water.

 

"Yeah, me too," Donnie admitted reluctantly, flinching as the look was transferred onto both of them.

 

Letting out an angry growl, Raph yelled, "Have you two not been paying attention! For a long time now, our lives have been really,  _really **weird!**  _The odds of us getting kidnapped by a giant mutant are  _way_  higher than they are of us  _not!_  You need to be prepared for  ** _ANYTHING!_** "

 

Mikey and Donnie wilted, but then Donnie snapped, "Why is it always on me?"

 

That unleashed the floodgate, and soon the three brothers dissolved into mindless bickering as the water below them slowly crept higher.

 

_____________________

 

In the woods below the mountain, Leo and April moved at a sedated pace, leaning on each other for support, and to aid with their current handicaps.

 

Suddenly, April let out a sigh of relief, and said, "Okay, they're safe for now."

 

"I can't believe you talked me into this," Leo grumbled next to her as he limped along.

 

"I shouldn't have had too," said April in a disapproving tone.

 

Leo frowned, then shrugged her off, and sat himself down on a nearby rock. "You don't understand," he said despairingly. "I thought I was getting better, but I was hurt again way too easily. I'm a liability to the whole team." He finished with a sigh of defeat, looking in any direction but April's.

 

' _A liability? He thinks he's a **liability?'**_  April thought as she frowned at his words. She then stomped angrily forward, knowing she couldn't let those words stand.  _'After all,'_  she mused to herself,  _'before my training, I was a liability too. But that never stopped me from trying to help where I could, and it's not going to stop me now, and neither should it stop him.'_

 

"You're not!" April yelled in the direction she thought Leo was sitting. "You're their leader! We can help them! We  _have_ to help them!"

 

Leo blinked in surprise at her strong words, before sheepishly saying, "Uh, April… I'm over here."

 

April looked in his direction, and away from the tree she'd been scolding. Not even bothering to look embarrassed at her mistake, she pumped her fist in Leo's direction, and turned to start walking again.

 

Leo sighed, and hurried to catch up to her before she walked into a tree again.

 

With Leo leaning against her once again, April frowned as the sounds of the three brothers bickering filled her ears, and she saw them squabbling on a ledge in a deep dark hole.

 

"Things are getting worse," she said. "We've gotta hurry."

 

"I'm trying my best," Leo grunted as the pain in his leg flared up again.

 

April opened her mouth to deliver a quote from  _Star Wars_  about 'trying', but was cut off as her stomach growled loudly. She took a deep breath through her nose, and tried to ignore the hunger that wasn't hers, only for it to double as a tantalizing sent hit her senses.

 

"Leo," she said, leaning closer as she realized the sent was coming from him. "You- you smell really…"

 

Leo jerked away from her as she began leaning into his personal space, and sniffing at him.

 

"…Good," April finished with a hungry grin on her face.

 

"Don't get any ideas," Leo said as he backed away from the girl with a disturbed look on his face.

 

He then witnessed the ridiculous sight of April flapping her arms like wings, and squawking like a bird, before launching herself at him and trying to bite his face off. Dropping his cane so he could catch her by the shoulders, Leo shook April hard, and shouted for her to snap out of it.

 

Instantly, an expression that was a mix of horror and mortification appeared on April's face, and she stepped back and said softly, "Oh man, Leo, I am so embarrassed right now."

 

"It's okay," said Leo, letting her go now that she was sane again, but still feeling weirded out by the situation. "Just- please stop trying to bite me."

 

April rubbed her head with her hand. "We have to hurry," she said. "The link is getting stronger."

 

"Saw that-" agreed Leo, but broke off as he noticed his crutch on the ground. Realizing he was standing without any pain, the turtle's face broke into a wide smile.

 

Reaching over to shake April's shoulders again, this time out of joy, he said, "I can't believe it, I'm standing!" He gave a little jump to test his legs, and his smile widened as he felt no adverse affects from the movement. "I'm  _standing!_ " he repeated joyfully.

 

April then reached out her hand to him and said, "Then come on, let's save the guys."

 

Leo took her hand with a determined nod, and turned to look up at Talbot Peak.

 

Watch out Chimera, here they come.

 

_____________________

 

"Okay," said Donnie as the three finally finished bickering, and had come up with a plan. "By attaching Mikey's Kusarigama chains to Raph's grappling line, it should be  _just_ long enough."

 

"Let's find out," said Raph as he began swinging the end of their rope in a circle, before throwing it upwards towards the mouth of the hole.

 

The sickle end of the kusarigama burrowed itself into the cliff side outside the hole, and with some experimental tugs from Raph, they knew it would hold.

 

"Booyakasha!" cheered Mikey when he realized that.

 

Raph also grinned. "That'll hold, let's go."

 

The three began climbing up their line, eager to escape the soon to erupt geyser.

 

But just as Raph neared the top, the Chimera's face appeared at the entrance to the hole, and the bird monster screeched at the three ninjas.

 

Raph had to swing to the side on the rope as the Chimera's head shot down the hole, and tried to snap him up. He managed to avoid the bite, but the rope wasn't so lucky, and the three found themselves tumbling back downwards.

 

Donnie landed safely on the ledge, Raph ended up clinging to the side, and had to reach out and catch Mikey before he fell in the boiling water. Even so, Mikey's rear still dipped slightly into the water, and the turtle let out a yelp of "Hot!  _Hot! **HOT!**_ **"**  before launching himself clear over Raph and onto the ledge to escape the burning feeling.

 

Raph climbed up himself, and the three stared warily at the now much higher water.

 

"Guys, the water's rising," said Donnie nervously. "We're running out of time!"

 

"What do we do now?" whimpered Mikey, who was still rubbing his sore bottom painfully.

 

Raph and Donnie exchanged glances, and shook their heads. "I don't know, little brother," said Raph. "I don't know."

 

_____________________

 

Leo grunted as he climbed another ledge of Talbot Peak, and reached down to aid April in joining him. The two had tied themselves together with a rope, that way if April slipped due to her blindness, or any other reason, Leo could continue to cling to the rocks, and keep her from falling. They had debated searching for Miwa and Casey at the base of the mountain, but then April had seen the Chimera nearly snap Raph up as he and the others tried to escape, and they had decided that the three of them were likely in more immediate danger.

 

Sure enough, during their climb a rock crumbled under April's foot, and she would have fallen clean off the mountain if it had not been for Leo's solid grip on its surface.

 

Finally, they reached the ledge with the giant nest, and Leo said, "We made it, but I don't see the… fish-bird-worm-thing."

 

April clutched Leo's hand to stay steady, and focused on what she was seeing through the Chimera's eyes. "I see clouds," she said. "I'm flying through them. Faster and faster." She then glanced in the direction she knew Leo was in, and asked, "Do you see the hole?"

 

Leo looked downwards, searching for the hole that held his brothers. Spotting it, he hurried to a ledge overlooking it. "Yeah, over here!" he called to April. Turning his attention down the hole, he called, "Guys! Guys! Can you hear me?! Are you alright?!"

 

"Leo!" cheered Mikey at the sight of him, and the other two beamed up at the sight of their big brother along with him.

 

"Leo, Yes!" Raph shouted back. "We're okay!"

 

But Donnie glanced nervously at the bubbling water, and added, "But we're running out of time!"

 

Just then the clouds cleared from April's vision, and she paled at what she saw. "Leo, Wait!" she shouted. "I'm right on top of us!"

 

It took only a second for that confusing statement to register, and Leo looked up to see the Chimera diving towards them with a screech.

 

Both teens had no time to dodge as the creature swooped down and snatched them up in its tentacle appendages. Leo let out a pained grunt as one of the tentacles wrapped tightly around the leg that had been giving him trouble.

 

Hearing that, April yelled, "Leo! Are you-?"

 

"I'm fine!" Leo shouted back, ignoring the pain and refusing to give up. "I'm not gonna let a little pain stop me!"

 

With that, Leo unsheathed his sword, and slashed at the Chimera, making the creature cry out in pain. It quickly dropped Leo, who twisted in the air and used his grappling gun to catch hold of the monster and swing himself up on top of it.

 

He was momentarily surprised to see Miwa's tantō stuck in the pink flesh of the Chimera, but he got over it and gripped the hilt of the blade to keep himself steady on the Chimera's back.

 

"What about you?" he called down to April, who was still in the creature's grip.

 

April pulled out her tessen and called back, "No worries! I'm getting the hang of this! Just need to hit myself right between the eyes!"

 

Doing the calculations in her head that would have made Donnie proud, April took aim, and flung her tessen out in front of the monster. The metal fan arched through the air, and slashed against the Chimera's right eye, making it squawk and loosen its grip on the girl, and allowing her to climb up until she was sitting on its neck right behind its head.

 

"Got it by the gills!" she called back to Leo as she reached her hands into the gills to get a good grip on the creature. She then winced as she felt how slimy they were. "Gross!" she shouted as she pulled one hand out and shook the mucus off.

 

But she quickly had to grab hold of it again despite the slime, as the Chimera turned into a sharp dive, trying to knock the two of them off its back.

 

"Hold On!" shouted Leo as he clung to both the back and his sister's blade.

 

"Holding!" April shouted back as the Chimera spun like a corkscrew in midair.

 

Then the Chimera shot almost straight upwards towards the sun, still trying to shake them, only to stall and begin plummeting to the ground in a tangled mess of tentacles and wings, but still the two teenagers held on.

 

"Ha! Not that easy!" shouted April to the Chimera as she clung tightly to its neck.

 

"I don't think easy is part of the plan!" Leo shouted to her as he caught sight of what was ahead of them. "Hold your breath!"

 

April's eyes widened as she caught on to the Chimera's plan, and took a deep breath and steeled herself.

 

Just like when Miwa was on its back, the Chimera dove into the river water, and kept below the surface.

 

For once Leo was glad to have been mutated into a turtle. With the shell came an expanded lung capacity that meant he could hold his breath for up to ten minutes.

 

But April was not so lucky, and she yanked hard on the monsters gills, steering it back up towards the surface.

 

The Chimera's head tilted upwards, but it refused to move from its position underwater. Realizing this, Leo decided to take a leaf out of Miwa's book, and twisted the tantō deeper into the monster's flesh.

 

The Chimera let out a gargling shriek, and shot up out of the water and taking to the air like a rocket.

 

April gasped greedily once the fresh air became available, and tilted her head back in Leo's direction. "Leo, you okay?" she asked.

 

Leo had been smacked in the face by a large fish as they were surfacing, and still had its tail caught in its mouth. He spat it out over the side of the Chimera, before turning to reassure April he was okay, only to let out a loud gasp as he saw how low they were flying. If the Chimera wasn't careful, they could end up crashing into a tree, and at the speed they were going, the impact would seriously injure them.

 

Seeing this through the Chimera's eyes, April shouted, "No!" and yanked hard on the gills once again, forcing the Chimera to turn and just barely avoid hitting a particularly tall pine tree.

 

Using the gills as reigns, April steered the monster through the trees, regardless of its cries of protest. The creature quickly got sick of it, and shot off towards the mountains again, making more attempts to shake the two off as it flew higher and higher into the air.

 

"Leo, I remembered something!" shouted April as an idea occurred to her. "Casey and Donnie hit it on its head! It lost balance"

 

Leo's eyes narrowed as he caught on to her plan, and tensed himself on the Chimeara's back. "Worth a try!" he called back as he yanked Miwa's tantō out of the Chimera's back, and strapped it to his back among his swords.

 

He then scooted forwards till he was right behind April, and the two brought their legs down hard on the Chimera's neck.

 

The monster's eyes widened in pain, and it began tumbling out of the sky.

 

As the Chimear fell closer and closer to the mountain, Leo tensed at his position on its neck, and yelled, "Get ready to jump!"

 

"Jump?" asked April. "Are you crazy?"

 

Even so, she didn't protest as Leo took her hand, and they both leapt from the monster just as it crashed head first into the hole the three brothers were trapped in.

 

Leo landed next to the edge of the hole with April in his arms. Setting her on her feet, he ran to the edge of the hole.

 

Down below, the Chimera screeched and thrashed as it tried to get free, and snapped at the three boys that were standing near its head. But a swift kick to the head from Raph was enough to knock it out, and it fell limp.

 

Looking up at the Chimera's body, Raph said, "It plugged the hole. That's good right?"

 

"No! That's bad!" said Donnie frantically. "The pressure from below has to escape somehow! If the geyser can't erupt the whole mountain will explode!"

 

Mikey and Raph exchanged uneasy glances, but a shout from above drew their attention back upwards.

 

"Guys!" shouted Leo with a grunt as he shoved the Chimera's body aside to provide a opening for them to climb out. "Move!" he ordered.

 

Needing no further prompting, the brothers began scaling up the Chimera's body and climbing towards the surface.

 

Unfortunately, their movements caused the Chimera to awaken once again, and it began thrashing madly, making it difficult to climb.

 

Below them the water bubble loudly, signaling that the geyser would erupt at any moment.

 

Mikey reached the surface first, and he grinned at April and Leo. "Finally," he said with a sigh of relief. "Are we glad to see you guys."

 

But Donnie was more concerned about his girlfriend. "April, your eyes?" he said, seeing that they were still milky white.

 

April smiled slightly in the direction of his voice, and said, "Yeah, I can't see anything right now. The creature must be in total darkness."

 

"Um, guys," said Raph sarcastically. "Exploding mountain, remember. We gotta get out of her and find Mi and Casey."

 

Just then the ground began shaking beneath their feet, and the teenagers all yelped in fear and began running for cover.

 

A second later, the geyser exploded in a mass of rocks and dust.

 

_____________________

 

Within the cave, Casey and Miwa walked at a brisk pace, trying to find an exit to in order to find and save Miwa's brothers.

 

Even so, Casey's head was a million miles away as he tried to absorb the story Miwa had just told him. A story that, quite frankly, made a lot of things make sense.

 

"Babe," he said, trying to find words to reassure his crush. "You gotta know that all that wasn't your fault, right?"

 

Miwa's mouth pinched into a thin line, and she opened her mouth to reply. But before she could, a loud explosion rocked the cave they were in.

 

"What's happening?!" shouted Casey as the two tried to keep their footing.

 

Miwa caught sight of cracks appearing in the cave ceiling above Casey head, and tackled him out of the way before he could become crushed underneath the rubble.

 

The two clung to each other as they waited on baited breath for the cave to stop shaking.

 

Then, suddenly, the wall of the cave crumbled down, blinding the two with sunlight.

 

Finally the shaking stopped, and they gingerly stood up and made their way towards the opening.

 

Outside the cave was a pile of rocks and dirt that was just settling.

 

"Avalanche you think?" Casey asked in confusion.

 

Miwa shrugged, but her attention was drawn to a pile of rock that were quivering slightly.

 

Suddenly, Mikey burst out from under the rocks like a daisy. "YES! Woo hoo hoo hoo!" he cheered.

 

"We're alive!" shouted Donnie as he popped out next to his little brother.

 

Leo appeared next, and reached down to help April out of the rubble. The red head rubbed her eyes, and blinked in surprise. "I can see!" she cheered as she beamed up at Leo. "I can see again!"

 

Casey and Miwa made their way over to stand by Raph, who was brushing dust off himself. "Dude, what'd we miss?" Casey asked in confusion.

 

Raph smirked. "A whole lot, but I'm glad you two are okay. What happened?"

 

"Got stuck in a cave, don't ask," said Miwa dryly, not wanting to think on the subject any longer, and ignoring the looks Casey was shooting at her.

 

Meanwhile, Leo was beaming at April and said, "April, thanks."

 

"Thanks for what?" she asked in confusion.

 

"I'd still be at the farm if not for you," he said gratefully. "You really inspired me."

 

"Aw, Leo," said April, pulling him into a hug.

 

"You guys were awesome!" shouted Mikey as he hurried over to high-three the lead turtle. "It's good to have you back, bro!"

 

"It's good to be back," agreed Leo with a smile.

 

"Yeah, I mean, if you're not leading, who am I supposed to complain about?" asked Raph humorously as they all gathered together to get the rest of the way off the mountain.

 

Leo just shook his head, and lead the way off the mountain. It had been a long day for all of them.

 

Little did they know, that not long after they had left the Chimera burst out from under the rocks, and screeched with a vengeance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we have Eyes of the Chimera. I'm sure you're all wondering what Miwa told Casey in the caves, but don't worry, you'll find it out next Chapter (which will not be Vision Quest, not yet anyway, that'll be the chapter after next). Still, this was pretty fun to write.


	48. Out of Harmony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look back in time to memories both sweet and sorrowful.

The night after the fiasco with the Chimera, Casey Jones found himself having a hard time sleeping. He was glad April could see again, and that Leo was feeling better and more confident, but his mind just wouldn't shut off.

 

He couldn't stop thinking about the information Miwa had given him in the cave. Information that went a long way in explaining just why Miwa was… Miwa.

 

Finally, Casey gave up on sleeping and snuck out of the room, careful to avoid waking Mikey, who had been rooming with him since they'd arrived at the farmhouse.

 

Making his way to the kitchen, Casey made himself a cup of cocoa, and let his mind wander over the story Miwa had told him earlier that afternoon…

 

_____________________________

 

_Ten years ago…_

 

Six-year-old Miwa bounced as she was led by her Father through the streets of a small Chinese village, her shoulder-length black hair flying as she did so.

 

"When do we get to see Uncle Chung I, Father?" she asked eagerly. She had been excited for this trip ever since she'd heard about it. It would be the first time she'd meet a member of the Hamato Clan aside from her own parents. Chung I wasn't really her uncle, but it was easier to say then calling him her cousin once removed.

 

"Soon, soon," said Yoshi with a chuckle at his daughter's enthusiasm. "And from what I hear, you will also meet his daughter and your second cousin, Mei Peih Chi. She is about your age."

 

Miwa's eyes lit up at that. "Really? Is she a ninja too?"

 

Yoshi chuckled again, and replied, "I do not know. We will have to see when we get there."

 

By the time they reached the temple within a bamboo forest on the banks of a lake that was Chung I's home, Miwa was practically vibrating with excitement.

 

The door opened, and in the threshold stood a kind looking Chinese man, who bowed respectfully to Yoshi. "I thank you for coming, Master Yoshi."

 

"I would not turn away a member of my clan in need," said Yoshi, who bowed back. He then gave the other man a friendly grin, "Especially not my own wife's favorite cousin."

 

Chung I smiled warmly, and invited the two into his temple. As Miwa bounded in, she failed to notice that the Chinese man cast a wary glance at the outside before shutting the door behind them.

 

But Yoshi noticed, and his face took on a much more serious expression. "It seems we have much to discuss," he said.

 

"I'm afraid we do," said Chung I, "but first…" He turned and smiled at a corner near the entryway. "Perhaps you young ladies would like to introduce yourselves. What do you think, my daughter?"

 

Miwa followed his gaze, and caught sight of a girl her own age staring back at them with a shy expression. At her father's beckoning, the girl stepped out of hiding, allowing Miwa to get a good look at her.

 

She was petite, with a long braid of black hair falling down her back, keeping it out of her brown eyes. She was wearing a pale blue Chinese dress with a yin yang symbols decorating it.

 

"Allow me to introduce to you my daughter, Mei Peih Chi," said Chung I proudly, waving for her to come stand in front of Miwa. "Mei, my daughter, this is Hamato Yoshi, the head of our clan. And this is your second cousin, Miwa, heir to the Hamato Clan after her father."

 

Miwa beamed at Mei, and said brightly, "Hi, call me Mi. Do you know how to fight?"

 

Mei blinked in surprise, and only managed to utter a soft, "Kinda," before Miwa grabbed her by the wrist and began dragging her away, eager to test her skills against her fellow clan member.

 

Chung I and Yoshi both chuckled as they watched them go, before Chung I inclined his head towards the sitting room. "This way, Master Yoshi. My wife has prepared us tea, and the three of can discuss matters privately.

 

Yoshi nodded. "Very well, my friend," he said as he followed after the Chinese man. "I wish to hear all you can tell me of why you believe the Foot has found you. And what you plan to do if they have…"

 

_____________________________

 

In a small dojo within the temple, Miwa eagerly worked through all the katas she knew, much to the awe of Mei, who was watching from the sidelines.

 

Once she was done, Miwa turned, and bowed to Mei respectfully as her father had taught her, and Mei clapped in applause. "You're really good," she said brightly, her shyness slowly fading away. "I wish father would teach me to fight like that."

 

Miwa looked at her in surprise and asked, "But I thought you said you knew how to fight?"

 

"No, I said I  _kinda_  did," said Mei sheepishly. "My father is not training me to be a kunoichi, such as yourself. He is teaching me in the art of the shinobi, which focuses more on the mystical aspects of ninjutsu, rather than the physical."

 

Miwa's eyes widened in interest. "Mystical?" she asked. "Like magic."

 

Mei nodded shyly.

 

The six-year-old kunoichi-in-training did not even question how it was possible for her cousin to have magic, all she focused on was how cool that was, and said as much to the proud looking Mei.

 

Then Miwa's face split into a wicked grin, and she asked, "So can you turn someone into a newt?"

 

"I suppose, but why would I want to turn someone into a newt?" asked Mei in confusion.

 

Miwa giggled. "It's something I saw in a funny movie once."

 

"Oh," said Mei in bemusement. She then brightened as something occurred to her. "Would you like to see some magic?"

 

Miwa's face split into a delighted grin, "Would I?" she asked redundantly, and the two girls hurried off to get Mei's supplies.

 

_____________________________

 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the temple, much less lighthearted things were being discussed.

 

Yoshi took a sip of the tea, Chung I's wife, Ting, had prepared. He then set the cup down and looked at the two Chinese members of his clan with a serious expression on his face. "How certain are you that you have been discovered?" he asked.

 

Chung I sighed, and turned his teacup in his hands absentmindedly. "That is precisely the problem, Master Yoshi," he said. "We are not certain of anything. Since the flight of the Hamato Clan, we have been on alert for any sign of danger, and to date there has been none."

 

He then set the teacup down, and continued seriously, "But you know of my family's practice of the mystic arts. There have been omens, signs that danger is coming swiftly, but we do not know from where. Nor do we know if this danger comes from the Foot Clan, or some other outside force."

 

Yoshi stroked his beard thoughtfully, and asked, "May I ask why you asked for me to bring my daughter into this with me? I trust your judgment enough to have done so, but I am curious to know the reason why."

 

"Our little Mei," said Chung Ting softly. "She is proving to be very gifted in her training. The day before we sent for you, Yoshi, she had a vision during her meditation. She saw your daughter, Master Yoshi, and told us that Miwa would protect her from harm."

 

"Miwa is a child," said Yoshi frowning.

 

"Mei has never been wrong, Master," said Chung I. "I apologize that I may have brought her into danger, but if Miwa's presence can protect my daughter…" he trialed off looking worried for his only daughter.

 

Yoshi sighed, and nodded. There was no helping it now, Miwa was there and it was safer to keep her thus, rather than leave the safety of the temple. Still, he was not happy about it.

 

"Now," he said, "how is it that you intend to discover more about this coming threat?"

 

Chung I looked grateful for the change in conversation, and said, "We have not left the temple much these days, unless it is absolutely necessary. Our signs are not very clear, but they point to the danger coming from the outside…"

 

_____________________________

 

Miwa stared skeptically as Mei climbed up a tree in order to get over the temple wall.

 

"I thought you were going to show me magic?" the kunoichi-in-training asked as Mei reached the top of the wall and balanced there as she prepared to jump down beyond it.

 

"Well, yes," said Mei sheepishly. "But I… I'm not supposed to use it without my parents there, and I don't have some of the ingredients I need to use it."

 

"And that means climbing the wall why?" asked Miwa.

 

"Because if I use it here at the temple, they'd find out," said Mei simply, sitting atop the wall and looking down at Miwa. "But I know another place I can do it, and my parents won't know I was using it."

 

She then looked guiltily down at Miwa. "I'm sorry, if you don't want to do this, we don't have too."

 

Miwa's face pinched into a small frown as she thought it over. Then she shrugged and began climbing the tree after Mei. "When have I ever obeyed the rules anyway," said Miwa as she reached the same height as Mei. "Lead the way, Cuz."

 

Mei beamed at her, and quickly jumped down from the wall, Miwa right behind her.

 

The forest was dense and thick as the two girls made their way through it, but it was obvious Mei had gone through it many times before, as she led Miwa through the trees without the slightest hesitation, pausing only to pluck some occasional herbs along the side of the path to use as ingredients. When Miwa commented on it, she looked sheepish again.

 

"I know I shouldn't," Mei said. "But Mother and Father sometimes get too busy to give me lessons, but I want to learn so much that I sneak out to practice anyway. I'm really careful when I do, and I'm getting really good… I think."

 

Miwa laughed at that. Mei didn't look like troublemaker material, but it was clear she had a rebellious streak within her. That just made things all the more fun.

 

"What are my chances of seeing a panda?" Miwa couldn't help but ask as they picked their way through a partially thick clump of trees.

 

Mei let out a laugh at the question, but replied, "Not likely, I'm afraid. My home may be out of the way, but we are still much too close to civilization to have such visitors."

 

Miwa let out a groan of disappointment. "Aw, but they're always so cute in those pictures," she said. Her face then split into a wicked grin, "And I heard about some guy who tried to hug one in a zoo, and got his face bit off."

 

Mei froze in her tracks and stared at Miwa in alarm.

 

The mini-kunoichi quickly amended, "He got better."

 

"With his face bitten off?"

 

"Maybe that part was made up… I think…" Miwa said, not sounding sure of herself.

 

The two girls stood in an uneasy silence, before the absurdity of the conversation sunk in, and they broke into peals of laughter and continued on.

 

Finally they came upon a small pagoda that was almost completely hidden by the foliage.

 

"This is where Father keeps most of his magical artifacts," said Mei brightly as she pulled a key out of the folds of her dress and inserted it into the door. "Don't touch anything without asking me about it first. Father made me memorize what's dangerous and what's not before he started teaching me, and I don't want you to get hurt."

 

Miwa rolled her eyes, but nodded her consent. "Do I look like Mikey to you?" she asked sarcastically to herself.

 

"Who's Mikey?" asked Mei curiously as they stepped inside the pagoda.

 

As Mei began lighting candles around the room, Miwa told her about her little brothers, and examined the artifacts littering the room with interest (though being careful not to touch any of them).

 

The building was filled with amazing treasures the likes of which Miwa would expect to see in a museum rather than a dusty old pagoda. Old sets of Chinese armor stood like ridged sentries in the corners, and weapons were placed in positions of honor beside them. Various statues were dotted throughout the room, some of which looking as though they were made of pure gold, others stone and looked like warriors dressed as animals. Ancient and beautiful tapestries lined the walls depicting terrible creatures attacking villages and cities. What looked eerily like a stone coffin could be seen in one of the back areas, practically buried under a large collection of fragile looking scrolls.

 

She paused as she passed in front of a large gilded mirror and stares at her reflection within it. Unable to help herself, she screwed her face up to look as regal as a six-year-old could manage (which was not very regal at all), and said in her most powerful voice, "Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?"

 

The mirror was silent, and Miwa snickered at her own reflection.

 

Reflected behind her and in mid-search though an old wooden trunk, she could see Mei giving her a warning look. "Father said that is one of the most dangerous things in here," she said. "It would be best not to tempt fate with fairytales."

 

Miwa shrugged and looked at Mei's reflection rather than turn around. "Sorry, I couldn't resist. Besides, I thought Snow White would be safer than Bloody Ma-"

 

Miwa broke off suddenly as something reflected in the mirror caught her eye, and her head snapped up to try and get a better view of it. Staring at the top right corner of the mirror, Miwa saw nothing but the reflection of the room behind her.

 

Even so, a second ago she could have sworn she'd seen a flash of scales within the mirror, but there was nothing in the room that could cast such a reflection.

 

More than a little unnerved, Miwa backed away from the mirror and went to stand next to Mei, who was looking at her in concern.

 

"N-never mind," Miwa said, trying to brush off her unease. "So what'cha got there?"

 

Mei didn't look convinced, but still pulled out the book she had been searching for. "This is the beginners' spells that my parents have been teaching me. They're not that powerful, but they're still fun to learn. I try to learn a new one from it every time I come here."

 

"Cool," said Miwa as she sat down next to her cousin. "When do you get to learn the more powerful spells?"

 

Mei shrugged. "If Mother had her way, not until I was fifty. She's very protective of me."

 

Miwa snickered, remembering how concerned her own mother had been about her and Yoshi taking this trip. "I know how that feels."

 

Mei smiled slightly, and continued, "But Father says that if I do well in my studies, he might start teaching me the advanced spells when I turn fifteen." She hugged the spell book to her chest, and smiled wistfully. "I can't wait."

 

Miwa nodded in agreement, feeling the same about her own ninja training. "So let's see some magic, ne, Mei?"

 

Mei snapped out of her daydreaming, and opened the book onto her lap for Miwa to see, and the two began browsing the spells to see which one Miwa could watch Mei learn.

 

Unbeknownst to them, a pair of glowing, blood-red eyes were staring out at them from within the mirror, nor did they see the mouth full of sharp teeth below them twist into a sinister grin.

 

_____________________________

 

Yoshi frowned as he followed Chung I along the rooftops of the small village. It had been a few days since his and Miwa's arrival, and thus far none of the foreseen danger had made any sort of appearance. Still, the two men made sure to conceal themselves completely in their ninja garb, only allowing their eyes to be seen through the dark masks they wore.

 

Were he any other man, Yoshi would have scoffed at Chung I's claims of danger, and left after hearing the source of the mystic's worries. But Yoshi knew Chung I, he was one of his and his wife's most trusted allies. He knew the Chinese man's abilities were far more than just smoke and mirrors. They were real, and powerful, and if they foretold of danger, Yoshi would believe it.

 

Still, he was beginning to miss his wife and sons waiting for him back home in New York City. Part of him wished they could have come on the trip, but he did not like the idea of them being in potential danger. He was already worried enough with just Miwa there.

 

He smiled at the thought of his daughter. At least she had taken to her new surroundings like a fish to water. The friendship that had sparked between her and Mei Peih Chi was growing by the day, and not just that morning Miwa had begged him to allow Mei to come with them when they returned to New York.

 

Mei as well had quickly overcome her initial shyness, and had stuck by Miwa's side like glue, it was rare to see one girl without the other, and they would often vanish for hours at a time playing together. Yoshi wondered if some part of Mei stuck so close because of her vision of Miwa protecting her, but he could tell the friendship between the girls was more than that, and it would be sad to split them up when it came time to leave.

 

"Head in the clouds, Master Yoshi?" asked Chung I with an amused tone in his voice.

 

Yoshi brought himself back to the present with a small shake of his head. "I was just thinking of our daughters, and how close they have become," he said with amusement in his voice. "Just this morning my daughter was begging for us to smuggle Mei through customs in her suitcase."

 

Chung I laughed, and said, "My Mei was asking the same thing," he said in equal amusement. "She even offered to perform a shrinking spell upon herself to help her fit."

 

Yoshi laughed out loud at the idea, making the few villagers out at night look around in surprise at the sound, before shrugging it off as someone having had too much to drink. Yoshi quickly regained his composure, and replied, "It would not be too impossible," he said.

 

At Chung I's confused glance, Yoshi elaborated, "Mei coming to our home, and not by way of suitcase." He turned to look the other man in the eye and said, "You and your family could come live in New York. You would no longer have to worry about the danger that may lurk here, Shen would be delighted to have you close by, and I could always use some help in the dojo."

 

Chung I thought about the offer, but shook his head. "I am honored by your offer, Master Yoshi, but I must refuse."

 

He stared out at the small village before them, and said, "The temple has been in my family for generations, it's location secret and known only to a few, and the Foot are not privy to it. I can not give it up no more easily as you could give up your dojo in Japan, and the only reason you did was because Oroku Saki burned it down."

 

Yoshi frowned slightly as the memories of that fateful night washed over him.

 

"There are also many secrets there, left and protected by my ancestors, and now it has fallen to me to protect them as well," continued Chung I. "Should I leave, who knows what devilry could be unleashed if not guarded."

 

He then sighed, and added, "And besides, for as wondrous as I've heard New York is, I doubt it is ready for shinobi magic."

 

Yoshi nodded slightly, and conceded defeat. "Perhaps you are right," he said. "But know you and your family are welcome in our home anytime."

 

Chung I nodded once to show his thanks, before turning to leave. "Come, Master Yoshi, we have lingered here for too long, they are waiting for us back in the temple."

 

And like shadows in the night, they vanished into the darkness.

 

_____________________________

 

A week after their arrival at the temple found Miwa and Mei once again crouched within the pagoda pouring over Mei's spellbook for something new for the shinobi-in-training to learn.

 

It had become a ritual between the girls, and one their parents were currently oblivious too. They would wait until lunchtime for Mei to eagerly ask her parents if she would get a magic lesson that day.

 

More often than not, Chung I would give an apologetic smile, and say that he would be too busy that day for lessons, and the girls would have to entertain themselves.

 

This would lead to a excursion over the temple wall, and have the girls conducting their own lesson within the pagoda, and laughing to themselves at how impressed Chung I would be when he sees how 'fast' Mei would pick up the spells the next time she would have a lesson.

 

Today Mei was practicing a lesson to allow someone to be heard from a great distance away.

 

Miwa sat next to her cousin with a bored expression on her face and a small toad in her lap as Mei poured over her book with a look of deep concentration.

 

"You're taking longer than you usually do with this," Miwa remarked pointedly. And it was true. Mei was very adept at picking ups spells rather quickly with some trial and error. Usually it only took her a twenty minutes to get it right, but this time Mei had been studying the book for over an hour without even attempting to cast the spell once.

 

Mei looked up, and did not seem phased by Miwa's impatience. "I want to make sure that I don't miss anything," she said primly. "This is my first time casting a spell on something alive. I don't want to mess up and hurt the poor thing."

 

She cast a furtive glance at the toad in Miwa's lap, and the small amphibian squirmed slightly in Miwa's grip. When Mei had come across the spell, she had almost passed it over completely, but Miwa had brushed her worries aside, and hurried out of the pagoda and caught the warty creature for Mei to practice on. The shinobi-in-training was far from pleased with this, and was determined not to make any mistakes that could harm it.

 

Miwa shrugged at Mei's concern, and tried to act as though she didn't care, but Mei didn't miss the slightly guilty look she cast the toad at the thought of harm coming to it. "Just hurry up a little, please," she said. "Father and your parents will start wondering where we are soon."

 

Mei cast her book one last glance, before getting to her feet and saying, "I believe I've studied this as much as I possibly can. Best give it a go now."

 

Miwa nodded, and placed the toad in a bare patch on the floor, before stepping back so that she was standing behind Mei, and out of her spell range.

 

Mei took a deep breath, and began speaking the words of the spell. Her hand glowed as the spell grew in power until a small ball of light floated in her palm.

 

But just as Mei was about to send the spell at the toad, the creature suddenly let out a very loud croak and leapt away.

 

Both girls jumped at the sudden noise, and the spell was sent spinning from Mei's hands. It ricocheted off one of the golden statues, and was soon bouncing off the various reflective surfaces in the room, before coming flying back in Mei and Miwa's direction.

 

The girls yelped, and ducked to avoid the spell. They whipped around just in time to see it strike the gilded mirror, which seemed to absorb the spell like a sponge.

 

The two girls sat frozen in shock at what had just happened, before shakily getting to their feet. "We should go," said Miwa dazedly. "They'll be looking for us."

 

"Uh, right," agreed Mei, who was shaken from the experience, and they rushed from the pagoda and locked the door before bolting back to the temple as fast as their legs could carry them.

 

Little did they know, that after they left a bout of wicked laughter echoed from within the mirror, sending the abandoned toad hopping out a window in fear.

 

Finally, the pieces were in place, and their freedom would be soon at hand.

 

_____________________________

 

In a tall imposing building in Tokyo, the Oroku Saki sat in meditation among a circle of candles.

 

Though it had been six years since that fateful night, the rage and hatred for his so-called brother had not dampened in the slightest. If anything it had grown and festered into a burning need to find his bitter rival, and end him once and for all for what he had done to him… and to beautiful Tang Shen.

 

Yes, Yoshi would pay, and dearly.

 

But the only thing standing in between the leader of the Foot Clan and his vengeance was the fact that no matter how he searched he could find no trace of Hamato Yoshi.

 

His spies, led by the strange but loyal tiger creature he had discovered, had scoured all of Japan, and had rooted out Hamato Clan worms where ever they could find them, but no matter what he did, or how he tortured his former clan members, none could tell him where his adversary was hiding.

 

But his brutal actions against them had earned him a title that had somehow spread throughout his clan, and whispers of it had even reached the ears of his enemies, and was uttered in fear among them.

 

They called him the Shredder. A name he had found both formidable, and fitting.

 

But now the prisoners brought before him were growing few and far between as the Hamato Clan grew closer and closer to extinction. The few remaining were no doubt better at hiding, but they would be discovered soon enough.

 

Six years he had waited for his revenge, and Saki was growing more impatient by the day.

 

"So you are the mighty Shredder I've heard so much about. If it is Hamato Clan you seek, I can tell you where some are hiding," said a deep and sophisticated sounding voice.

 

Saki's eyes snapped open, and in a heartbeat he had his gauntlets in his hands, and he was on his feet and tense, searching the room for the one who had spoken.

 

But the room was empty save but for him, but as a Master Ninja, Oroku Saki knew better than most that such appearances could be deceiving.

 

A sinister chuckle wafted through the room at his actions, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. Despite that, Saki still scanned the shadows for the source.

 

"Now, now," said the voice. "There's no need for that. I'm here as a friend, not as someone you want as an enemy."

 

Saki scowled as he caught the subtle threat in that statement, and did not drop his guard. "You say you know where the Hamato worms are. How do I know you are not lying? Why should I trust one hides his face?"

 

The voice laughed again, and replied, "I do not hid because I choose too." The voice gave a dry snort then added, "Though, if I had a face like yours, I would definitely hide it."

 

Saki scowled at the mention of his burn scars, and tightened his grip on his gauntlets.

 

"And as for proof of my knowledge, the location of the mystic, Chung I should be sufficient enough," the voice continued airily, pretending not to notice Saki's reaction. "And it is something I will tell you, so long as you would be willing to do something for me in return."

 

Oroku Saki froze at the mention of the name, as memories flooded into him at the mention of it.

 

Chung I… Tang Shen's favorite cousin…

 

Saki cast his gaze downwards. While he had not actively tried to avoid it, he had not put as much effort as he could have in tracking down Tang Shen's family members within the Hamato Clan. Those few who had been brought before him were given the rare mercy of a swift death if they failed to plead loyalty to him, and he avoided the family members outside the clan completely.

 

But Chung I was different. Chung I was someone the Head family of the Hamato Clan had trusted…

 

Someone Yoshi had trusted…

 

… And someone Saki had trusted as well.

 

The ninja master gritted his teeth. He remembered seeing Chung I as a friend, and if not for that, than only for the love Shen had had for her cousin, Saki did not want to harm him.

 

Even so, nothing would stand in his way of getting revenge on Hamato Yoshi. If there was the slightest chance that the half-Chinese mystic knew where Yoshi was…

 

"Well?" asked the disembodied voice with a tone of arrogance and impatience.

 

Saki lifted his head, the fires of hatred burning in his eyes. "I'm listening…"

 

_____________________________

 

It took a few days for Miwa and Mei to gather the courage needed to venture to the pagoda again. The misfire with Mei's spell had spooked them both greatly, and they were not keen on trying again so soon.

 

But eventually Mei's desire to learn and Miwa's desire not to be seen as a sissy (if only in her own eyes) won out, and the two girls found themselves making their way through the bamboo forest once again.

 

But as they neared the pagoda, Miwa froze in her tracks.

 

Seeing her stop, Mei paused as well, wondering what could cause her cousin to stop so abruptly. "What-?" she started to ask, only to break off as Miwa held up a hand to stop her.

 

"Shhhh," Miwa hissed. "I thought I-"

 

She broke off again and tackled Mei into a dense pile of bamboo.

 

Before the shinobi-in-training could protest, the sound of footsteps crunching through the bamboo silenced her.

 

The two girls lay hidden as an averaged looking man started picking his way through the bamboo not far from them.

 

Leaning close to Mei's ear, Miwa whispered, "I thought you said no one came out here."

 

Mei shot Miwa a frightened look, and whispered back, "They don't. Entry to these woods is forbidden unless granted permission by my father, but I've never seen that man before. No one is supposed to be this close to the temple."

 

"Obviously no one told  _him_  that," Miwa hissed back, as the man drew closer.

 

Mei shifted uneasily, and accidentally made a twig snap. The sound was like a gunshot through the quiet forest, and both girls froze as the man turned his head in their direction.

 

They held their breath as the intruder drew closer and closer to their location, praying that he wouldn't find them.

 

The strange man scanned the bamboo near them, and stepped even closer, and Miwa shifted her position silently to be ready to bolt if they needed too, wordlessly coaxing Mei to do the same, only to result in another twig getting snapped.

 

The man's head snapped in their direction, and he began striding purposefully towards them.

 

Just as he was about to part the bamboo concealing them, the trees rustled on their left, making the man pause in surprise.

 

A large, fluffy, black-and-white head poked out from between the bamboo trees, followed by a plodding, equally black-and-white body.

 

The man drew back quickly as a giant panda lumbered from the trees. The bear barely gave the man a passing glance before it plopped itself down, and began munching on some of the sticks of bamboo, as if not having a care in the world.

 

The man let out a huff, seeming to chalk the sounds he'd heard to the endangered animal, and turned to continue to pick his way through the forest. As he did, his back was exposed to the hidden girls, revealing a clan crest in the shape of a human foot, before vanishing into the trees.

 

The girls sat frozen in their hiding place for several minutes to make sure he was really gone, before they both bolted, and took off back towards the temple as fast as their legs could carry them.

 

Behind them, the giant panda turned its head to watch them go, before getting up and plodding away, despite all the bamboo still there to eat.

 

The creature sensed the coming of danger in the air, and was determined to get as far away from it as possible before it struck.

 

_____________________________

 

Yoshi, Chung I, and Ting were all immediately concerned when their daughters burst through the door looking out of breath and terrified.

 

The concern only grew when Mei managed to stammer out that they had seen a man in the forest outside the temple, which quickly turned to dread when Miwa gave a description of the intruder.

 

Specifically when she mentioned the clan crest she had seen upon his back.

 

Yoshi immediately stood and shared a pointed look with Chung I and Ting. "It appears the danger you foretold has come to pass. The Foot have come. We must find out more before they descend upon this temple."

 

Chung I nodded, and hurried to prepare for battle.

 

Ting hurried over to comfort the girls, but also sent Yoshi a frightened glance. "How could they have possibly found us?" she asked.

 

Yoshi bowed his head. "I do not know, Ting. But I promise you I will not let them harm you. But please, watch over my daughter while your husband and I drive them away."

 

Ting sent him a grateful look, before taking Mei and Miwa by the hands and hurrying them to a hidden room in the temple in hopes of keeping them safe.

 

Yoshi watched them go with an apprehensive look, which he steeled as Chung I approached him. "Are you ready, my friend?" he asked the mystic.

 

Chung I nodded grimly and said, "I wish I didn't have to be."

 

"A wish we both share," Yoshi agreed, and the two took off from the temple and vanished into the shadows of the bamboo.

 

_____________________________

 

In one of the inns of the village, Saki sat stoically within the room his ninjas had procured for him.

 

Normally he did not come on these raids, and preferred to wait in Tokyo for his men to throw the Hamato Clan rats at his feet.

 

But Chung I was different. Chung I had been a friend, and one Saki couldn't help but hope would be wise enough to remain so.

 

If nothing else, the man deserved to meet his fate at Saki's hands in person, be it in alliance against Yoshi, or the mystic's death for his treachery.

 

A sharp knock came on his door, and he gave a firm, "Enter."

 

A Foot Ninja stepped through the door and immediately bowed to his master. "Master Shredder, our ninjas are searching the forest as we speak. There is no sign of any structures, but our men have found evidence of people traversing the woods often."

 

Saki's eyes narrowed. The research done of the area before their arrival said that entering the forest was forbidden, and it was a rule the villagers upheld faithfully. For there to be any sign of human life within it was making the mysterious voice's claims seem more plausible, but the leader of the Foot was not about to trust it only on that.

 

"Continue searching," he ordered. "Leave no stone unturned within that forest. If Chung I is there, find him, and bring him to me alive."

 

The ninja nodded once, and silently left the room.

 

A sinister chuckle floated through the air as soon as he left, and Saki stilled as he realized his invisible benefactor was present once again.

 

"Oh my," said the voice smugly. "Are you doubting my information? I'm hurt."

 

"I am well aware that trusting a bodiless voice on only it's word is a certain path to madness," Saki replied coldly. "And that is not a path I wish to follow."

 

The voice chuckled again, sounding as though the speaker were whispering right in Saki's ear. "You poor, ignorant fool. You're already far along it."

 

Saki whipped around and slashed in the direction he thought the voice had come from, only to be met with more disembodied laughter as it slowly faded away.

 

Saki's chest heaved as he tried to calm the irrational spike of anger that had coursed through him just now. Resuming his meditative position, he tried to banish his negative thoughts from his mind, but found he was still hearing the echoes of the voice.

 

Perhaps really he was going down the path to madness.

 

Or perhaps he had always been on it.

 

Feeling meditation would be a waste of his time now, Saki rose to his feet, and stormed out to oversee the search. If Chung I was here, he would find him.

 

_____________________________

 

A quick search through the woods brought confirmation to the girls' claims of trespassers, as well as realizing the worst fears of the Hamato Clan men.

 

The Foot Clan had found their location, and if they did not act quickly, they would soon find  _them_ as well.

 

From a shadowed hollow where the Hamato Ninjas watched as another Foot Ninja slipped by, searching for them despite the setting sun. The darkness that would soon be upon them was no hindrance to a ninja.

 

Once he was out of earshot, Yoshi whispered, "I am sorry, my friend."

 

Chung I heaved a heavy sigh, and replied, "Don't be, my friend. We suspected something like this was coming." His face fell and he added, "But I had truly hoped that for once we would be wrong."

 

"You must leave the temple immediately," Yoshi said firmly. "With this many Foot spies scouring the area, it is only a matter of time until they find it."

 

Under the cloth that concealed his face, Chung I's mouth twisted in distaste at the idea. "I know," he said, not wanting it, but knowing it would be necessary for his and his family's survival. "Go back to the temple, my friend, and prepare Ting and the girls."

 

Yoshi sent his friend a sharp look, and asked, "Where will you be?"

 

Chung I stood, and turned in the direction of the secret pagoda. "There are some dangerous artifacts I must destroy first," he said. "If such things fell into the Foot's hands…" he shuddered at the thought.

 

Though concerned, Yoshi nodded his consent. "Go, quickly."

 

Chung I vanished a split second later, and Yoshi sped back to the temple.

 

Little did either man know, but the dark eyes of a Foot ninja had been watching them from the shadows. After a moment of deliberation, he took off after Chung I, rather than follow Yoshi.

 

After all, it was Chung I his master wanted. The other Hamato rats wouldn't last much longer with his clan searching the woods for them. He had bigger fish to fry.

 

Fortunately for Yoshi, the Foot Ninja failed to realize that the ninja he'd ignored was the biggest fish of them all.

 

_____________________________

 

Miwa shifted restlessly in the secret room Ting had taken her and Mei too. "When is Father coming back?" she asked the Chinese woman.

 

"Soon, I'm sure," said Ting with a forced reassuring smile that didn't fool either girl.

 

Mei sniffed slightly, and scrunched in on herself. "Why is this happening?" she asked.

 

Ting pulled her daughter closer to herself in a hug. "I don't know, my daughter," she said softly. "I would say that perhaps someone saw your father and Master Yoshi and reported it to the Foot. They are always so careful, but what else could it have been? No one else has entered or left the temple for weeks."

 

But someone had come and gone from the temple, Miwa realized. Two someones had been traipsing in and out of the temple several times. Two someones who were far more likely to be spotted than two Masters. Not to mention, the flashing lights from some of Mei's spells were far from subtle.

 

Miwa gritted her teeth as that realization washed over her, and one look at Mei's horrified face told her the Chinese girl had drawn the same conclusion.

 

Somehow, someway, they knew this was  _their_  fault.

 

Suddenly, all three froze as they heard the soft sound of two sets of footsteps walking through the temple past the secret room.

 

Instantly, Mei's eyes lit up at the sound, and yanked herself free of her mother and ran for the door. "Father's back!" she cheered.

 

Ting's eyes widened, and she tried to reach out and stop her daughter, "Mei! Wait!" she hissed.

 

But Mei didn't listen and yanked the door open, expecting Chung I to be there smiling at her.

 

Instead she burst out to see two startled men in Foot Uniforms staring back at her.

 

For an instant nobody moved, both parties too surprised to react.

 

But the Foot Ninja recovered their wits first, and one of the men dove at Mei with a blade in his hand.

 

"WATCH OUT!" shouted Miwa, who tackled Mei out of the way just in time.

 

The Foot Ninja stumbled at the sudden loss of his target, and was quickly taken down by Ting, who had whipped a dagger out of her sleeve and stabbed her daughter's attacker with it.

 

The other Foot Ninja barely flinched at the sight of his partner's fall, and instead called out an alarm to his allies.

 

Hearing the sound of more feet running towards their location, Ting yanked her dagger out of the ninja, and threw it at his partner, before grabbing both girls and rushing from the room. She did not stay to see if she'd hit her target, but the cry of pain behind her as she ran told her that she had.

 

But she didn't look back. Instead she raced through the temple halls with the girls' hands clasped in her own. Her eyes and ears were on high alert for any sign of approaching danger. What was once her home, her safe haven, now seemed rife with potential danger around every corner for both of the children under her care.

 

She had to get them to safety.

 

She  _had_ to protect them.

 

Chung I kept his eyes peeled for adversaries as he made his way to the pagoda.

 

But thus far, his trek through the forest had been silent.

 

Too silent.

 

A trap!

 

Just as he realized that, Chung I dove to the side just in time to avoid the swipe of claws.

 

Jumping into a defensive position, Chung I turned to face his opponent, only to momentarily freeze at the sight before him.

 

Before him stood a tiger. A tiger who stood like a man, was dressed in Foot Clan garments, and armed to the teeth.

 

"What sorcery is this?" Chung I couldn't help but wonder out loud.

 

"A question I myself do not have the answer to," the tiger said evenly, his tail swishing back and forth behind him. "I am called Tiger Claw. Tell me. Are you the one known as Chung I? If so, my master wishes to have an audience with you." He then drew a sword, and shifted his stance. "And be warned that he will not take 'no' for an answer."

 

Chung I tensed for battle and said, "Be that as it may, I must respectfully decline. Please return to him, and tell him to get off my property."

 

The smirk that graced the giant cat's face told the Shinobi Master that he had been hoping he'd say that, and with a roar he launched himself at Chung I.

 

The mystic barely dodged in time, and quickly took the opportunity to vanish into the bamboo.

 

Tiger Claw seemed amused by this, and called out, "It is no use hiding. My senses are sharper than any man's. Even if I can not see you, I can hear and smell you coming from a mile away."

 

There was no response from Chung I, and Tiger Claw kept his senses on high alert, waiting for the attack that was sure to come.

 

Then, to his bewilderment, he heard footsteps coming at him from both his right and his left at the same time. His head whipped back and forth as he tried to determine which direction the man was really coming from, only for two Chung Is to burst out of the foliage and attack him from both sides.

 

He was able to block a blow from one with his sword, but the other managed to take a swipe at him with a kunai before he could dodge. The two then quickly vanished back into the bamboo.

 

"What?" snarled Tiger Claw in rage.

 

"It seems your master failed to inform you of the ancient arts I am in possession of," said Chung I's voice from one direction. But then it rang out in a different direction as it continued, "I am a shinobi of the mystic arts. As good as your senses are, can they stand up to my magic?" His voice then started coming out of an entirely different direction, and added, "And for that matter, are you capable of defending yourself from as many opponents as I can make for you?"

 

Tiger Claw only growled in reply, and drew a knife into his free hand, and tensed as he waited.

 

He didn't have to wait for long, as this time four Chung Is came at him from all different directions.

 

With a snarl, Tiger Claw thrust his blade into the chest of the nearest double, which disappeared in a puff of smoke, and made the other three clones wince in pain.

 

Tiger Claw's snarl twisted into a vicious smirk. "I wonder how many of you I have to kill before there is only one left to take to Master Saki."

 

The Chung Is tensed, then dove into battle once again, determined to take the tiger down.

 

The fight between them took all the effort of both sides. Tiger Claw's strength and speed were unmatched, but Chung I's mystical powers, and clever wits kept the two combatants at an even match.

 

Finally, and event to shift the tide of the battle occurred. Tiger Claw, too focused on battling Chung I, failed to notice a tree root sticking out of the forest floor, and stumbled.

 

Seeing the opportunity to strike, Chung I dove forwards, and slashed at the mutant with his blade.

 

Tiger Claw saw the blow coming, and twisted to dodge, but he was not quite fast enough.

 

The forest echoed with Tiger Claw's roar of pain, and Chung I had to blink in surprise as he realized what hat happened.

 

Laying on the forest floor was the bloody remains of a tiger tail, and its owner was struggling to regain his footing from the pain to avenge it.

 

Tiger Claw surged to his feet and leapt at Chung I in an attempt to cut him to ribbons, only to be thrown off and fall face first onto the forest floor. He tried again, and again, but his attempt yielded similar results.

 

Chung I gingerly reached down to pick up the tail, and stared at the mutant as understanding dawned on him. "You need this for balance," he said in realization. "Without it, you are as graceless as a bull in a china shop."

 

Tiger Claw only snarled in reply, the expression on his face promising murder the second he got his claws on Chung I.

 

But the mystic's attention was drawn away from the downed tiger, as he heard the sounds of several feet running in their direction. "It seems our battle must draw to a close," said Chung I as he turned to leave.

 

"Coward!" roared Tiger Claw savagely. "Remember me, mystic! When we meet again I will have vengeance upon you!"

 

"Then I will make certain we do not meet again," said Chung I, and then he bolted away, leaving Tiger Claw to howl in rage after him.

 

It wasn't until he'd run several yards towards his pagoda that he realized that he was still carrying the severed tail in his hands, and he quickly cast it away and continued on his trek.

 

He couldn't afford any more distractions. He had to reach the pagoda before the Foot, and dispose of the dangers it contained.

 

The lives of his family depended upon it.

 

_____________________________

 

Miwa sat crouched in her hiding place, almost not even daring to breathe.

 

A little ways away Ting and Mei were crouched in a similar position as they listened to the sounds of the Foot Clan ransacking the house looking for them.

 

Mei was trembling in her mother's arms, and would flinch every time a particularly loud crash echoed outside the room.

 

Ting, had her daughter in a firm, but comforting hold as she tried desperately to think of a way for the three of them to escape to safety, but their previous race through the house had ended with them trapped in one of the inner rooms with no way out.

 

The woman glanced down at the small letter-opener she had managed to grab on the way, and knew it would not be enough to defend herself, and both girls.

 

She was jolted from her thoughts as another crash sounded much closer than before, and Miwa and Mei both looked at her with frightened eyes.

 

Ting sent them both her most reassuring smile, and told them softly. "It will be okay. I'll-," she winced as she told them the only plan she'd managed to come up with, "-I'll lead the men away. When I do, I want you girls to run. Run for the village as fast as you can, and don't look back."

 

Mei's eyes widened in horror, and she clung to her mother with a death grip, shaking her head frantically. "No, Mother, no!" she said in a frantic whisper. "They'll get you!"

 

Ting opened her mouth to try and convince her daughter otherwise, but before she could do so, she felt her letter-opener get snatched from her grip.

 

She looked up in surprise to see that Miwa had impulsively slipped from her hiding place, and stolen the blade, and was now making her way out of the room before either of her Chinese companions could stop her.

 

"Change of plans," she hissed over her shoulder. "I'll distract them, you run! Meet you outside!"

 

Then she was gone before Ting could stop her. A few seconds later, they heard the sound of Miwa letting out a shriek, and bolting away, her feet pounding loudly on the floor as she ran as far from their hiding place as possible, and from the heavy sounding footsteps following hers, it seemed as though the Foot had taken the bait.

 

Ting gritted her teeth at the situation she was in, but knew that trying to get Miwa back would only endanger all three of them. Instead, she shoved herself to her feet, and gathered Mei up into her arms. Silently, she raced towards the closest exit, and prayed they would escape safely, and that brave little Miwa would do the same.

 

She was so set on escaping, that she failed to notice the smell of smoke until it was too late.

 

_____________________________

 

Miwa ran faster than she ever had in her life, but knew that despite that, the Foot Ninjas were still gaining on her fast.

 

Well, she wasn't about to let them catch her, and did as her father had taught her, using her small size to her advantage to duck and weave around furniture, making her pursuers curse as they stumbled over the obstacles as they sped after her.

 

But as she tried to duck under a table that was alit with candles, one of the Foot Ninja managed to catch her wrist, and yank her back out, causing her to bang her head on the table as he pulled.

 

The Foot Ninja only had time to cheer that he'd caught her, before Miwa drove her letter-opener into the man's arm, forcing him to drop her.

 

Cursing in fury, the Foot Ninja drew a sword, and bore down on the little girl, determined to make her pay for that.

 

Miwa's eyes widened in horror at the sight, and scrambled to get away, but before the blow could fall, a dark blur leapt over her head, and delivered a savage kick to the Foot Ninja, sending him flying into his comrades.

 

"FATHER!" Miwa cheered at the sight of dark-clad figure.

 

Yoshi glanced down at his daughter, and grabbed her hand to try and lead her towards an exit.

 

Only to stop dead as he noticed a growing glow, and the smell of smoke.

 

They both wheeled to look at the table Miwa had tried to duck under, and saw that some of the candles had been knocked over, setting the table ablaze. Already the fire was spreading to the rest of the room, and soon the whole room would be on fire.

 

Realizing this, Yoshi lifted his daughter into his arms and fled the flames as fast as he could.

 

"Where are Ting and Mei?" he asked Miwa as they ran.

 

"I ran off to lead those creeps away," said Miwa. "They were supposed to run after that. Ting was gonna do it, but Mei…"

 

Yoshi only nodded to show he understood. He could only hope the two had made it to safety.

 

But the flames spread quickly through the temple, eating away through the ancient wood that it stood on, and consuming the burnable material within.

 

Just as the two Hamatos burst from the house, the temple collapsed in on itself. No one could have survived it.

 

Yoshi and Miwa stared at the sight in horror. For an instant, Yoshi flashed back to the last fire like this he had seen, and shut his eyes at the memories.

 

' _Not again.'_

 

Pushing the memories back, Yoshi adjusted his grip on his daughter, and took off around the parameter of the temple, searching desperately for Ting and Mei.

 

But to his despair, he found no trace of them.

 

"Father…" whispered Miwa softly as her father carried her around the blaze, and her playmate did not show herself.

 

Yoshi glanced at his daughter's stricken face, but before he could attempt to reassure her, he had to quickly dodge as a Foot Ninja flew out of the trees and attacked the two of them.

 

Yoshi quickly dispatched the ninja, but knew it was no longer safe to linger in the area.

 

"We must go to the pagoda," Yoshi said softly to his daughter. "We must find Chung I."

 

"What about Mei?" asked Miwa frantically.

 

"We have to hope they escaped," he said sternly as he took off into the forest, his daughter still in his arms. His gaze then softened at the sight of the tears in his daughter's eyes. "Perhaps he will know where Ting and Mei would go, and we will find them afterwards. Now, please be silent, my daughter. We must not attract attention if we can help it."

 

Miwa sniffled slightly, but did as instructed as her father carried her into the darkened forest.

 

_____________________________

 

Unaware of what had befallen his home, Chung I continued his trek through the forest to reach the pagoda.

 

Finally, the structure came in sight, and he allowed himself to feel a small measure of relief when he saw the area seemed deserted. Perhaps the Foot had not found it before he arrived.

 

After checking to be sure the coast was clear, he slipped silently into the building, and looked around the mountain of artifacts within.

 

It would all have to be destroyed. There was no telling what would happen if even one of these items fell into the wrong hands. He just hoped by destroying it all he wouldn't accidentally unleash something worse.

 

But as he made his way through the room, a booming laugh sounded from the gilded mirror, making the mystic pale under his mask.

 

"Impossible," he said as he wheeled around to stare at the reflective surface.

 

The laugh sounded again, and the scaly image of a draconic face appeared within it. "Oh, I'm sure you know better than most that nothing is impossible," said the Dragon Lord.

 

Chung I scowled. "I feel that I have you to thank for the unwelcomed visitors in my home," he said darkly. "What is it you hoped to accomplish?"

 

"Oh, many things," said the Dragon Lord smugly. "Freedom from this prison, the demise of the descendants of those who trapped me and my armies, the power to see this world  _burn_. And it looks as though I will soon be able to gain all three." He then glanced over Chung I's shoulder, and added, "Isn't that right, partner?"

 

Chung I wheeled around, and saw an armored silhouette standing in the threshold of the pagoda. Despite the armored helmet and burn scars beneath it, he recognized the other man instantly. "Oroku Saki," he said in a voice barely above a whisper.

 

Saki stepped forward and stared back at Chung I impassively. "It has been a long time, old friend," he said.

 

Chung I scowled, and drew away from the man, readying himself for battle.

 

But Saki remained still. "We do not need to fight," he said calmly. "For the sake of Tang Shen's memory, and for the fact you were my trusted friend, I'd rather we not."

 

Chung I's scowl deepened, though he filed the fact Saki thought Shen was dead away to tell Yoshi later. "If I were to be honest, I would rather we not fight either, Saki," he said. Then he glared darkly at the ninja master. "But it seems that is inevitable, what with your Foot Ninja crawling all over my home. If you truly wish not to fight, take your men and leave never to return. You are not welcome here, nor will you ever be."

 

Saki scowled beneath his helmet, bit otherwise did not seem phased by his words. "My men are merely rooting out any Hamato Clan scum that may infest this area. They were warned not to harm you. The rest of those traitors will be dead by morning."

 

If he was hoping to be reassuring, he'd failed. Chung I paled at his words, and shouted, "You fool! My wife and daughter are the only Hamato Clan here! You speak of peace between us, yet you would have my family slaughtered!"

 

For the first time, Saki showed emotion. His eyes widened in surprise, and he said, "Your-? But the voice assured me that-"

 

The Dragon Lord's laugh echoed through the pagoda again, and both men wheeled to look at the mirror.

 

The dragon sneered at both of them from behind the glass. "You never asked if those here had any connection to the mystic other than being Hamato Clan," he said, enjoying the horrified emotions rolling off the two of them. "You simply wanted Chung I and any information he would have on your quarry."

 

"Miserable snake!" shouted Chung I in outrage. "My ancestors should have destroyed you centuries ago!"

 

"Their mistake," said the Dragon Lord smugly. "And soon I will be free to-"

 

The dragon's words were cut off as a kunai zipped past Chung I's ear and imbedded itself in the mirrors glass, shattering the portal between the real world, and the creature's prison, trapping it there forever.

 

Chung I whirled around to see Saki with his arm still out from having thrown the kunai.

 

The ninja master regarded the mystic with something akin to regret in his eyes. "Chung I, I didn't-"

 

But Chung I was beyond words. His family and his friends may be getting slaughtered at this very moment, and it was all the man before him's fault. And all over a petty and unjustified attempt at revenge. First Shen's injuries and now this…

 

With a yell of rage, the mystic attacked the Foot Clan Leader without a hint of mercy.

 

Saki managed to parry the blows to avoid harming the other man, hoping he could still be reasoned with.

 

Unlike Tiger Claw, Saki had fought Chung I before, and knew his tricks. None of the mystics spells were able to reach him, nor did any of the strikes Chung I made at him.

 

Unable to land any blows physically, Chung I began using verbal barbs to hurt him instead. "You attack my cousin and her beloved husband, you murder my clan,  _your_  clan, like they are nothing, and now in your arrogance you would have my family killed without second thought!" he snarled angrily. "The name you chose for yourself is appropriate,  _Shredder!_ Everything you touch becomes shredded and destroyed! I would never ally myself with a monster like  _you!"_

 

Something in Saki snapped as he said that.

 

With a lightning fast strike of his gauntlet, he buried it deep inside his former friend's stomach.

 

Chung I cried out in pain as the blades pulled back out of his stomach, and he fell to the ground clutching at the wound.

 

It was a fatal wound. He knew even if by some miracle the blades hadn't struck anything vital, he would bleed out before any help could reach him.

 

But still he glared up at Saki with hatred, and spat, "I look forward to the day my Master Yoshi puts you out of your misery."

 

Saki stared silently down at him, before saying lowly, "Then that is your answer. You would betray me like Yoshi did."

 

Chung I glared at him defiantly. "The only traitor here is you."

 

Saki lowered his head so that Chung I could no longer see his eyes. One of his hands shook as he curled it into a fist.

 

"Very well," said Saki as he raised his head again, and Chung I was taken aback to see the fires of an insane gleam in his eyes.

 

"You say I am a monster that shreds everything it touches," he said, raising his gauntlet so that Chung I's blood could be seen dripping off the blades in the dim light. "Then so be it."

 

He then turned to leave Chung I where he lay bleeding. "I will personally find your family, and throw their carcasses at your feet, if you are not already dead by the time they get there."

 

"No!" shouted Chung I as he struggled to get to his feet and stop him.

 

But it was no use, he was far too injured, and the pool of blood beneath him was only growing in size.

 

Knowing he could do not move as he was, Chung I did the only thing he could. Using his own blood, he began writing the runes he needed for one last spell.

 

As the Shredder stood at the threshold of the pagoda when a red glow appeared behind him. He only had time to turn and look back before a shockwave erupted from where Chung I lay, and threw him several feet, crashing through trees and landing in a bloody heap on the forest floor sixty feet away.

 

But the shockwave did more than throw Shredder far into the forest. All around Chung I the artifacts turned to dust, and the pagoda itself crumbled down into rubble.

 

Tiger Claw, who had been drawn by the noise, found his master in his sorry state moments later.

 

Tiger Claw snarled under his breath as he realized his current dilemma. If he did not get his master medical help soon he would die, but in doing so, he would likely never catch the man who had stolen his tail.

 

Shooting a glare into the trees, he snarled, "Next time, mystic," before gathering Saki up into his arms, and hurrying away.

 

Not a minute later, Yoshi arrived with Miwa in his arms, and stared in horror at the state of the pagoda. "Chung I!" he shouted, searching desperately for the man. "Chung I, where are you?"

 

"Father!" Miwa cried, and pointed to something sticking out of the rubble.

 

Yoshi wheeled around and felt his heart sink at what he saw. "No," he whispered to himself.

 

Poking out of a pile of rubble was a single bloody hand.

 

Yoshi set Miwa on the ground, and hurried towards the hand, hoping desperately that he was not too late.

 

Digging through the rocks, his heart nearly stopped when he caught sight of his friend.

 

"Oh, Chung I," he said softly, and bowed his head in mourning.

 

A small cough had his head snap back up, and he stared as Chung I slowly opened his eyes, and looked up at him. "Yoshi…" he wheezed. "My friend… you must… run…"

 

"Save your strength," Yoshi said firmly. "We can-"

 

"No," said Chung I softly. "It is… to late for me… Saki… he's here… he's searching… for you… My Ting…? My Mei Peih Chi…?"

 

Yoshi turned away in shame. "Your home caught fire, I do not know if they made it out in time."

 

Chung I's eyes slid shut in grief, before he opened them again and said, "If they made it out… I pray for their safety… If they did not… I will… see them again… soon…" He then looked Yoshi directly in the eye and said, "But… you must-you must flee… Take your daughter… return to New York… The Saki… we loved… is gone… Now… there is only… the Shredder…"

 

Weakly, Chung I brought his hand up, and Yoshi clasped it tightly with his own. "Do not… let him catch you… my… friend…" With that, Chung I let out one final wheeze, and went still.

 

Yoshi clutched his friend to his chest in anguish, before gently laying him down on the ground.

 

He stood and turned to see Miwa staring at him with wide horrified eyes. "It's my fault," she whimpered softly in a shaky voice. "It's my fault."

 

Yoshi shook his head, trying to convey that what had happened was not her doing, but Miwa still seemed to be in shock.

 

Gathering her up in his arms once more, he said softly, "Let's go home, my daughter."

 

_____________________________

 

Across the lake from the temple, a small paddleboat pulled to shore, and two figures climbed out of it.

 

Ting brushed herself off, and paused long enough to look back across the water at the still smoldering inferno that had once been her home.

 

Beside her, little Mei Peih Chi refused to let go of her hand, and was shaking like a leaf. "Father is dead," she whispered softly, tears pouring down her face. "I can feel it."

 

Ting closed her eyes in grief, and replied, "I can to, my daughter."

 

"What about Miwa and Master Yoshi?" Mei asked. "What's going to happen to them?"

 

"I do not know," her mother replied sadly. "It is far too dangerous to go back and search… We can only hope they escaped as we have."

 

Unable to look at the sight any longer, Ting turned and began leading Mei away, and the two soon vanished into the shadows of the bamboo.

 

_____________________________

 

_Present day…_

 

Casey Jones was brought out of his musings when the sound of a cough alerted him that he was no longer alone. Looking up, he saw Miwa standing before him with a guarded expression.

 

"Lost in thought?" she asked dryly as she sat herself down in a chair next to him.

 

Casey shrugged and lifted his mug of cocoa to his lips. "Can you blame me, you can't dump a load of information like that on me and not expect me to think about it," he said as he took a sip, only to grimace and put the mug back down as he realized the cocoa had gone cold.

 

Miwa remained silent and stared down at the table.

 

"Anyway," said Casey slightly awkwardly. "It did explain a lot of things. Like why you take your ninja training so seriously. Why you freak out whenever your family gets hurt. You don't want to see all that happen again."

 

Silence.

 

"And why, before now, you spent so much time trying to have as much fun as possible when not in ninja mode," Casey continued, trying not to let her quietness bug him, "Life's too short not too. Am I right? Gotta live it up while you still can."

 

Miwa still didn't look at him.

 

Casey sighed. There were things that needed to be said right now. Deep things that could make everything better, but he was no good at that kind of talk.

 

But he was the only one here, so he had better take a shot at it anyway.

 

Taking a deep breath, Casey hesitantly reached out and clasped one of Miwa's hands, finally prompting her to look at him.

 

"Look, Miwa," he said as seriously as he could. "What happened all those years ago was not your fault. You don't know your sneaking out was what brought the Foot there or not, and even if it did, that's still not what killed them. That was all on Shredder, not you."

 

She stared at him silently with wide eyes. A small part of her registered that this was the first time she'd heard him use her real name.

 

Casey took that as an invitation to continue. "What happened in New York wasn't your fault either," he said. "We all knew the Kraang were coming, and we did our best to stop them, but sometimes you're just not good enough. We  _all_  weren't good enough, not just you."

 

He then squeezed her hand in his, and said with determination, "But we will be," he said firmly. "We  _will_  be stronger next time. We  _will_  beat the Kraang, and we  _will_  get our families back. I promise you that, Babe."

 

His gaze softened slightly. "But it's, you know, gonna take all of us to do it, and we can't have you wearing yourself into the ground. We're here. Let us help you, okay?"

 

Miwa opened and closed her mouth silently at him for a full minute, and Casey shifted uncomfortably, wondering if he'd messed up.

 

Then he found himself with his arms full as Miwa practically tackled him in a hug with almost enough force to knock him off his chair, and would have if Miwa hadn't kept him upright with a death grip.

 

Awkwardly, Casey patted her on the back, and pretended not to feel the dampness that was leaking though his shirt as the kunoichi finally let herself cry over what had happened over four months before.

 

In the shadows of the doorway, Donnie smiled at the sight, and slipped back off to bed, glad someone had finally gotten through to his big sister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd wanted to write this in for awhile, but when I was finally working on it I kept getting writer's block. Still, it's important, both for Miwa's character, and future events. As you can see, a lot of draws from the Next Mutation series for this chapter. Yes, I am aware that that series sucked, but I will admit to liking it as a kid. Plus, the idea of making Mini Miwa be friends with Mini Venus/Mei was really cute to me. I hope this came out alright. It's the second completely original chapter I made, aside from the Next Mutation references. I completely made up Ting to be Mei's mother, and I hope she came out aright. I picked her name because it means enduring, which is something Ting will have to do a lot of. We also see more of Oroku Saki's fall into his obsessive madness, I hope I did that the justice it deserves. He was already crazy at this point, but this event just pushes him even deeper into the madness he has in the present.


	49. Enter the Spirit World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Upon realizing they were in need of spiritual refinement, the Hamato siblings venture into the woods, but nothing could have prepared them for what they would find there.

Within the forest nothing could be heard but the sound of birds chirping and the faint rustle of leaves.

 

A lone deer made its way through the foliage before stopping at a grassy patch to eat.

 

But in the branches of a trees, a figure watched the buck with blank white eyes, before slowly raising a bow an arrow to shoot.

 

An instant before the arrow could fly, the buck suddenly raised his head and sniffed the air, as if sensing danger, than bolted away into the bushes.

 

With a sigh, Leo lowered his bow, knowing there would be no catching the animal now.

 

He quickly jumped down from his branch, only to yelp in pain and clutch his knee in pain. Whatever relief he had gained while chasing the Chimera with April had quickly faded, but he had been doing his best not to be as negative about it as he had been before.

 

Just then he heard the sound of a twig snap behind him, and he immediately whirled around with his bow ready to fire once again.

 

Only to freeze as he saw the same deer he'd been about to shoot standing in the bushes a few feet away.

 

As Leo stared it down the around them shifted, casting the deer in a golden glow, making it look mystical.

 

Amazed, Leo lowered his bow, and stared at the buck with a small smile, suddenly feeling at peace.

 

Just as quickly the light vanished, taking the peaceful feeling with it.

 

The buck's eyes narrowed at Leo, as if angry at the turtle's previous intention to shoot him.

 

Then, before Leo could properly react, the deer charged forward with a clear intention of harm.

 

Leo could do little more than stumble backwards and fall to the ground as the animal came running at him. Knowing he had no time to escape before it reached him, the turtle felt his instincts take over and he pulled himself inside his shell.

 

But within the dark safety of the shell, he could still feel the sudden jerk as the deer drove its antlers underneath his carapace and throw him into the air.

 

As he came back down, he felt the deer's hooves kick the shell hard enough to send him flying into a tree, before finally landing hard on the ground.

 

As he lay there wondering if it was safe to come out, he felt the deer's hooves once again, beating fiercely on the hard surface of his shell, before finally retreating.

 

After a moment of nothing happening, Leo cautiously pulled his head back out.

 

Big mistake.

 

The deer was still there, and as he stared at it, it thrust its head forwards and snarled angrily at the mutant.

 

Leo flinched, and brought his arms up to block any more attacks, but none came. He slowly lowered his arms to see the buck gallop off into the forest without so much as a backwards glance.

 

But as it vanished from sight, a flash of inspiration hit Leo, and he quickly picked himself up and hurried back to the farmhouse.

 

He had to tell the others.

 

____________________________

 

At the farmhouse, Raph was giving a demonstration to April and Casey about how to break split logs with just his fists or feet.

 

Neither of the two teenagers looked particularly impressed with his display, until it came time for April to try it.

 

"Sure you don't want me to soften it up for you, Red?" Casey asked teasingly.

 

"Just hold it straight," April quipped back. "Wouldn't want to ' _accidentally'_  miss and kick that smug grin off your face."

 

Casey scoffed, and held the log out for her.

 

Needless to say, April missed and her kick landed squarely on Casey's chest, sending him flying into a puddle of water, and making the log roll away undamaged.

 

From where they were watching the lesson, Donnie and Mikey both burst out laughing at the sight. Metalhead, who had been watching from the barn, made the sound of a whistle followed by an explosion to voice his thoughts.

 

But it was Miwa who laughed the loudest at the sight. Ever since her breakdown with Casey, her attitude and demeanor had taken a turn for the better, much to everyone's relief. While she still practiced religiously, it was not to the extreme levels she had been exhibiting since their arrival at the farmhouse. She even allowed Casey to join in her training regiment if he wanted to, and the vigilante had taken the opportunity to show off some of his own spontaneous moves, much to her amusement. In all, she was not completely back to the Miwa who lived to cause trouble in New York, but she was much closer than she had been in months.

 

Casey quickly pushed himself back to his feet and sent a dirty look at the laughing group, before snatching the log up and shoving it into April's hands.

 

"My turn," he said taking a few steps back to get ready. "Let me show you how it's really done."

 

Like Casey before her, April scoffed and rolled her eyes, but still held the log out for him to kick.

 

Casey narrowed his eyes as he concentrated, then kicked forward.

 

To his credit, he did manage to kick the log. But instead of splitting in two, it flew clear out of April's hands and over her head.

 

"Ouch!" cried April as the sudden movement of the wood sent a splinter into her hand.

 

"April! Are you-?" Donnie started to yell as he moved to rush over.

 

But one glare from his girlfriend reminded him of how much she hated him being over protective of her, and he immediately slowed down and offered, "I, uh, have some tweezers in the barn you can use to get the splinters out," he said in a forced calm tone, before turning to Casey and adding. "I've got ice packs too, if you want one, Casey. Better put one on your chest before you start to bruise."

 

April's face shifted into a smile at him for changing gears, and Casey nodded his thanks as both turned to head for the barn.

 

As soon as they were gone, Donnie noticed his siblings giving him knowing grins. "What?" he asked in annoyance.

 

Miwa smirked. "Oh, I think Metalhead can sum it up the best."

 

The little robot nodded, and played the sound of a cracking whip over his speakers, and he made the motions to match the sound.

 

Immediately Donnie's siblings started laughing again, and the genius in question sent a glare at his creation. "Traitor," he muttered at the robot, before turning back to his brothers and sister. "And at least I  _have_ a girlfriend, unlike  _some_  people" he said.

 

The others quickly shut up, and Donnie thought for a second it was because of his statement. But then he noticed they were looking past him into the forest.

 

Turning to follow their gaze, his eyes widened as Leo suddenly limped out of the trees towards them.

 

"Leo!" Donnie yelled, forgetting his previous annoyance and rushing to his brother's side, the others following after.

 

"Dude, what happened to you?" asked Mikey as they reached him, and April and Casey were drawn back out of the barn by the commotion.

 

"I had a realization in the woods," said Leo as Raph and Mikey slung his arms over their shoulders and helped him move towards the porch.

 

"Going off alone with a bum leg was a  _bad_ idea?" Raph guessed dryly.

 

"Even Mikey could have told you that," added Miwa with equal dryness.

 

"Yeah," Mikey agreed, before realizing what she meant. "Wait!  _Hey!"_

 

"No, it's just what I need," Leo said, bringing attention back to himself. "What we all need. We're so caught up in cell phones and junk food and TV that we've become at odds with nature. A true ninja must become one with it to master himself."

 

Mikey scowled and shifted so he was right in Leo's face. "Hey man, you leave TV out of this."

 

"Even Mother and Father did it," said Donnie thoughtfully. "Father said 'Only when you become one with nature can you make peace with yourself'."

 

"Make peace?" asked Raph, not looking impressed. "What are we, hippies? We're  _ninjas!_ "

 

Miwa also looked thoughtful. "Actually, I remember Mother was planning for all of us to go on some camping trip back before, well, before we ended up coming home with her for the first time," she said, jerking her thumb at April, "and talking about alien brains in robot bodies. After that we were just too busy to leave the city, and Central Park just wouldn't cut it. We were always going to do this, why not now?"

 

Leo nodded in agreement. "We'll do three days of meditation and practice awareness in the wilderness, only eating what we forage."

 

"Three days?" Mikey whined, letting go of Leo to pout and twiddle his thumbs. "We're gonna live like  _animals!_ " He then ran off screaming in protest.

 

Raph rolled his eyes, and helped Leo sit on the front steps, before moving to 'calm' Mikey down with his fists.

 

Casey, meanwhile, snickered. "I think Leo took too many knocks to the shell."

 

But April's eyes lit up, and she smiled at the idea. "No, Leo's right. Camping's a great idea. I'm tired of being stuck at the farmhouse."

 

But Miwa shook her head. "Sorry April, but you and Casey are still at too low a level to fully take in whatever lesson we're gonna get out of this. Getting to our current level is why our family never was able to get it done before hand."

 

"But-but Casey's picking up this ninja stuff really fast, and I'm almost a kunoichi!" shouted April in disappointment.

 

From where he was holding a still screaming Mikey in a headlock, Raph laughed. " _Almost_ ," he said pointedly, making April scowl.

 

"Not cool, Raph," Casey called to his best friend.

 

Donnie frowned at the look on his girlfriend's face, before brightening. "I know," he said. "You can go on your own camping trip, just not with us," he pointed out. "From what Leo's saying, we'll be taking minimal supplies, so all the camping gear in the farmhouse is still up for grabs, and Metalhead can hold down the fort while you're gone. Right, buddy?"

 

Metalhead nodded, and gave April a thumbs-up.

 

The redhead beamed at Donnie, and gave him a hug. "That's a great idea, thanks Donnie."

 

She then released him and ran into the farmhouse to pack. Once she was gone, Donnie turned to glare at Casey with a look that clearly said, 'Touch my girlfriend and die!'

 

Casey answered with by jerking his head at Miwa, reminding the genius of who his crush actually was, though that didn't seem to make Donnie feel much better.

 

Just then, Mikey jumped between them and asked, "Are you two having a staring contest?"

 

"No!" said both boys quickly, and quickly turned to go their own way.

 

Mikey blinked in confusion, then glanced at his remaining siblings. "Was it something I said?"

 

Leo, Raph, and Miwa could only shrug in response.

 

____________________________

 

Both groups packed their bags, and bid Metalhead and Ice Cream Kitty goodbye before setting off into the forest. April and Casey made sure to go in the opposite direction as the Hamatos in order to ensure they didn't accidentally disturb the ninjas in their training.

 

As the five siblings made their way through the forest, Leo said, "We've already mastered our weapons, stealth, and hand-to-hand combat. But we haven't achieved the very first of the eighteen ninjutsu disciplines. The Seishin-Suyu, or spiritual refinement. All true ninjas must master it."

 

Mikey pouted and started to say, "Hey, who says I'm not spiritually refi-" but he was cut off as a loud belch burst from his mouth, making all of his brothers give him deadpan looks, and Miwa pull away from him in disgust.

 

Thumping his chest and looking sheepish, Mikey quickly amended, "Whoa, must have been, BUUURP!" he blinked in surprise as another burp crawled out of his throat. Then he shrugged, knowing his case was lost and said, "Okay, you win. Let's get refined."

 

"Let's also get Mikey some breath mints," added Miwa, who was the farthest from Mikey. "I could smell that from here."

 

"Seconded," said Raph dryly.

 

"Third," agreed Donnie.

 

"Unanimous," said Leo with a nod.

 

Mikey pouted once again.

 

The siblings spent the next two days training in the forest. They did everything from meditating in trees, to doing katas in the creek, to foraging their own food from the environment.

 

It wasn't without its problems. Mikey ended up getting chased by a pack of squirrels on the first day for stealing their acorns, and had to be saved by a very annoyed Donnie. It rained the first night, which led to all of them being miserable until Raph managed to get a fire going. There was an embarrassing incident involving Miwa and a mud puddle that she'd threatened them all with pain of death if they ever mentioned it again. And Leo's leg kept acting up at random times making their leader wince, but he keep soldiering on despite the pain.

 

But during meditation on the second night, all was calm until Mikey felt the sudden urge to open his eyes.

 

Looking around at their tree top meditation area, he felt the wind pick up around them. Seeing his siblings still had their eyes shut in meditation, the youngest was the only one to witness as several leaves blew off their branches and swirled into the night sky above his head.

 

Before Mikey's very eyes the sky turned burning red and a swirling vortex seemed to open up above them.

 

The youngest fell from his tree with a yell of, "AHH! IT'S HAPPENING!" making his sibling's eyes snap open, and they leapt from their spots to make sure their brother was alright.

 

But as they landed on the ground, Leo caught sight of movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see a deer standing a few feet from them, staring at them expectantly.

 

"Whoa! Guys, look," said Leo, drawing all of their attention from the still frightened Mikey to the creature. But when the leader turned back the deer was gone.

 

"It was the same deer," he said when he saw the confused looks his siblings were giving him. "I think it's been following us."

 

He then saw more movement to his left, and turned in time to see the deer vanish behind a tree far too thin to hide it.

 

"It's probably laughing at the five dumb kids lost in the woods," said Raph dryly, failing to see the deer right behind him.

 

"Actually, in the Shinto religion, deer are considered messengers of the divine," said Donnie.

 

"Thank you, oh wealth of knowledge," said Miwa sarcastically.

 

Donnie scowled. "I'm just saying, maybe it means we're on the right path."

 

Just then a tall figure stepped out from behind a tree, and into all of their lines of sight. The figure had a brown fur covering its body, with lighter fur creating swirling patterns on is sides and arms. It had the head of a deer, and looked all together whimsical.

 

But when Raph, Donnie, and Mikey saw it, their first response was to scream, "MUTANT!" and rush forward to attack, despite Leo's calls for them to stop.

 

But before the three youngest could lay a hand on the deer creature, Miwa jumped between it and them, and swiftly sent her brothers flying with a quick series of blows.

 

The end result had the three of them lying on the grass groaning at Leo's feet, as the leader blinked in surprise and tried to figure out what just happened.

 

"What the hell, Mi?" shouted Raph, who glared up at his sister harshly.

 

"You guys remember watching  _Princess Mononoke_  as a kids, right?" she asked, making sure to remain firmly between her brothers and the deer creature.

 

The brothers exchanged glances, and Donnie said, "Of course we do. It's your favorite movie. You made us watch it over and over again twenty times."

 

"Well, do you remember what  _happened_  when people attacked the deer-thing in that movie?" asked Miwa dryly.

 

Mikey's eyes lit up, and he chirped, "Sure do! It was super freaky. They cut of its head, and suddenly all this goo started pouring out and killed… everything… it… touched…" said Mikey, trailing off as he and the others realized the point she was trying to make. He then shot a sheepish glance at the deer, and muttered, "Oops."

 

"Yeah, oops," said Miwa, glancing over her shoulder to where the deer still stood.

 

The creature regarded the five of them with an unreadable expression. Then with movements far too fast and fluid to be natural, it vanished from sight, leaving the ninjas on their own once again.

 

____________________________

 

With little else to do, the siblings set up camp for the night, and were soon huddled around the campfire in silence.

 

It was clear they all still had the encounter with the deer (which Mikey had decided to call Forest Spirit, thanks to Miwa's reference to  _Princess Mononoke_ ) on their minds, but none of the teenagers could bring themselves to talk about what just happened. So they remained lost in their own thoughts, with only the crackle of the fire breaking the quiet of the night.

 

Suddenly, the light of their fire flashed bright blue and jumped from low embers to a tall roaring flame.

 

As the teenagers gaped in shock at the sight, the flames grew higher and higher, swirling around until they formed a transparent blue figure.

 

A figure they all recognized.

 

"FATHER!" they all shouted in unison as the unearthly form of their father hovered above their heads, gazing down at them all with an unreadable expression.

 

" _Watashi no kodomo-tachi,"_ said Yoshi's apparition, gazing around at them all.

 

The five teenagers felt the tension lessen somewhat to hear their father's voice say 'My children' in Japanese, but they still remained on edge.

 

Finally, Mikey voiced the question they were all afraid to ask. "Are you, like, a ghost?" he asked meekly, fearing the answer was yes.

 

But to all of their immense relief, Yoshi shook his head. " _My spirit has become detached from my body, but that body still lives."_

 

"You're alive," Leo whispered with in a voice barely above a breath, utterly relieved at the news.

 

"And Mother?" asked Miwa hopefully.

 

Yoshi's expression softened.  _"Your mother still lives as well, my children_ ," he said _. "I sense that her presence is near where my body slumbers, but I do not know of her physical or mental state."_

 

Leo pushed himself to his feet, and looked at the apparition imploringly. "Where are you, Sensei? Let us help you both."

 

Yoshi frowned slightly, and shook his head. " _You cannot yet_ ," he replied. " _There is much you must overcome. If you cannot find your inner spiritual strength, you will not stand a chance against the Shredder."_

 

Leo bowed his head in shame. "But, Father, my leg pains, they're physical. Until my mutation completes or reverses-"

 

But he fell quiet as a transparent hand came to rest on his shoulder, and he looked up to see his father looking at him with understanding.  _"We choose what holds us back, and what moves us forward,"_  he said sagely.

 

Leo frowned, but moved back into a kneeling position in front of the fire.

 

Yoshi then turned to address all of his children.  _"You will all learn this,"_  he said.  _"Each of you must journey out alone to face your spiritual adversary."_

 

The spirit then turned to look at each of them in turn.  _"Raphael,"_  he said to the red wearing turtle,  _"your temper is like a fire that you must learn to focus for power."_

 

Raph bowed his head in acknowledgement, and Yoshi turned to Mikey.  _"Michelangelo, your mind is overrun with distractions. Learn to be strong and calm, like the forest._ "

 

Mikey pinched his face in determination and nodded as Yoshi turned his attention to his sister.

 

" _Miwa, my daughter,"_  he said to her. " _Your fears have made you far too rigid and unyielding. You must be as fluid and versatile as the river if you wish to succeed_."

 

Miwa winced at the reminder of her obsessive behavior since arriving at the farmhouse, but nodded to accept her task.

 

Yoshi then turned to his genius son and said,  _"Donatello, you rely too much on your mind, and not on your body. Be strong, like the mountain_."

 

Donnie glanced sheepishly at his cell phone, which he had been working on before Yoshi's appearance, before nodding to his father with a serious expression, and Yoshi turned to gaze upon his final son.

 

" _Leonardo,"_  he said, making the turtle in question look up at him. " _You must be the leader in body and spirit. Be like the wind. Let nothing weigh you down."_

 

Like the others, Leo nodded silently at his father's request, and the apparition turned to address them all once again.  _"Sleep now, my children_ ," he said. " _For your greatest trial awaits on the spiritual plane. For the challenges you face there will be just as deadly as those you face in the real world."_

 

The flames swirled around Yoshi once again, making his spirit vanish from their sight with one final caution of,  _"Be warned."_

 

The eerie blue flames faded back to a regular orange fire, a silence fell over the campsite that was so thick Leo felt he could cut it with his katana.

 

The five siblings exchanged glances of sorrow at the loss of their father's presence, and trepidation of what the next day would bring.

 

Then, without a single word to each other, they lay down and tried to sleep despite the knowledge that the thoughts and doubts buzzing in their heads would no doubt follow them into their dreams.

 

____________________________

 

On the other side of the forest, April shot up in her sleeping bag with a sharp yelp, and sat gasping for breath.

 

Roused by her actions, Casey rolled over in his own sleeping bag, clicked on his camp lantern, and poked his head out of his tent. "Something up, Red?" he asked.

 

April took a deep breath to calm herself, before opening her own tent to peer out at him. "I-I'm okay," she said, stuttering slightly. "I-it was nothing."

 

Casey looked unconvinced, and said, "Sure doesn't  _sound_  like nothing."

 

April bit her lip, and looked unsure. "I was probably just dreaming, but-" she said hesitantly. "-But for a minute there, I could have sworn…"

 

"Sworn what?" asked Casey, gesturing for her to continued.

 

"That I-I  _felt_  Master Yoshi," she said. "That he was right  _here_. But it couldn't be! If he's anywhere, he's back in New York. That is… if he's still…"

 

The 'alive' at the end of her sentence went unsaid, but both teens heard it anyway.

 

Casey frowned at her words thoughtfully, then shrugged. "I don't know, Red," he said glumly. "It could be you just miss him. I know I do. Master Yoshi's ninja lessons actually made me  _want_  to get up early on weekends." He then scratched his chin and added, "But you know, the way Leo was going on about this mystic spiritual stuff he and the others were set to be doing… I don't know, maybe they stirred something up. And… who knows what else…"

 

April looked slightly ill at ease, and gazed out into the woods thoughtfully. Suddenly the whole place seemed a whole lot creepier. "Wanna head back to the farmhouse in the morning?" she asked in a forced casual tone.

 

"Sure thing," agreed Casey, who didn't look too comfortable anymore either. "And, uh, is it cool with you if I leave the lantern on for the rest of the night? Er, you know, to scare off… bears, 'r something…"

 

"Sounds great," said April, looking more than a little relieved.

 

Casey then set the lantern between their two tents, and they both pulled back inside to try and sleep for the rest of the night.

 

But if they'd stayed out a bit longer, they would have seen the light of the lantern reflect off the eyes of a large deer as it observed their campsite, before turning and walking back into the woods.

 

____________________________

 

The next morning all five of them awoke wondering if the events of last night had all been a dream, but one look at each other's faces confirmed that it had not.

 

"Whoa, that was… deep," said Mikey, rubbing his head as he sat up to look at the others.

 

"Understatement," said Miwa dryly.

 

"Father made our quest clear," said Leo firmly, standing before them all with a serious expression on his face. "Each of us will forge new armor and weapons, then journey on alone where we'll be challenged in the Spirit Realm. A place where the unreal becomes real, and meet out ultimate fate."

 

His four siblings nodded, and they moved to begin.

 

A few hours later the five stood ready for whatever the Spirit Realm could throw at them. And (in Mikey's words) they looked super cool in doing so.

 

Miwa had switched to an ash gray version of her usual ninja garb, but without her usual hood and scarf. Instead she had added a forest green cloak to wear over it that covered her head in shadows and reached down her back to her waist, and the high collar also hid her mouth from view as well. She had also changed her usual makeup to a dark, smokey foundation that stretched up to her eyebrows, giving her a raccoon like appearance, and making her eyes stand out from the shadows in an eerie way. In addition to her usual tantō she had added a kyoketsu-shogeto her arsenal, and clipped it to her belt for easy reach.

 

Raph has switched his arm and leg wrappings to white ones, and made a white hood to cover his head. He replaced his usual mask with a red one that covered his entire head, and portions of it dipped down on either side. His new weapons were a pair of Shredder-like claws for each hand, attached to a pair of gasoline tanks strapped to his shell to spit fire when necessary.

 

Like Miwa, Donnie had also changed to a pale version of his ninja garb, but with a mud splattered patter for camouflage, and over it he wore a light purple hooded shall. Over his usual mask he wore an eerie skull-shaped white mask that covered his entire face. He also converted his bō staff into a heavy stone ax, which he could still wield well despite the added weight.

 

Mikey also discarded his usual mask for a pale orange one that covered the top of his head, and he covered his freckles in a camouflage war paint. He made himself shoulder pads, ankle pads, and wrist guards from wood and bark, making him look spikier than usual. To add to it, he had switched out his nunchucks for a pair of kama.

 

Leo had also switched to white arm and leg wrappings and a new paler mask that covered his head, over with he had a white hood to hide his face in shadows. His katana had moved from their usual place on his back to be attached to his belt, and in their place was a quiver full of arrows and a bow.

 

The five of them gathered around a flag they'd made, and took a moment of silence before starting their journey.

 

Well, mostly silence, as Mikey was taking the time to munch on some frozen pizza he'd brought from the farmhouse.

 

Raph cracked his eyes open to glare at his little brother. "Mikey, stay focused!" he snapped. "Remember what Father said? The things we're gonna fight are just as dangerous as Shredder."

 

Mikey took the remains of the pizza out of his mouth and frowned at it, before doing the unthinkable. He threw it away into the woods with a shout of, "Hope you like pizza you lucky Forest Spirit deer!"

 

Feeling they'd waited long enough, Leo said, "It's time. Good luck, everyone." He then snapped his arms to his sides and bowed to his siblings. "Kento O." he said.

 

The other four returned the bow, and recited their own, "Kento O."

 

They then rose from their bows, did an immediate about face, and marched of in different directions into the forest to continue their journey alone.

 

As he walked, the first thing Leo noticed was the fog. It was only a little at first, but it steadily grew thicker with each limping step he took. Soon he could see nothing through the bluish mist but a few yards in front of him.

 

"This isn't right," he said as he balanced against a tree to relieve his leg of his weight for a brief moment. "I'm not Donnie, but I know enough science to know fog comes from a change in temperature. But nothing's changed since this morning. If anything, being later in the day should have cleared it up."

 

Getting an uneasy feeling, Leo pressed onwards, his limp slowly getting more pronounced as he continued walking on it through the trees.

 

Then suddenly his head snapped around as he heard something large rush past him just out of sight. Looking around suspiciously, Leo suddenly became aware of a presence behind him, and whirled around.

 

Standing there looking at him was none other than the deer from before.

 

The buck stared at him for a long moment, before bounding past Leo into the trees where the fog was thickest.

 

"Wait!" shouted Leo after it, and he ran as fast as he could after the creature, ignoring the pain in his legs with each step.

 

But the deer vanished in a particularly thick patch of fog. "WAIT!" Leo shouted again, only to hear his echo bounce back at him.

 

He screeched to a stop the second he realized something was really wrong with this picture.

 

Not a second ago he had been in the forest. But now he found himself standing in the middle of a seemingly endless rope bridge that was swaying over a bottomless chasm of fog.

 

Glancing back the way he'd come, Leo saw nothing of the trees that had surrounded him a second before. But when he turned to face forwards again, he nearly jumped out of his shell to see Forest Spirit standing before him in all his anthropomorphic glory.

 

The turtle struggled to keep his balance as the bridge swayed under his jerky actions, and he grabbed one of the rope handles to peer into the swirling mist below, trying to see the bottom.

 

But the bridge continued to swing and pitch under him, and he yelped as he felt himself flung over the edge of it.

 

For a brief panic-filled second, Leo felt himself fly though the air in the direction of the thick bottomless fog.

 

But at the last second, he managed to grab hold of the rope bridge again, and after a brief glance down, he pulled himself back up onto the creaking planks.

 

Glancing around, he saw that Forest Spirit had once again vanished, leaving the leader alone on the bridge.

 

Or maybe not so alone, as a flash out of the corner of his eye had Leo turn and find himself face to face with a Foot Ninja, who crouched on the rope handle with its head tilted at an inhuman angle.

 

Leaping back to his feet, Leo quickly notched an arrow into his bow, but not fast enough to catch the Foot before the soldier vanished into the fog once again.

 

Glancing around wearily, Leo couldn't help but wonder aloud, "Was it real?" Though whether he was talking about the Foot Ninja or Forest Spirit, not even he knew.

 

Just then, he heard the sound of something flying towards him at great speeds, and he turned quickly to shoot at a flying Foot Soldier who came barreling out of the fog at him.

 

The arrow missed, and the Foot shot past him, throwing shuriken which Leo blocked with his bow.

 

The Foot Ninja landed before Leo with his sword raised, and Leo notched another arrow to fight it, only to realize there were two more Foot closing in on the other side.

 

"Okay, not cool," Leo grumbled as he felt the bridge shake as even more Foot closed in on him from both sides. "Definitely not cool!"

 

____________________________

 

Miwa frowned as the pale greenish fog she'd found herself surrounded in parted to show a familiar river rushing in front of her. It was the same one she and Casey had been swept away in during the fight with the Chimera.

 

The only problem with it being there was that Miwa  _knew_  it had been in the opposite direction of where she'd been walking.

 

"Though, with the way my life is going, a river where it's not supposed to be isn't even near the top of the weirdness list," she remarked dryly as she watched the water flow past her.

 

Seeing no way to cross, she decided to follow it upstream to avoid getting stuck in that cave again.

 

As she walked, she became aware that the only sound to be heard was the river flowing past her. None of the other forest sounds reached her ears, no birds, no frogs, not even the sound of bugs buzzing around could be heard.

 

Coming to a stop, Miwa looked around in confusion. "Okay, either this is the quietest forest I've ever been in, or something's very wrong here."

 

As if to answer her, she heard the sound of a loud splash, and her head snapped around in time to see a Foot Ninja burst out of the river land on one of the rocks in the middle of the stream.

 

Miwa grimaced as she unclipped her kyoketsu-shoge from her side, and glared at the ninja. "Looks like it's door number two."

 

The Foot Ninja cocked its head at an awkward angle, and launched itself at her.

 

Miwa brought her the blade of her kyoketsu-shoge, and the Foot Ninja skewered itself in mid air, before vanishing in a puff of green smoke.

 

But the kunoichi quickly found that this was just a distraction, as a pair of arm suddenly came from behind, grabbed her around the waist, and tossed her into the shallow waters of the river.

 

Miwa wasted no time jumping back to her feet (despite her bottom and legs now being soaking wet), and turned to face the one who threw her with a snarl on her face.

 

Only to gasp as she saw an entire squadron of Foot Soldiers standing on the bank of the river ready to fight her.

 

Regaining her composure, Miwa shot the Foot Ninja a cocky smirk. "Well, I suppose you losers will be a good warm up."

 

The Foot remained silent, and all started running towards her at once.

 

In response, Miwa hefted her the chain of her weapon up, and rushed forwards through the water to meet them.

 

____________________________

 

Like Miwa (not that he was aware of it), Raph had also stumbled upon the river while walking through the reddish tinted fog, and also like his sister, he knew he had been going in the completely wrong direction to find it.

 

Shrugging it off as some mystic Spirit World thing, Raph decided to wade into the water, and let it carry him downstream towards the cave. Ever since Miwa and Casey had told the rest of them about it, the turtle had wanted to see it for himself, and he figured it was as good a direction as any to travel in.

 

He let the current sweep him into the cave, and rode it out until it emptied out into a underground lake in a large cavern. Despite the fact that he was no doubt deep under the mountain, the cavern lit up enough for Raph to make out the dark reddish color of the stones, and see all the stalagmites located on the ground, and the stalactites decorating the ceiling.

 

All the place needed was a sunken ship to look like a scene out of an adventure movie, but unfortunately it was absent such a thing.

 

Pulling his head above water to look around, Raph couldn't help but remark, "So much for finding a hidden pirate ship. Waste a' time."

 

Still, if he was here, he might as well explore. It was certainly more interesting then wandering around in the fog outside.

 

He quickly swam to shore, and noticed a cluster of torches hovering in the shadows, and which were giving a dim light to the cave.

 

"Sombebody's gotta be here keeping those torches lit," he muttered to himself as he looked around for some sign of their whereabouts. Maybe there was something interesting down here after all.

 

Only for his jaw to drop as one of the torches shifted forwards, and a Foot Ninja stepped into the light, revealing to have been carrying the flaming weapon. Several more followed it, until Raph found himself surrounded by Foot with flaming spears.

 

"Aw crap," Raph muttered to himself as he pulled out his weapons and prepared for the coming fight.

 

Just in time for the Foot Ninja to rush towards him and attack all at once.

 

____________________________

 

As Donnie waded through the lavender fog he began noticing several things. One, the forest had been quiet before, but now it was eerily silent.

 

The second thing he noticed was that the trees seemed fewer and farther between, which was odd since he had been in the middle of the forest, no clearings around. Then he came upon a mountain path stretching upwards, and he knew there was none of the like in their camp's area.

 

The third thing he noticed was when he started his trek upwards was that his hands were no longer his own, but instead green three-fingered ones like his brothers had.

 

"Are you kidding me,  _again?_ " Donnie muttered to himself. He drew out a knife he had hidden in his belt and examined his reflection on the metal.

 

A turtle with his red-brown eyes and gapped teeth stared back at him in his reflection. The new additions to his ninja garb he'd made for this quest were still there, but once again his usual clothes were gone, leaving him in mostly nothing but a shell and his weapons.

 

Donnie frowned at this. "More of my subconscious desire theory, or is the Spirit World trying to tell us we  _all_  should be mutated like this?" he muttered to himself, trying come up with an answer. The conversations he'd had with Miwa rang back to him briefly, and he wondered if her concerns about them all becoming turtles was starting to become more of a certainty. After all, he was the only one not yet mutated (Speed Demon's possession aside), and looking back on recent events, he had had some very close calls with the glowing green ooze of late.

 

When no answers came, Donnie sheathed his knife again, and continued on up the mountain.

 

Fortunately, like in his dreams, his sudden change to a turtle didn't make him clumsy or out of balance like it had done for his brothers when they first mutated. In fact he could move in his new form as if he had been a mutant turtle all his life. He wasn't sure of the implications of that, but he was grateful for it nonetheless. The last thing he needed was to go on a dangerous Spirit Quest in a body he could barely move in.

 

"At least now I know for sure I'm on the right track," Donnie muttered to himself as he began his trek. "Or at least, I hope so."

 

But after several minutes of climbing the mountain and nothing to show for it, Donnie had to give a frustrated groan as he edged along a narrow pathway. "Aw who am I kidding? For all I know this  _isn't_  the right direction, and turning green is a punishment for that."

 

He paused to glance down the sheer drop of cliff along side his path, and gulped. "Boy, I really miss GPS guidance right now."

 

Just then, the whole mountain shook, and Donnie's head snapped upwards to see several Foot Ninja standing on a ledge above him. As one, the ninjas slammed their large stone hammers into the side of the mountain, making the whole thing shake again.

 

Donnie stumbled and dodged as some dislodged rocks came raining down towards his head, before shouting up at the Foot, "You're gonna bring the whole mountain down!"

 

But the only reply Donnie got was a pebble bouncing off his head, and the Foot raising their hammers to strike again.

 

Donnie's eyes widened in realization. "Unless, you don't care what happens 'cause you're an apparition from the Spirit Plane!"

 

Their only response was to shake the mountain again with their hammers, this time sending a large boulder crumbling off the side, and missing Donnie by inches.

 

As Donnie ducked for cover to avoid the boulder, the Foot ceased their hammering, and instead came running down the mountainside at the genius with their hammers ready to bash his head in.

 

Letting out a nervous chuckle as he reached for his own weapon, Donnie muttered, "I hate being right."

 

____________________________

 

Mikey was starting to get sick of trees…

 

And fog…

 

And creepy silent forests with no end…

 

Seriously, he'd not seen a single woodland creature since leaving his siblings, and after all this walking in eerie silence he'd give anything to see even so much as a  _squirrel_.

 

And he  _hated_  squirrels!

 

Still, he dutifully made his way through the forest as silently and stealthily as he could (while also imitating some moves he saw in the  _Mission Impossible_  movies to make things more interesting).

 

As he tiptoed from tree to tree to avoid being spotted by, well, Spirit World stuff, he heard the sound of rushing footsteps.

 

Before he could react, something rushed by him, and knocked him flat on his shell.

 

Jumping back to his feet and holding his kama out in front of him, Mikey scanned the area and yelled, "Who's there!"

 

In response, he was once again hip-checked to the ground, and he got back up much more annoyed than before. "Come out!" he shouted, glaring at the trees that he just knew were hiding whoever kept hitting him.

 

The forest was utterly silent as he searched, then finally-

 

' _Crack!'_

 

Mikey spun on his heel and flung a throwing star in the direction he'd heard the twig snap, eager to get one up on his attacker.

 

The star whizzed through the air, only to be caught between the fingers of a Foot Ninja atop a tall shadowy tree.

 

Mikey laughed. "Your camo is so weak, dawg!" he taunted, gesturing at the tree with his kama.

 

But then the turtle paled as the 'tree' suddenly alit with several pairs of glowing red eyes.

 

"Whoa," Mikey breathed fearfully. "Either I'm wrong about the camo, or I'm about to fight a ten-eyed monster." He honestly didn't know which of those options was worse.

 

Just then the fog faded a bit to reveal it was not a tree at all, but rather a totem pole of Foot Ninja, all glaring down at him with glowing red eyes.

 

With a scream of, "I WAS WRONG ABOUT THE CAMO!" Mikey turned to run and put some distance between him and the other ninjas.

 

The sound of several running footsteps chased after him as he bolted through the trees, and Mikey didn't need to look back to know they were gaining on him.

 

Suddenly, he missed the silence.

 

____________________________

 

"Keep 'em coming! I could do this all day!" shouted Leo as he notched three more arrows to shoot the attacking Foot Ninjas off the bridge.

 

The arrows struck true, making three of the Foot apparitions vanish in puffs of blue smoke.

 

He then ducked as another Foot Ninja took a swipe at his head with a sword. He knocked its feet out from under it in response and shot it with another arrow as it was distracted by its loss of balance.

 

When no more Foot Ninja came into view, Leo couldn't help but taunt, "That's it? I still got more arrows, guys!"

 

He immediately regretted his words as the entire bridge began to shake, and he watched in horror as the ropes holding it up began snapping one after another.

 

He desperately tried to run to the end of it, only for the bridge to give way beneath his feet.

 

Leo screamed as he felt himself plunge down towards the mist-covered ground below.

 

With lightning fast reflexes, he managed to catch one of the ropes of the broken bridge, and swing on it like George of the Jungle, which appropriately ended with himself slamming face first into a stone wall.

 

Rubbing his now sore nose with one hand, and keeping a tight grip on the rope with his other, Leo carefully began climbing upwards to safety.

 

As he neared the top, he caught sight of another Foot Ninja peering down, as if trying to see if he'd fallen with the bridge. Before it could spot him, Leo hooked his bow around its neck, and flung it off the cliff into the fog below.

 

He then heaved himself up onto the ledge, grateful to once again be on solid ground. "Not as tough as I thought," he muttered to himself, trying to make light of the events.

 

He then looked at the path before him, and saw it slope upwards into a mountain, and sighed.

 

He still had a long way to go.

 

____________________________

 

Miwa stabbed the blade of her kyoketsu-shoge through the last attacking Foot Ninja, and let out a sigh of relief as it vanished into green smoke.

 

Turning to look around the shallow river that had been her battleground, she asked, "Who's next?"

 

She honestly wasn't expecting the answer she got.

 

"Oh, no one special-" said a female voice from the fog, making Miwa look around to try and spot the source.

 

Through the fog, she caught a glimpse of a strange serpentine shadow slither through the mist, but when she moved cautiously forward to get a closer look, the figure had vanished.

 

"-Only your worsssst nightmare," the voice hissed, again, this time sounding like it was right by Miwa's ear.

 

The kunoichi pirouetted away, scanning the area for the speaker.

 

Then, a figure slowly stepped out of the fog, and her eyes to widen in shock.

 

Standing before her, clothed in a Foot Clan uniform and still shrouded in fog was none other than an almost exact duplicate of Miwa herself.

 

"You-!" Miwa gasped, "But, this is-! You  _can't_ be-!"

 

"You?" said the double with a sneer. "Of course not. I'm not some pathetic Hamato Clan kunoichi. I am the Shredder's daughter."

 

She then sent Miwa a sinister smirk. "I am Karai."

 

Miwa quickly pulled her jaw up off the floor, and glowered at her doppelganger. "You're also going down," she said, spinning her kyoketsu-shoge and glaring at her opponent. "No way I'm losing to some cheap knockoff."

 

"Oh, a knockoff, am I?" Karai taunted, leaning forward slightly out of the fog, and giving Miwa an unobstructed view of her face for the first time.

 

Miwa had to take a step back at the sight. At first glance, the Foot kunoichi's features had seemed identical to her own. But now, Miwa could clearly see a distinct difference between them.

 

Karai's eyes were not Miwa's amber yellow. Instead they were mutagen green, snake-like slits.

 

"I'm afraid you'll find that the cheap knockoff here-" the Foot kunoichi said as her entire form began to shift and twist before Miwa's very eyes into a new and monstrous form.

 

"-Issss Youuuu," the monster before her concluded in a hissing voice as Miwa took in her evil twin's new shape.

 

A snake mutant stood before her, not unlike the form her own mother took in her feral state. Legs had vanished into a white, armor-plated tail, and the armor continued up to cover the mutant's torso. Instead of arms, the creature had a pair of long serpents sticking out of her shoulders. And an angular snake head with mutagen green eyes stared down at Miwa with a malicious gaze, and Karai let out a hissing screech in the Hamato kunoichi's direction with a mouth full of razor sharp fangs.

 

"I'm in trouble, aren't I," Miwa said redundantly as she tried to wrap her head around the horrific sight.

 

Karai's only answer was to strike.

 

____________________________

 

Mikey bounced like a pinball amongst the trees, always staying one step ahead of the Foot Ninja chasing him.

 

The Foot tried to follow, but every time one tried to attack, Mikey was ready for them. He punched, kicked, and slashed his enemies out of the trees one by one, until finally the last Foot Soldier exploded into orange smoke under the blades of his kamas.

 

But as he landed silently on the forest floor, another dark figure burst out of the fog, and tackled him into a tree.

 

Mikey groaned as he smacked face first into the bark, and shook his head to clear it.

 

Whatever that was had been way too big to be a Foot Ninja. Mikey couldn't help but get the feeling he'd leveled up to the boss battle of this fight.

 

Turning to look in the direction the figure had gone, Mikey paled as he saw a gruesome skeletal figure rise up from out of the fog bank, and glare at him with glowing yellow eyes.

 

"Been a long time," growled Rahzar, his voice echoing through the forest, making it more chilling than it usually was.

 

Mikey pushed himself to his feet, and goggled at the canine mutant before him. "Oh man! Rahzar?" he said nervously.

 

His unease only grew as the other mutant began stalking towards him with a murderous gaze. "Good dog! Easy! Maybe I have a bone for ya!" Mikey said rapidly as he moved to put the tree he'd hit between him and his enemy.

 

Rahzar looked amused at his fear. "Oh, you have many bones I can feast on," he said ominously. "I can hear them shaking in your pathetic, idiotic body."

 

Then, with a snarl he attacked.

 

____________________________

 

Within the cave, Raph was having the time of his life pummeling the Foot Ninjas that attacked him.

 

"I woulda been  _way_  more into this Spirit Quest if I knew I'd get to slap some Foot around," he said almost conversationally as took out three Foot Ninja in quick succession.

 

He then grinned savagely as several more Foot Ninja jumped out of the shadows and surrounded him.

 

Activating his favorite modification to his new wardrobe, Raph blasted the attacking ninjas with a set of flamethrowers attached to the bottom of his wrists, setting all of his enemies on fire in two quick blasts.

 

One managed to get around him, and tried to attack him from behind with a flaming spear. But Raph saw him coming, and blocked the blow before blasting the Foot Ninja away with another burst of fire.

 

"Yeah!" Raph cheered, pumping his fist in the air at his apparent victory.

 

But as he surveyed the cave for any more enemies, a bubbling sound drew his attention to the water.

 

As he looked, a dark shape seemed to be growing in the middle of the underwater pond, and he frowned at the sight. "Huh?" he muttered, wondering what it could be.

 

Suddenly, a figure burst out of the water, and Raph yelped as he saw Fishface soar through the air, and come flying right at the turtle's head with his fanged jaws ready to bite.

 

Raph ducked and rolled to avoid the flying fish, and the thief turned mutant landed on the cave floor nearby him.

 

"Fishface? Here?" Raph wondered aloud, unable to comprehend seeing the other mutant where he'd least expected him.

 

The Snakehead fish smirked. "That temper fizzles fast underwater, doesn't it?" he taunted, before flinging himself at the red wearing turtle before he could reply.

 

Raph blocked the blow, but Fishface merely sneered at him more. "Of course, with  _your_ temper, you would probably boil the water, and everything in it before it burns out. You always end up hurting everyone around you, don't you?"

 

Raph winced at his words, and Fishface used that to his advantage to throw the turtle into the water below, before diving in after him.

 

____________________________

 

On the narrow cliff side of the mountain, Donnie was having a hard time blocking the blows of two of the Foot Ninja, while simultaneously dodging the falling rocks being lobed at him from two more overhead.

 

He barely managed to knock the feet out from the one nearest to him, and shove another off the cliff, before he had to leap away with a shout as another bolder nearly crushed him as it came crashing down.

 

Glaring up at the two Foot Ninja above him, Donnie bellowed, "You wanna bring half the mountain down!"

 

He then leaped higher than he ever had before, and landed on the ledge along side the Foot Ninja, taking them down with a few quick strikes with his ax.

 

"Fine with me!" he finished, slamming the blade of his ax against the ledge of the mountain, creating a rockslide that swept away the remaining Foot Soldiers.

 

Grinning at the now empty mountain path, Donnie said, "Hah! Hey, this Seishin-Suyu is way easier than I thought. All it takes is a little quick thinking, and-"

 

He was cut off as the rocky wall next to him suddenly exploded outwards, and a large figure began stalking towards him through the dust.

 

Donnie paled and backed away as he recognized the figure.

 

"We're just getting started," Tiger Claw growled as he stalked towards the teen turned turtle. "Let's see how quick your thinking is when I smash your head into the rocks."

 

"Tiger Claw?" Donnie questioned as he stared up at the tiger mutant. Then he shook his head and frowned. "No, you're just a spirit too. You can't be real."

 

Tiger Claw grinned, and lashed out with his fist, punching Donnie hard enough to send him flying several feet down the mountain path.

 

"Does that feel real to you?" the tiger questioned tauntingly.

 

"Absolutely," Donnie groaned as he picked himself back up off the ground, only to yelp and dodge as the tiger came charging towards him again.

 

____________________________

 

Meanwhile, Leo was walking up his own mountain path, and unlike the others, he hadn't seen any enemies since his time on the bridge. All was quiet.

 

Then Leo paused as he once again caught sight of the deer standing before him.

 

The mystic creature was standing at a bend in the road, staring back at the turtle with an unreadable expression.

 

"What is it?" Leo asked, trying to decipher what it meant. "What is your lesson?"

 

The turtle then stiffened as a voice from his nightmares sounded behind him.

 

"Lesson?"

 

Leo paled, and wheeled around to see none other than the Shredder standing behind him, looking as fearsome and deadly as the last time Leo had seen him.

 

When the madman had driven Leo through with his own sword.

 

As if sensing Leo's fear at the sight of him, the Shredder's glower sharpened, pinning the turtle in place. "You've already failed," he said darkly.

 

"Shredder!" Leo gasped as he reached quickly for his weapons.

 

The Shredder unsheathed the blades of his gauntlets, the sound piercing the quiet mountain air like a bullet as the Ninja Master began stalking towards the teenager.

 

"You were too weak to stand without your master," the Shredder said harshly as Leo held up his swords between the two of them. "Too weak to protect your brothers and sister."

 

The anger that those words brought out overcame the fear Leo had, and he darted forward with a growl to attack the cause of the majority of his family's misery.

 

But the Shredder blocked his blows, and pushed him back, before vanishing from sight.

 

Leo blinked, and looked around for his opponent, only to sense him suddenly appear behind him.

 

"Now you can hardly stand at all," the Shredder taunted as he drove his foot into the leg that still caused Leo trouble.

 

Pain exploded through Leo's body, and he let out an agonizing scream at the sensation.

 

Acting quickly, he managed to duck and roll to get some distance between him and the Shredder before the maniac could stab him in the back again.

 

But as he looked into the eyes of his family's tormentor, Leo got the uneasy feeling that his pain had only just begun.

 

Still, he pushed himself back to his feet, and readied his blades.

 

He couldn't lose. Not again.

 

____________________________

 

Mikey screamed as he once again dodged a swipe from Rahzar's talons.

 

He tried to use a tree as a springboard and get away from the vicious mutant, but Rahzar caught his foot in his teeth, and flung the turtle through the trees and sent him sprawling on the ground.

 

The second Mikey was back on his feet, he had to raise his kamas in defense as Rahzar's claws once again made a swipe for his head.

 

"Pause! Pause!" shouted Mikey as he grappled with the larger mutant, trying to figure a way out of this mess. "Give me a second, spirit dude!"

 

But Rahzar simply snarled at Mikey, and lunged at him once again.

 

Mikey ducked to avoid the attack, and when he looked up again, he realized that Rahzar had once again vanished into the fog.

 

He gulped audibly as he realized that having Rahzar where he couldn't see him was a thousand times worse than when he could.

 

Mikey kept his eyes wide open as he scanned the fog, searching desperately for his opponent, but the canine remained stubbornly out of sight.

 

Just then, he saw a flash out of the corner of his eyes, and he turned to see three claw marks were now etched into the bark of one of the trees, but the creator of the marks were nowhere in sight.

 

Even so, he could still hear Rahzar's growling echoing though the woods, unnerving the turtle even more.

 

But then he started speaking.

 

"Pathetic, that's what you are," said Rahzar's growling voice, echoing through the trees and sounding as though it was coming from several directions at once.

 

"You can't do anything right when you are with your siblings, and without them, you are  _nothing,"_ the apparition continued, making Mikey cringe as he searched desperately for the source.

 

"How many plans failed because  _you_  screwed up? How many people have been hurt because of your distractions?"

 

Mikey winced once again as examples of what Rahzar was talking about came to mind. Setting off alarms at Kraang bases, Jason, Malachi and Raph getting mutated because of their screw up in the Stealth Ship, giving Leo shell-acne, all the things Slash had said when they first fought him, releasing the Momster from her cryo tube after Donnie specifically told him not too, accidentally causing the Punk Frogs to attack the farmhouse because he was feeling upset.

 

Taking advantage of Mikey's reminiscence, Rahzar shot out of the trees and plowed into Mikey, sending him hurtling through the air, and crashing into another tree.

 

Did he mention he was getting sick of trees.

 

"What  _good_  has ever come from your idiocy?" asked Rahzar darkly as he vanished into the fog once again to circle the turtle like a shark.

 

Mikey winced as he forced himself back to his feet. What good  _had_ come from him, he wondered bitterly.

 

The answer hit him harder than Rahzar had.

 

 _He_  was the one who first discovered the Kraang were aliens, and warned his siblings about them.

 

 _He_  was the one who befriended Leatherhead, and helped show the alligator he was more than a monster.

 

 _He_ was the one who's Kraang genius was discovered in time to take down the Technodrome, and was useful in most all fights with the aliens since.

 

 _He_  was the one who found Jason after his mutation, and helped give him a new home and a place on their team.

 

 _He_  was the one who managed to save April from getting crushed by the mutagen tank at the cost of his own mutation.

 

 _He_  was the one who figured out that Irma was not a traitor during the invasion, but rather another victim of the Kraang.

 

And  _he_ was going to be the one to put this mean old hound dog in his place.

 

"Okay, Mikey," he whispered to himself, and he tried to get his act together. "What did Father say? Be still and calm like the forest."

 

He then shifted into a meditative pose, and took a deep breath to calm himself.

 

Unbidden, a thought of Ice Cream Kitty floated through his mind, and he frowned. "Not now, Kitty. Need to focus," he said banishing the thought of his beloved cat (he'd spend extra time pampering his pet after this to make up for it later).

 

"If I concentrate, I can beat him," Mikey muttered to himself, spinning his kama in his hands as he closed his eyes. "Focus. Fooocuuus…"

 

Soon, all the sounds of the forest became clear to him, and to his surprise, the forest wasn't nearly as silent as he had thought. He could hear the wind through the trees, and the branches creaking as they swayed. He could hear the sound of the dew dripping off the leaves onto the forest floor as clear as day, and it was amazing.

 

Except there was one place where the dew wasn't dripping onto the ground. From the sound of things, it was dripping onto something else.

 

Like fur, maybe.

 

Jackpot.

 

Just then, Rahzar leapt from his hiding place in the trees and dove at Mikey with his claws out to strike.

 

But before his blow could land, Mikey dodged seamlessly to the left, without even bothering to open his eyes or break his concentration.

 

Rahzar growled and attacked again and again, each time yielding a similar result.

 

Then Mikey's eyes snapped open, and with a battle cry, he whipped around and drove the blade of his kama into Rahzar's muzzle.

 

With his opponent's nose hooked, Mikey flipped over the beast's head, causing the mutant to bend over backwards, and giving Mikey a perfect opening to slit the mutant's throat with his other kama.

 

At the blow, Rahzar exploded in a puff of orange smoke, much like the rest of the Foot Ninja Mikey had previously fought.

 

Mikey heaved a sigh of relief once his enemy vanished, only to blink in surprise as he realized the fog around him was beginning to thin…

 

____________________________

 

With a heave, Donnie slammed his ax into the ground between him and Tiger claw, causing the section of path the larger mutant was standing on to begin collapsing beneath him.

 

Donnie glanced down to see if that had beaten him, only for Tiger Claw to fly up past him, and land on the path behind Donnie.                                                                             

 

The genius wheeled around, and brought up the staff of his ax to block Tiger Claw's coming attack, and the feline mutant grasped the wooden handle in his large clawed hands and laughed like a lunatic at the frightened expression on Donnie's face, giving the boy-turned-turtle a perfect view of the tiger's razor sharp teeth as he did so.

 

Then Tiger Claw wrenched the ax away from Donnie, and swung the stone blade at its owner's head.

 

Donnie yelped and ducked, but in doing so he fell off the path, and began tumbling down the steep mountainside before finally crashing onto another ledge jutting out of the rocks.

 

Donnie groaned in pain, and could still hear Tiger Claw laughing at his misfortune from above.

 

"Pitiful boy," Tiger Claw taunted. "Still believe you can think your way out of this one? Is your mind all you can define yourself by?"

 

Donnie winced at his words. It was true, his high intelligence was the main thing he'd always defined himself by. It was something that set him apart from his brothers and sister. Something he'd been proud to call all his own, even if it did gather more than a few 'nerd' jokes along the way.

 

But the only thing he defined himself by? No, that wasn't true, he-

 

Donnie's eyes snapped open as he once again heard the tell tale sound of something smashing against the rock face, and sending more boulders crumbling down towards him.

 

He looked up to see more boulders flying at him than he had ever hoped to see in his life, and with a scream he ducked his head, and could do nothing more than pray he would not be crushed.

 

Finally, the rumbling stopped, and Donnie opened his eyes to see that the entire mountainside had crumbled away, leaving only the small platform he'd been cowering on jutting out from the rock face.

 

As he looked around, he caught sight of a snarling Tiger Claw glowering at him from what was left of the mountain path.

 

Seeing that the feline mutant was about to pounce, Donnie cringed and looked desperately for an escape, but saw none. His eyes then narrowed in determination. "No, I gotta stand my ground," he muttered to himself, and quickly shoved his white mask down over his face to steel himself.

 

He could do this. Sure, he was smart, but he knew he was strong too. There was more to him then just a big brain. He was a Hamato Ninja. He was a son, a brother, and a friend to people he did not want to let down. He had the girl of his dreams waiting for him back at the farmhouse, and he was not going to disappoint her.

 

He would not fail them. He could  _do_  this.

 

"Immovable, right?" he said behind the mask, and he turned to face Tiger Claw head on.

 

He then brought up his arms to block Tiger Claw as the mutant leapt at him, and strained to hold back the tiger's girth.

 

"And they say you're the smart one!" Tiger Claw sneered as he pressed against Donnie's arms, trying to over power the teenager. "I'm twice your size, and three times your strength! You! Will!  _FALL!_ "

 

But Donnie remained silent, and remembered his father's words.  _'Be strong, like the mountain.'_

 

Then Donnie quickly shifted his feet, and with a grunt of exertion, he threw Tiger Claw over his head, and off the mountain into the fog below.

 

Tiger Claw let out a screaming roar as he fell, but Donnie continued to watch stoically from his perch.

 

Only when the tiger had completely vanished from sight did Donnie remove his white mask, and smile.

 

It was then that he noticed his appearance had returned to its regular human form, and that the sun was once again breaking through the clouds.

 

____________________________

 

For once Raph was glad he'd mutated into a turtle, if not he'd have probably drowned by now.

 

After Fishface had managed to tackled him back into the water, he began keeping him pinned to the bottom of the underground riverbed, and Raph couldn't break free of him no matter how hard he struggled.

 

But then, suddenly the fish mutant released him, and allowed Raph to start floating towards the surface.

 

Only to slam into him like a torpedo half way up, and keep pummeling him until one hit sent him flying out of the water, and crashing onto the rocky cave ground.

 

Groaning as he slammed into a cave wall, Raph slowly pushed himself back to his feet.

 

Not for the first time since the start of the Spirit Quest, Raph felt his temper flare up, but he forced himself to take a deep breath.

 

He knew loosing his cool right now wouldn't help things. It would only give Fishface another opportunity to drag him underwater again, and this time he doubted the other mutant would let him up before he drowned.

 

No, loosing his temper would only end up with him hurting himself, and that would do no good to anyone.

 

Recalling all of the exercises his father had taught him to channel his anger, he took another deep breath.

 

Like a river over stone…

 

"Breath, Raph," he muttered to himself as he fought to keep his anger under control. "Father's right, I need to concentrate, and focus my anger. You handled leading the team while Leo was down, compared to the stress of that this should be easy."

 

He could sense Fishface rising up out of the water, but he kept his focus on his emotions, refining it into a controllable single point.

 

"Sharpen it. Give it form," Raph muttered as he used the flamethrowers on his wrists to ignite his bladed gauntlets.

 

"Ready for another swim?" Fishface taunted as he began moving to attack Raph once again. "I bet your toys don't work so well under water."

 

But Raph remained silent as he turned to face Fishface, his face a mask of controlled rage.

 

Then with a yell, he ran at his opponent, taking Fishface completely by surprise.

 

He hooked his flaming blades under the fish's arms, and held him dangling over the water Fishface had been tormenting him with not a moment before.

 

With a shout of, "Hah!" Raph slashed his blades, cutting through the fish mutant like sushi, and making his opponent vanish in a puff of red smoke. "Eat it!" he yelled.

 

Just then, the flames in the cave all went out, and a rumbling shook the ground as a hole appeared in one of the rock walls, allowing sunlight to stream in on Raph's victorious grin.

 

____________________________

 

Miwa once again found herself getting thrown into the river, and she, for one, was getting very sick of it.

 

Her evil serpent doppelganger reared up over her, all three of her heads hissing menacingly down at her.

 

"You sssserioussssly think you can win with thosssse movessss," Karai hissed scathingly. "SSSShredder trained me in both the artssss of Hamato  _and_  Foot Clan ninjutsu. There is no move you have that I won't ssssee coming."

 

Miwa snarled, knowing Karai was right. If she kept fighting like she was, she was going to lose. All that training these last few months was useless.

 

Glancing down at the water beneath her feet, her eyes widened as she got an idea.

 

Maybe… not all of it had been useless. At least, not the most recent training regimen she'd been undergoing.

 

"Flexible, right," she whispered to herself as she watched the water flow by her.

 

Just then, the two snake arms, wrapped around Miwa's torso, and yanked her closer to her evil clone.

 

With the exception of her arms, Karai's appearance shifted back to her more human appearance. "Give up yet?" she asked as she leaned into Miwa's personal space to smirk at her.

 

"I'm just getting warmed up," Miwa said, returning the smirk.

 

Then, before Karai could react, Miwa thrust her head forwards, and head-butted the snake girl right in her nose.

 

Karai released her with a cry of pain, and before she could recover, Miwa yanked off her cloak, and threw it over the Foot kunoichi's head, blinding her.

 

Karai shifted back into her serpent form, and tore the cloak off her head, expecting Miwa to have used the distraction to vanish like a ninja normally would.

 

Instead, she was caught off guard to see Miwa had only moved even closer, and took advantage of her surprise to sucker-punched the snake right in her already sensitive nose.

 

Reeling back, Karai clutched at her snout, and glared the Hamato kunoichi. "You're fighting dirty!" she hissed.

 

"Adapt to the situation, right? Seek victory, not fairness," Miwa snapped back with a vicious grin. "As for where I got the moves, all I can say is, thank you, Casey Jones."

 

Then, she began spinning her kyoketsu-shoge, and ran at Karai again.

 

Too caught off guard to react, Karai howled in pain as Miwa looped the chain around her neck, and drove her blade into a weak spot on her armored chest in a killing blow.

 

Falling into the shallow stream gasping, Karai shifted back into her human form, and stared up at Miwa balefully.

 

The Hamato kunoichi stared back with an impassive expression. "I will  _never_ be you," Miwa vowed both to Karai and to herself.

 

With her final breath, Karai let out a hollow sounding laugh. "And you have no idea what  _I_  wouldn't give to be  _you,_ " she said in a sad and wistful tone as she dissolved in a puff of green smoke.

 

Miwa blinked in surprise at the apparition's final words. But then the sun poked through the clouds, and scattered the fog, bringing her back to the present.

 

____________________________

 

Leo had no idea how long he and Shredder had been fighting now, but they were now reaching the tallest peak of the mountain.

 

The air was filled with nothing but fog, the sound of the clashing of blades, and grunts of their wielders' exertion.

 

Leo had long since become accustomed to ignoring the pain that was now constantly flaring in his legs as he tried again and again to land a blow on the Shredder. But no matter what he did, he kept getting pushed back farther and farther up the peak.

 

Leo tried to use his higher ground to help him land a jumping blow with his swords, but with a deft twist of his gauntlets, the Shredder managed to disarm Leo of both his blades, and send him crashing to the ground in a heap.

 

The Shredder picked up Leo's discarded swords, and began stalking towards him once again with a sinister gleam in his eye.

 

At the sight of his beloved weapons once again in the grips of his hated enemy, Leo paled and scrambled to get some distance between him and the Shredder.

 

The Shredder seemed almost amused as he limped away. "Your malformed leg is like a ball and chain dragging you toward defeat."

 

Leo's eyes turned white in anger as he heard his enemy approach. Gripping one of his arrows in his hand, he tried to spin around and stab it into the Shredder, but the Ninja Master was too quick for him.

 

The Shredder caught him in midair, and held him by the front of his hood with one hand, and the other clasped the turtle's wrist, keeping him from stabbing with the arrow, but in doing so, the Ninja Master was forced to drop Leo's swords to the ground.

 

Then with a series of brutal blows, the Shedder kicked Leo hard enough to send him skidding the rest of the way up the peak, the turtle slid to a stop at the upper most part of the mountain, groaning in pain.

 

A bolt of lightning split the sky as Leo winced in defeat. "Shredder is right," he muttered to himself in resignation. "My mutation is going to keep holding be back, and we don't have time to wait for an antidote. I can't win."

 

A groaning sound had Leo looking up to see Forest Spirit in his deer form floating in mid air above his head, looking down at as lightning flashed in the sky behind it.

 

Forest Spirit then slowly floated downwards and sniffed at Leo's leg pointedly, making the turtle's blue eyes widen in realization.

 

"Unless…" he said as the idea took root in his mind. "The pain is just in my mind. It's just an excuse.  _It's not **real!** "_

 

Just then, a roll of thunder made him wince as it seemed to sound right in his ear. When he opened his eyes again, The Shredder was now standing taller than the mountain itself, looking down at Leo with malicious disdain.

 

Forest Spirit shifted to his anthropomorphic form, and turned to give Leo a pointed look, before vanishing in a wisp of blue light that funneled into Leo's mind, giving him a clarity he hadn't had since awakening in a body that was not his own.

 

It had been his own fears and self-doubts holding him back, not his body.

 

But he couldn't let that hold him down anymore. Not if he wanted to be the leader his team needed to survive.

 

"It is time we end this, turtle," said the mammoth Shredder, drawing the blades of his gauntlets.

 

Leo's eyes turned white once again in determination as he faced down his enemy head on. "I agree," he said seriously.

 

The Shredder drew back his blade, and stabbed it in Leo's direction, only for the teenage ninja to leap out of the way at the last second, making the blade slam into the mountainside.

 

Leo then used the Shredders arm to run along as he rushed towards his enemy's face.

 

The Shredder swatted at him like he was a fly, causing Leo to fly up into the air and be caught in one of his massive hands.

 

But the turtle slipped free, and used the strength of his legs to force Shredder's fingers open in order to balance there and take his shot.

 

Notching an arrow, he aimed straight for Shredder's blind eye, and fired.

 

The Shredder only had time to widen his eyes in surprise before the arrow drove into his milky white right eye, making the Ninja Master howl in pain, and clutch at his face.

 

Leo leaped off his hand just before he reacted, and landed back on the mountain in time to see the Shredder vanish in a giant cloud of blue mist.

 

With a grin, he gathered up his swords, and returned them to their sheathes.

 

"I beat you on the Spirit Plane, and one day I'll beat you in the real world," the leader of the Hamato teens vowed to the wind as it blew away the last of the fog. "I'm ready."

 

____________________________

 

After the last sleepless night of their camping trip, April and Casey made their way back to the farmhouse to await their friend's return.

 

While they waited, April convinced Casey to try the log splitting exercise again, with little success and Metalhead standing by with a first aid kit.

 

"If you knock me into the mud one more time, Red," Casey threatened teasingly.

 

April rolled her eyes, and replied, "Oh, what are you going to do about it?"

 

As Casey opened his mouth to reply, April sent a sharp kick at the log in his hands, splitting it in two.

 

The redhead threw her hands in the air and cheered, "Finally!" and began doing a victory dance as Casey pouted at her being able to split the log before he could.

 

But then Metalhead let out a loud beep, and pointed towards the woods.

 

Both Casey and April turned to follow his gaze, and gaped at the sight before them.

 

Carrying flags, and all looking more serious than they had ever seen before, the five Hamato siblings stepped out of the trees, and came to a stop before their friends.

 

"What happened out there?" April asked in a slightly awed voice, trying to comprehend the change her friends had apparently gone through.

 

Leo looked at her, Casey, and Metalhead with a determined gleam in his eyes. "It's time," he said. "We're going back to New York."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was one of my favorite episodes in the series, and I hope I could do it justice. I had fun adding the parts with Miwa and her adversary, and I hope I didn't disappoint with that either.


	50. Home is Where the Heart is

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The teens go back to New York, but if they were expecting a warm welcome, they were sorely mistaken.

With Leo's declaration of their return to New York, things began moving at a rapid pace around the farmhouse as they began preparing to leave.

 

Over the next few days, the kitchen table became their operation center as the teenagers did their best to try and make plans for getting past the blockade into New York, what they'd do once they got there, and theories on how to get the Kraang to vacate the city once they did (the last one being the hardest).

 

But even with the war meetings in the next room, that still didn't stop Mikey from taking breaks to watch cartoons.

 

As he sat happily watching Crognard the Barbarian threw his friend Smooch at a fortress to distract the army awaiting them there, the screen suddenly burst into static, only to be replaced by a message saying, ' _Channel 6 Breaking News.'_

 

Recognizing the local station from his home city, Mikey glanced over his shoulder and yelled, "Guys! You might want to see this!"

 

Skeptically, his siblings and friends put down their plans, but quickly changed their tune when they saw what he was talking about.

 

Carlos Chiang O'Brien Gambe appeared on the screen, staring blankly with his face lacking its usual enthusiasm. "Ever since the invasion that is known as the Invasion of New York, humans want to know what is 'going on'. Everything is 'fine'. No human is allowed in or out of the city until Kraa-ah the military allows it. This is Carlos Kraang O'Brien Gambe," he said in a monotone voice, regardless the pictures flashing on the screen behind him that contradicted everything he was saying.

 

"Hmm," said Mikey, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "The news guy seem a little Kraang-y to you?" he asked the others.

 

Raph rolled his eyes, and smacked Mikey over the head with one of their rolled up papers of plans. "A little?" he asked incredulously. "What, are you on the pepperoni?"

 

"The Kraang may have the rest of the world fooled, but not us," said April as she frowned at the screen.

 

Miwa scoffed. "Though, with news reports like that, it's a wonder no one else has caught on yet." She then turned to look at her immediate younger brother. "So what's the plan, Leo?"

 

"Step one is, storm the castle walls," said Leo to quote the cartoon they'd heard Mikey watching. "Donnie?"

 

The genius looked thoughtful. "It's not as heavily armored as the Shellraiser," he said as he laid out some plans he'd made to modify the party wagon. "But it's more maneuverable, has more weapons, and gets better gas mileage."

 

Casey, who had been leaning over his shoulder, grinned widely, "Then let's stop jabbering and build this sucka'."

 

And so, one overhaul and paint job later, Donnie cleared his throat and made a sweeping gesture before his siblings. "The new and improved-  _Party Wagon!"_

 

The wagon had completely transformed. Where once a hippie van stood, was now a vehicle armed to the teeth, and covered with a paint job that screamed anything but friendly.

 

"It's so awesome," said Raph with a grin.

 

"My Dad is gonna freak when he sees this," said April in an attempt to be serious, but the effect was ruined by her own grin.

 

"Nice paint job," said Miwa as she looked at the turtle shell pattern on the roof of the van. Then glancing down at the side, she spotted a painting of a green woman in a tiny dress sitting on a bomb with the word ' _Venus_ ' painted under it. "Your handiwork?" she asked Raph.

 

The red wearing turtle just gave an unabashed shrug.

 

"Alright, team," said Leo, drawing all of their attention. "Let's do this."

 

With their ride ready, they had little reason left to stay at the farmhouse, and they began backing up to go home.

 

Casey didn't want to leave his hotrod behind, so they had it hitched to the back of the party wagon to come along with them.

 

Mikey had Ice Cream Kitty sequestered into a cooler filled with ice to keep her safe and cold for the long drive. "Come on, Ice Cream Kitty," he said as he carefully placed the cooler into the back of the party wagon. "We're going home."

 

From inside the cooler, Ice Cream Kitty meowed in reply.

 

Not far away, Donnie was saying goodbye to their resident mutant hen, who had chosen to stay at the farm, and manage things there (someone had to stay and feed the other chickens after all).

 

"Arrivederci, Dr. Cluckingsworth," Donnie said, pulling the chicken into a hug.

 

Dr. Cluckingsworth clucked in reply from within his arms, looking sad to see them go as well.

 

"You both sicken me," said Raph dryly as he and Miwa walked past with their luggage slung over their backs.

 

"A boy and his chicken, I'm not sure that's how it's supposed to go," agreed Miwa.

 

April, meanwhile, was standing in the front yard staring up at her house with a wistful expression. "Goodbye old farmhouse," she said softly.

 

Seeing her expression, Donnie gently lowered Dr. Cluckingsworth to the ground, and went over to put his hand on her shoulder. April gave him a bittersweet smile, and they both climbed into the party wagon with no further comment.

 

Soon enough, the teenagers and Metalhead were all sequestered into the party wagon, ready to go.

 

"Hello, New York City!" cheered Mikey as Casey started the engine and started driving them towards home.

 

Dr. Cluckingsworth watched them go among the other chickens, and hoped that would not be the last she saw of her strange but brave friends.

 

___________________________

 

All too soon, the party wagon was driving up the highway road that would take them straight to the barricade blocking off New York City from the rest of the world.

 

As they got close, Leo decided to go over their plan again to make sure everyone was clear. "Okay team, first we track down Mother and Father. Then we try to find Leatherhead, Jason and Malachi, and free the city."

 

"Easier said than done, I'm sure," Miwa muttered under her breath as the skyline of the city rose up in the distance.

 

"So what's the plan, Fearless Leader?" Raph asked as they drew closer. "Ninja-y or all out attack." From the eager look on his face, they could all tell he was hoping for the latter.

 

"Ninja-y," said Leo, much to Raph's disappointment. "We park at the gate and sneak in. Then we split up and search for our parents."

 

"And my father," added April.

 

"And mine," piped up Casey. "Plus my sister."

 

"It'll be one big family reunion," said Mikey excitedly.

 

But before anyone could say anything else, a spotlight suddenly shown on the party wagon, making Miwa and Casey in the front seat squint their eyes at the brightness as the latter slammed on the breaks.

 

More spotlights joined the one pointing at them, making it impossible to be unnoticed, and Donnie said, "Okay, not good."

 

Mikey instantly began to panic. "Oh man, they got us dudes! The jig is up, home slice!"

 

Raph clapped a hand over his little brother's mouth to shut him up.

 

As they watched through the windshield, several soldiers appeared atop the gate, and more came through it to address the van.

 

Metalhead and the three turtles in the back crouched down low, and April and Donnie tossed a blanket over top of them to conceal their presence.

 

A single soldier approached the party wagon. "Citizen," he ordered. "This is APF Quarantine Sector 7B. Roll down your window."

 

Not wanting to get on the soldier's bad side, Casey reluctantly complied, and gave the soldier an insincere grin.

 

"Authorized personnel only," the soldier said. "No one goes in or out of New York City."

 

"Whatever you say, Army Dude," said Casey in a nonchalant tone.

 

The soldier turned to return to his post, but as soon as his back was too the party wagon, Casey's eyes widened at the sight of a familiar metal dot located on the back of the soldier's neck.

 

It was the same mind control probe that the Kraang had used on Raph and the other mutants when they'd held them captive in that prison. And, from what he'd been told, the same kind as the Kraang had used on April's father when the Hamatos had rescued him from his captivity.

 

Casey wasn't the only one who recognized it, as Miwa's eyes widened next to him. "You see what I see?" she asked softly.

 

"One of those freaky mind control thingies, yup," Casey confirmed. "Ten bucks says all the army dudes got 'em."

 

Raph shuddered in the back seat as he pulled the blanket off himself and the others, remembering his previous experience with the probes. "No bet," he said softly.

 

Mikey poked his head up carefully to get a better look. "They're all controlled? Like  _Invasion of the Brain Suckers?"_ he asked remembering a similar horror comic.

 

Leo didn't bother answering, and simply grabbed Mikey's head and dragged him back out of view with a whimper.

 

As if realizing they had been found out, even more soldiers arrived on the scene, these ones armed with Kraang laser blasters, and aimed the weapons at the party wagon.

 

Casey grinned manically, and shoved his mask down over his face, before slamming his foot on the gas to shoot the wagon forward.

 

The tires screeched as the vehicle began baring down on the barricade blocking entrance into the city.

 

The occupants of the party wagon yelped at the sudden movement, and April shouted, "What are you doing, Casey?"

 

The mind controlled soldiers began firing their weapons at the party wagon, but Casey didn't even slow down, and instead flipped a switch to bring down a protective cover over the windshield and kept going, weaving the van to and fro to better avoid the laser fire.

 

The soldiers in front of the entrance soon had to dive out of the way as the party wagon zoomed past them, and smashed through the wall into the city.

 

The laser fire continued to follow them as they drove down the rest of the street and vanished among the buildings.

 

Finally the soldiers lowered their weapons, and one brought a radio up to his mouth. "Human Slave calling Kraang Masters," he droned in a monotone voice. "The ones known as the kids have returned."

 

\\___________________________

 

The entire city was like a ghost town as the returning teenagers drove through the empty and darkened streets. Not a soul could be seen, and the only light aside from the party wagon's headlights came from glowing crystal trees that had begun growing out of the concrete.

 

"Don't touch those things," Miwa warned as Casey one loomed up in the middle of the street for them to drive around. "You knock them too much, and they explode."

 

Even though they could all tell by the look on his face that the thought of exploding crystal trees was the coolest, the vigilante still wisely gave the crystalline structure a wide berth as he drove around it.

 

In the back, Raph finally recovered enough from the fright bashing through the barricade had given him.

 

"What were you thinkin', man?" he shouted, leaning through the window separating the back from the front to shove the back of Casey's head. "You got any brains behind that hockey mask?"

 

Casey glanced over his shoulder to glare through his mask at his best friend. "I had no choice, Raph," he said with a shrug. "They were powering up their blasters."

 

"Um, guys?" asked Donnie, who's attention had been focused out the window at the city around them. "Where are all the people? The Kraangatised people were all over the street last time."

 

"Mortu said that they were using the mutated humans as slaves in Dimension X," said April sadly, hugging her knees to her chest. "I hate to say it, but more likely than not, my Dad is there too."

 

"So you think the Kraang mutated  _everyone?_ " Mikey whimpered.

 

"No way, not possible," Leo said, knowing just how many people there had been in the city.

 

But April closed her eyes and concentrated on her powers. "It's completely possible," she said with a downcast expression. "I only sense a few hundred people left in the entire city… They're  _gone!_ Millions of people just  _gone!"_

 

The other teenagers and Metalhead exchanged glances at that bleak news.

 

Trying to lift their spirits, Mikey said cheerfully, "One good thing, we haven't run into any Kraa-"

 

He trailed off as several androids bearing the pink aliens stepped into the path of the party wagon, charging up their laser blasters as the headlights fell on them.

 

Clutching his head in panic, Mikey shouted, "Aw no! Why'd I have to open my big mouth!?"

 

"We've asked that same question every day since you were born, Mikey," snarked Miwa dryly.

 

"It is the humans known as Casey Jones, and Karai, who is also called Armonia," said one of the Kraang as they began closing in on the vehicle.

 

Casey immediately put the van into reverse and turned around, only to find that they were surrounded on all sides by the aliens.

 

"Man the defenses!" shouted Leo, and his brothers, Metalhead, and April quickly scrambled to comply.

 

"Readying soda cannons!" called Mikey cheerfully as he and Donnie mixed some bottles of soda with breath mints. The two of them and Metalhead then jumped onto the door as it swung open.

 

"FIRE!" shouted Mikey, and the soda cannons launched their foamy projectiles in one direction at the Kraang, while Metalhead pointed his wrists in the opposite direction and fired his lasers at the Kraang behind the party wagon, making aliens on both sides run for cover.

 

Meanwhile, Raph launched a large stink bomb at some of the Kraang who were out of their firing range, making the aliens writhe in their androids as the smell overwhelmed them.

 

Taking advantage of their distraction, Casey hit the gas and mowed down the remaining Kraang in their path.

 

"Take a left," said Donnie, pulling out a garage door opener. "There's a secret entrance to the subway right here." As he said that, he pressed the button on the little remote, making the floor of an alley open up for Casey to drive through.

 

The secret entrance closed behind them, removing any trace that the teenagers had ever been there.

 

Once they were safely inside, Casey parked the party wagon, and the teens and robot slowly climbed out of it, and looked around the subway tunnel cautiously.

 

"Think we'll be safe down here, dudes?" asked Mikey fearfully as he glanced around at the shadows.

 

"Shhh," Leo hissed at him, his eyes turning white in concentration. "Full ninja mode."

 

"That means you too, Metalhead," Donnie whispered to the robot.

 

Metalhead nodded, and with a soft whirr, the robot activated a new feature Donnie had installed before leaving the farmhouse. The lights of his eyes dimmed, and all of Metalhead's joints shifted in their sockets to minimize noise made by them as much as possible In addition, small padded wheels popped out of his feet to avoid the loud clanking stomps his footsteps made. Movement was limited for Metalhead in this mode, and it was harder for him to fight, but the adjustments allowed the robot to move in near silence in his surroundings.

 

"Where to?" asked Miwa as they prepared to move out.

 

"Home, first," said Leo softly as he turned to head in that direction. "I doubt our parents are there, but maybe they were able to leave some clue behind."

 

"We've gotta be careful, though," said April. "The Kraang impersonated Irma when they attacked for a reason. They've figured out who you guys are, and you can bet they'll be watching your house."

 

"It's a risk we'll have to take," said Leo as he led the way.

 

The team slipped silently through the tunnels, keeping their ears peeled for any sound to indicate the Kraang were coming for them. Even Casey managed to muffle the rattling sound his golf bag made to keep them from being detected.

 

After a close call with a Kraang patrol, they finally reached the secret tunnel in the sewers that would take them to the Renaissance Dojo.

 

Sliding the secret door open, the five Hamato siblings slipped silently through it while April, Casey, and Metalhead stayed behind to keep lookout.

 

Upon entering the basement level of the dojo, the teenagers were aghast to see the place was a wreck.

 

The spare martial arts equipment and weapons that were stored down there lay scattered across the floor in pieces. The doors to Donnie's lab, and Raph and Miwa's bedrooms had been torn off their hinges, giving glimpses of torn apart rooms where the three teens' safe havens had once stood.

 

"Looks like April was right about them finding this place," whispered Leo as they took in the sight.

 

"My lab…" Donnie whimpered softly in distress (though he was relieved that he had moved Timothy to his spare lab in the Lair before the invasion).

 

"They messed up my room," hissed Miwa furiously.

 

"And mine," snarled Raph just as angrily.

 

Leo and Mikey exchanged glances, and moved to silently comfort their three distressed siblings.

 

But they couldn't linger here. "We need to get upstairs. If there's something for us to find, it'll be in either the dojo, or Mother and Father's bedroom. We do this  _silently._ " He shot Mikey a warning look as he said the last bit.

 

Mikey made a show of zipping his mouth shut, and throwing away the key.

 

"I'll handle him," said Miwa, gripping her youngest brother's shoulder and pushing him forward. "We'll take the dojo, you handle the bedroom."

 

Leo nodded in agreement. "Meet back with April and Casey as soon as you're done. Let's go."

 

With that the ninjas slipped silently up the stairs and split off, Miwa and Mikey staying on the first floor to search the dojo, and the other three heading up the stairs to check the bedrooms.

 

Finally, Leo managed to silently open the door to his parents' bedroom and slip inside.

 

To his dismay, he could see the room was as wrecked as the rest of the house, but other than that he could see nothing to indicate where his parents could have gone.

 

Donnie stepped in after him as Raph stood guard in the hall, and the genius' face fell sadly as he caught sight of a family photo on the ground of the seven family members posing for a silly Christmas picture all in matching ugly sweaters. As he scooped it up, he remembered when it was taken, way back before all of this insanity started. His three brothers were still human, there weren't aliens trying to take over the world, and no evil ninja clans breathing down their necks and out for their blood. Just a happy family enjoying a holiday together, and only having their ninja training as the biggest secret among them.

 

He missed those days.

 

Just then, Donnie and Leo looked up as Raph slipped silently into the room as well, ducking behind the door as he did so and gesturing for the two of them to hide.

 

They complied, and ducked out of sight just in time to avoid the sweeping light of a Kraang machine about the size and shape of a softball fly past scanning the area.

 

Carefully, Donnie pulled a shuriken out of his pocket and tilted it out of his hiding place to get a better look at the machine.

 

As if sensing movement, the machine immediately snapped open to reveal a whole array of blasters and began firing its lasers into the room.

 

Raph, Leo, and Donnie all shrank farther into their hiding places, and covered their heads in hopes of avoiding the lasers, and praying Mikey and Miwa didn't hear the noise, and come investigate.

 

After a minute it stopped firing, and seemed to be waiting for more movement.

 

Just then a terrified rat scampered out of the wrecked room, catching the machine's attention.

 

It fired one last shot, and the three boys winced as they saw it hit, vaporizing the rat with a squeal. Seemingly satisfied it had found the source of the movement, the machine moved on.

 

The three of them couldn't get out of there quick enough.

 

They met Miwa and Mikey on the stairs, but ignored their concerned expression, and instead began pushing the two towards the basement to reconvene with April, Casey, and Metalhead.

 

"No sign of Mother and Father on our end," said Leo softly once they were all together.

 

"Nada for us too," said Miwa. "But what was that noise?"

 

"The Kraang have some kinda freaky security system to make sure we don't come back," said Raph bitterly. Glancing at his two friends, he added, "They probably got some staking out your houses too."

 

Casey and April did not look happy to hear that.

 

"I bet Metalhead could take it. Why not just take it down and move back in?" asked Mikey earnestly. "I miss our home."

 

Metalhead nodded, and shifted out of stealth mode and armed his lasers to show he was ready to fight if need be.

 

"It's not that simple, Mikey," said Donnie sadly. "We can't just move back. If that security system is taken out, it'll be like sending out a beacon telling the Kraang where to find us."

 

Mikey nodded to show he understood, but they could all see he was still glum about it.

 

Donnie then glanced over at his girlfriend and asked, "April, do you think you can use your powers to track Mother or Father. You did it before."

 

April frowned slightly. "I can try, but since her mutation, Shen's mind has been… feral. If I try to reach out to her, she lashes out at me. And you said Master Yoshi's mind is no longer one with his body, right? Which means he could be crazy, or unconscious, or who knows what."

 

The five siblings traded uneasy glances at that, but Donnie still looked at the redhead imploringly. "Yeah, but we still need to find them."

 

April took a deep breath, the pressed her fingers to her temples. "Like I said, I can try."

 

"That's all we ask," said Leo gratefully.

 

April nodded to show she heard him, before pinching her brow in concentration.

 

She tried for Yoshi first, but could sense nothing. Unnerved by the lack of response she tried for Shen, and immediately winced.

 

 _That_  she felt.

 

"Guys!" she said, squeezing her eyes shut in pain as flashes of Shen fighting flew through her mind. "I-I think… I think I sense Shen close by. It's faint, and, you know, feral, but…" She then shook her head, and took off to follow the feeling. "Come on! Hurry!" she called over her shoulder.

 

The rest of the group hurried after the redhead through the sewer tunnels.

 

Soon enough, the sound of metallic clanging, and hissing screeches hit their ears, and they turned a corner to see Tang Shen all her Medusa-like glory fighting furiously against several Mouser robots.

 

"Mom!" shouted Mikey as they got close.

 

The five Hamato teens hurried forward to help her, but Leo waved for April, Casey and Metalhead to stay back. "Mother only never attacks us because we're her children!" he called to them as he rushed forwards. "But there's no guarantee she won't hurt you guy!"

 

Neither of the two teens looked happy to hear that, but followed Leo's order and hung back. Metalhead made sure to stand between them and the battle for protection, and to shoot his lasers at any Mouser that came in his range.

 

Finally, all the Mousers lay scrapped on the floor of the sewer, but Shen curled in on herself, and hissed furiously at the ninjas.

 

The teenagers all tensed at the sight, but Raph and Mikey, who had been the ones to care for her the most since she had fallen into this state, stepped forwards with their hands out in a calming gesture. "It's okay, Mother," said Raph.

 

"It's just us," said Mikey giving her his most disarming grin. "We're your sons, and Mi's your daughter, remember?"

 

Donnie, Leo, and Miwa all followed their example, and tried to coax their serpent mother into relaxing.

 

Shen paused, and her tongue darted out to sniff the air cautiously.

 

Then suddenly she darted forward too fast for any of them to react, and wrapped her tail around all five of them, clutching them tightly in her coils.

 

The five yelped in alarm, and the teens outside their family moved forward to help, only to pause as Shen began nuzzling her children affectionately with her snake covered head.

 

"We missed you too, Mother," said Miwa in a tone that was a mix between affection, relief, and discomfort as her snake hair brushed against her cheek.

 

Slowly, the teenagers were able to pry themselves free of their mother's grasp, all but Leo, whom she continued to hold in a death grip no matter what the lead turtle said.

 

Leo patted her back awkwardly as she hugged him tightly to her chest, and sent a questioning look at the others.

 

Sensing his silent question, Donnie answered, "Leo, you were in real bad shape last time she saw you. It's really no wonder she's happy you're alright."

 

Leo flushed slightly, and returned his mother's hug to reassure her he was really there.

 

Hoping that it was now safe to do so, April, Casey and Metalhead started stepping forward to join the rest of the group.

 

Only to freeze as Shen tensed, and hissed in their direction.

 

Before they could do anything to calm her, she uncoiled herself from Leo and launched herself in their direction.

 

The three ducked to avoid her, and she sailed over their heads, and a metallic clang was heard behind them.

 

They wheeled around to in time to see Shen rip the head off a Foot-Bot that had been sneaking up behind them, and snarl as several more began propelling from the ceiling.

 

"Oh no, Foot!" shouted Donnie as he realized they were surrounded.

 

"Don't let them harm Mother," shouted Leo as he drew his swords and rushed forwards to attack the evil robots.

 

But it quickly became clear that the only ones the Foot-Bots were trying to actually kill were Leo, Casey, April, and Metalhead. All the rest were only attacked with blows to incapacitate rather than kill.

 

"There's too many!" shouted April as she had stay constantly on her toes, and lashing out with her tessen any time the robots got close.

 

"Looks like Shredder still wants us as his happy little family," remarked Miwa dryly she dodged two Foot-Bots trying to grab her.

 

"Yeah, 'cept he's given up hope on, Raion," said Raph as he used his sais to block a sword strike aimed for the blue wearing turtle's head.

 

"Lucky me," grumbled Leo as he battled another robot with a mace.

 

Just then, one of the Foot-Bots managed to suckerpunch Tang Shen between the eyes, and she crumpled to the floor unconscious. Instantly, three more Foot-Bots surrounded the snake woman, and began carrying her away.

 

"MOM!" yelled Mikey, breaking off from his fight to chase after her. The others following suit, ending their fights quickly.

 

But the Foot-Bots seemed to decide to quit while they were ahead. They threw down a smoke bomb, and vanished by the time it had cleared.

 

"MOTHER!" shouted Leo into the sewers, hoping she would be able to give some sort of answer to let them know where she'd gone.

 

They all fell silent, and strained their ears for some kind of response.

 

They got one, but it wasn't one they were expecting.

 

"Leo?"

 

The teenagers and their robot wheeled around to see a familiar figure coming out of the tunnels towards them, carrying a skateboard in his hands.

 

Their jaws dropped at the sight of him, and Mikey let out a delighted squeal and darted towards him with a shout of, "J-MAN!"

 

The former Mondo Gecko dropped his skateboard as the turtle plowed into him, and pulled him into a rib-cracking hug. The skater let out a laugh at his enthusiasm, and returned the hug as best he could as the rest of the group began gathering around the two of them.

 

"Jason, you're okay!" said Casey with a grin, fist bumping his fellow skater once Mikey released him from his hug.

 

"Totally bodacious, dudes. Or at least, as much as I can be considering our Kraang infestation problem," said Jason as he beamed at them. "Where the heck have you guys been? We were, like, super worried about you."

 

The others exchanged hopeful glances at that. "We?" Leo asked.

 

Jason's grin widened. "Yup,  _we._ Come on, I'll show you."

 

The skater moved to lead them through the sewers, but froze when Miwa said, "As much as we'd love to, our mother just got dragged off by the Foot. We don't really have time for a meet and greet right now."

 

Jason's face turned serious at that news, but still gestured for them to follow. "We can help with that too, dudette. C'mon."

 

With little other options available to them other than a straight out assault on Shredder's lair, the group hurried to follow after him.

 

___________________________

 

Fishface shifted nervously as he walked through the halls of Foot Headquarters. Beside him, Rahzar was also clenching and unclenching his bony claws in unease, and even Tiger Claw looked tense as they made their way to see their master.

 

The reason for their unease was mutual. The Foot-Bots had returned from their most recent patrol, and had finally managed to bring Tang Shen along with them.

 

While one would think such news would please their master, the truth was they had no idea what to expect anymore.

 

Since coming to New York, it was clear to all that the Shredder had been becoming more and more violent and angry as time passed. The rejections of those he sought, and his inability to successfully take revenge on Hamato Yoshi had been grating on his already hair-trigger tense nerves before the invasion.

 

But after the invasion, things had taken a turn for the worse. Whatever happened after the three mutants had left their master's side had hit him hard, and as a result he was even more unpredictable with his temper than ever before.

 

All those in Foot HQ had to walk on eggshells whenever they were even in the same room as the Ninja Master. The slightest thing would set him off these days, and he would not hesitate to attack whoever had caused his ire. Just the other day he had nearly taken Buzzkill's head off just for quietly sneezing in his presence (a fright the fly had yet to recover from).

 

So the knowledge that Tang Shen had been found might actually please the Shredder, or it could make him do to them what he did to Tiger Claw's eye. There was no way to know for sure, and the suspense and uncertainty was killing the three hench-mutants.

 

When they entered the throne room, Fishface and Rahzar hung back at the door while Tiger Claw stepped forward to deliver the news.

 

As the large cat drew closer to the throne, he noticed that the Shredder held a ripped photograph in his hand, and was gazing at it longingly. Without looking at the image, Tiger Claw knew it was his master's photograph of Tang Shen, torn free of the image of Yoshi that used to accompany it.

 

Perhaps he would be pleased with the news after all…

 

Tiger Claw could only hope.

 

Knowing he couldn't stall this any longer, he spoke up to gain the man's attention. "Master Shredder."

 

The Shredder tore his eyes away from the picture in his hands, and looked up at his second in command with unreadable eyes.

 

"Our latest patrol has returned," said Tiger Claw slowly. "And it seems they were… successful."

 

With that cue, Rahzar and Fishface opened the doors to the throne room again, allowing several Foot-Bots to enter, dragging a struggling serpent Shen between them.

 

Instantly the Shredder was on his feet, the picture falling from his hand and fluttering to the floor. "Shen!" he said in the voice of a man dying of thirst, and being offered water.

 

But at the sound of his voice, the snake woman's head snapped up to look him in the eyes, and she let out an enraged sounding shriek. Her nest of snake hair writhed angrily, and some of the serpent heads stretched out from her scalp, and shot in the Shredder's direction with the mouths open to bite.

 

The Shredder dodged the fangs, and grabbed one of the hair snakes by the neck, squeezing it tightly in his fist.

 

Shen let out a hissing screech of pain, and recoiled her hair snakes, the one the Shredder had nearly crushed now wiggling much more weakly than the rest.

 

Still, the serpent mutant glared at the ninja master with a gaze that was pure poison.

 

The Shredder gazed back at her with eyes that looked almost sad. "She's survived," he said in a detached voice. "But it is clear her mind has… She is more serpent than woman at the moment."

 

"Shall we take her to Stockman so that he may prove his worth, Master Shredder?" asked Tiger Claw, already knowing the answer.

 

The Shredder turned away from the struggling mutant. "Yes," he said. "And be certain he knows the consequences of failure."

 

Tiger Claw nodded, almost pitying the fly should that ever be the case.

 

He, Rahzar, and Fishface moved to escort the Foot-Bots holding Shen to Buzzkill's lab, leaving two Foot-Bots in the throne room to act as sentries.

 

Just as the door closed behind them, they heard the Shredder howl in rage, followed by a loud screech of metal.

 

The three hench-mutant's winced as they knew the two Foot-Bots had no doubt been ripped to shreds.

 

Oh well, better the robots than them.

 

___________________________

 

After doubling back to get Ice Cream Kitty, the returning teenagers and robot perked up as Jason led them to the familiar sight of the Lair.

 

"So the Kraang never found you guys down here?" asked Leo curiously.

 

"Nope," said Jason with a grin. "Not for lack of trying. But so far they haven't even gotten close."

 

"Then LH and Malachi are okay?" asked Mikey, eager to hear the state of his friends.

 

"Yup, we're all rad," said Jason. "In fact we're so rad we've expanded."

 

"Say what?" asked Casey in confusion.

 

The other teens looked equally perplexed, and Metalhead let out an inquisitive sounding beep.

 

But their confusion was quickly alleviated when they jumped the turnstiles of the Lair, and caught sight of Leatherhead and Malachi sitting with three unexpected, but still familiar figures.

 

"Slash!" said Raph, his eyes lighting up at the sight of the giant turtle.

 

"Dr. Rockwell?" asked Donnie in surprise as he caught sight of the monkey scientist.

 

"Pigeon Pete?" said April in surprise when she recognized the pigeon man who had freaked her out so long ago.

 

The five mutants in the Lair gaped at the new arrivals, before Malachi let out a cheer and flew over to hug the friends he'd spent the last four months worrying about.

 

"Praise the heavens!" he crowed as he pulled Mikey and Casey into a hug. "Our comrades have returneth from whence they'd gone!"

 

Slash and Leatherhead also felt grins spread across their face as they drew closer. The turtle traded fist bumps with Raph to greet him (ignoring Leo's suspicious glances, and Miwa's glaring as he did so), and Leatherhead made his way over to where Malachi was still hugging them, and joined the group hug.

 

Pete and Rockwell hung back, not being as familiar with the teenagers as the other mutants, but still smiled at the reunion just the same.

 

When the cheer finally died down, April looked at the sewer mutants and said, "So you've all been down here all this time?"

 

"Pretty much," said Slash. "During the invasion I joined up with Leatherhead, Malachi, and Jason to try and fight the Kraang off. After it was clear we weren't going to win, we stuck together, forming our own team to keep fighting against the Kraang however we could."

 

No one noticed how Leo frowned hearing that.

 

Malachi nodded, and took up the story. "Not long afterwards, Sirs Pete and Rockwell, as well as Sir Kurtzman (who is out gathering information at the moment) joined our fellowship, and we persevered despite great adversity from the foul aliens."

 

"It is the least we could do," said Rockwell with a solemn nod.

 

"Yup," said Pete, puffing his chest up importantly. "The Kraang've got nothing on us."

 

Jason nodded in agreement. "We've even got out own bodacious team name. We're the Mighty Mutanimals."

 

The reactions of the returning group were mixed. Raph, Casey, and Donnie looked like they weren't sure what to think of all this. Miwa didn't look impressed with the name, and was still glaring at Slash. Metalhead gave a thumbs-up. April smiled politely at the news, and looked happy for them all. Leo was still frowning. And Mikey looked like he didn't know whether to be ecstatic at the coolness of it all, or disappointed that they hadn't waited for him to name them.

 

But as happy as he was to see his friends again, Raph felt they needed to get back on track. "Hate to break up this party. But we've still got a problem, remember."

 

That popped the semi-happy bubble they were all in.

 

"He's right," agreed Leo, snapping out of whatever funk he'd been in. "Just before we met Jason, our mother was dragged off by a Foot patrol. We need to get her back as soon as possible."

 

Donnie nodded, and turned to address the Mutanimals, "We'd appreciate any aid you can give us. With Mother's life on the line, we need  _whatever_  help we can get," he added the second part pointedly, seeing that certain members of his family looked like they wanted to protest.

 

"We also need to borrow your freezer," said Mikey, holding up Ice Cream Kitty for them to see, and the mutant cat meowed in agreement.

 

The Mutanimals exchanged glances at the news, and Dr. Rockwell spoke up. "Well, if it's a way into the Shredder's headquarters you are looking for, I believe I am privy to an entrance you could use."

 

"Also, freezer's open in the kitchen," said Pete, to which Mikey nodded and hurried to put his cat in the safety of the frozen appliance.

 

Looking more interested, the rest of the teenagers and their robot gathered around as they began planning their rescue.

 

\\___________________________

 

Rockwell's information led them to an entrance into Foot HQ via the sewer tunnels.

 

So while the Mighty Mutanimals and Metalhead gathered on a rooftop near the church turned evil lair to cause a diversion if need be, the teenagers slipped silently though the shadows of the tunnels until they found the entrance.

 

As expected, the entrance had two Foot-Bots guarding it, but they were quickly disposed of with a single sweep of Leo's sword before they could set off an alarm.

 

The second the Foot-Bots crumbled to the floor, Donnie rushed over and plugged his cell phone into the security system on the entry hatch, and began hacking his way in.

 

A few beeps on his phone later, the hatch hissed as it swung open, allowing the teenagers a clear entrance into Shredder's lair.

 

"Am I awesome or what?" said Donnie brightly as they peered into the dark tunnel.

 

Raph rolled his eyes at the comment. "Pat yourself on the back later. Let's move."

 

Just then the sound of footsteps reached their ears, and they looked up to see a familiar shadow looming over them.

 

The Shredder's shadow…

 

With a gasp, the team grabbed their weapons and wheeled around to face their hated enemy.

 

Only to blink in surprise as it registered to them that it wasn't the Shredder standing before them. But rather a tiny shrimp-like mutant wearing a mini Shredder helmet and armor, despite the fact it barely came up to their knees.

 

The shrimp-mutant let out a tiny growl that was no doubt supposed to sound threatening, but actually came off as kind of adorable.

 

It was too much for the teenagers, and they all burst out laughing at the tiny little thing, clutching their stomachs in mirth.

 

"What the heck is that supposed to be? Mini-Shredder?" Raph hooted.

 

"It's kinda cute," said Mikey brightly. "Like a shrimp."

 

"More like a bug I wanna squash," said Miwa wickedly.

 

Shrimp-Shredder growled again, and launched himself at the group, mowing his way through them all like a cannon ball.

 

The tiny mutant then bounced himself off a sewer wall to attack a second time, this time landing on Casey's face, and tried to scratch his eyes out.

 

The vigilante yelped in alarm, "What the heck!" before managing to pry the mini-mutant off and throw him down the sewer tunnel.

 

As Shrimp-Shredder hit the ground, the team used that distraction to jump down the hatch into Shredder's lair before it could get up and attack them again.

 

"And stay out, you little freak!" shouted Raph as he slammed the hatch door shut behind them.

 

The teens all winced as they heard a thud followed by a pained whine through the door as the mutant slammed into it, unable to stop its attack in time to avoid it.

 

But they couldn't let themselves be bothered by it, as they continued onwards into their enemy's headquarters.

 

Their entrance into Foot HQ had gone mercifully unnoticed, and soon they found themselves looking down upon what appeared to be Buzzkill's new lab.

 

It was a massive room with a large tank of mutagen hanging in the center of it. A little below the tank was a command center full of buttons and table on which the fly scientist could do his experiments. Set into the walls of the room were glass cages of different habitats, some of which had unidentifiable creatures skulking around within them.

 

As they peered down, they caught sight of the back of Buzzkill as he flew around his lab as busy as a bee.

 

"Is it me, or has that fly only gotten uglier in the months we've been gone," Miwa muttered softly to the others, making them snort in agreement.

 

Leo then waved for them to move silently onwards, and the group moved like shadows trough the lab, searching the cages for Tang Shen, with Buzzkill being none the wiser.

 

As they neared the lowest level of cages, they saw Buzzkill carrying a syringe of chemicals as he fluttered over to a cage that looked like a giant snake terrarium.

 

The fly mutant knocked on the glass, and called, "Alright, Misss Medusssa, time for your injectionsss."

 

There was a beat of silence, before a pair of glowing green eyes flashed open in the shadows of the terrarium. Then without warning, Shen shot out of the darkness and lashed out at the glass, making Buzzkill jump and drop his syringe, causing it to shatter on impact with the floor.

 

"Oh drat!" he huffed angrily, and glared at the snake mutant who was still thrashing against the glass. "I sssee why the Ssshredder likesss you ssso much. Violent mainiacsss, the both of you."

 

If anything, that statement made Shen even angrier, and she smacked her tail against the glass in an attempt to smash it through.

 

Buzzkill snorted as he turned to flutter away. "Good luck with that method," he said sarcastically. "Jussst don't bruissse yourssself too much, or SSShredder will have my hide."

 

Shen just snarled in reply, and her five hidden children all looked like they would very much like to pluck the insect's wings, and their two friends would be happy to help them.

 

"I'm gonna squash that bug," Raph growled under his breath.

 

"Get in line," Miwa replied with equal malice.

 

As soon as Buzzkill's back was turned, the teenagers quickly hopped down to Shen's cage, and peered in through the glass.

 

"Mother," Leo whispered to the glass, tapping on it lightly. "Mother."

 

Shen's head snapped around and she slithered up to the glass and peered out at her children with a wide-eyed expression.

 

"Quick, get her out of there," Raph hissed.

 

Donnie plugged his phone into the door controls, and immediately began hacking it while Mikey, April, and Casey stood lookout.

 

When the glass finally slid open, the serpent woman shot out, and immediately gave one of her constricting hugs to her two closest children, which happened to be Miwa and Mikey.

 

The two teenagers had to stifle yelps as they were wrapped in their mother's constricting grip, but managed to suppress the urge, and Mikey whispered, "We're glad you're okay too, Mom."

 

"Okay, we got her, now let's get out of here," said April softly, turning back towards the exit.

 

The two teens gently coaxed their mother into releasing them, and they all began leading her back towards where they'd come in.

 

They'd almost made it to the exit when Buzzkill finally turned around, and noticed that the cage was open.

 

"WHAT ISSS THISSS!" he shouted in outrage. He then wheeled around and spotted the teenagers and the serpent woman. "You bratsss! Here? You were all dessstroyed!" he shouted, before diving for the alarm button.

 

"Run!" shouted Leo, and they all bolted for the exit as sirens began blaring throughout the building.

 

"Oh no you don't!" shouted Buzzkill as he saw what they were trying to do.

 

He pressed some more buttons at his control station, and opened more of the cages.

 

The escaping group soon found their exit blocked by two more Shredder-like mutants, one was huge and looked like it had been mixed with a crab. The other was slightly shorter and more slender, and was clearly combined with a lobster.

 

They then heard the tiny growl again, and saw the tiny Shrimp-Shredder jump down from above to join the three.

 

"Anyone else suddenly craving seafood?" asked Miwa as she drew her tantō.

 

"Far from it, actually," said Donnie, looking a little green at the question.

 

"Well, I wouldn't mind a fish fry," said Casey as he grabbed a hokey stick.

 

"Just get past them and get out," Leo ordered. "If we stick around, we'll end up fighting the entire Foot Clan." He then quickly radioed the Mutanimals to start their distraction in case Buzzkil managed to alert them.

 

The shellfish mutants all growled, and stalked towards the group threateningly, and the teens tensed for battle.

 

But Shen was faster.

 

In a flash of white scales, the serpent woman darted forwards, and slammed her tail into the larger crab mutant, throwing him against a wall.

 

Before the other two could recover, she wrapped the end of her tail around the neck of the Lobster-Shredder, and with a deft twist, she sent him flying across the room, and crashing into Buzzkill.

 

She then turned her attention to the tiny Shrimp-Shredder, and let out a snarling hiss, her snake hair writhing around her head like an angry cloud. The mini mutant let out a terrified squeak at the sight, and turned tail and ran away.

 

"Dudes, your mom is awesome," said Casey as the teenagers watched in awe as she took down the three mutants single-handedly.

 

The five Hamato teens could only nod in reply.

 

Shen then seemed to stiffen, her tongue darting out of her mouth to taste the air. She then turned to the teenagers, and said in a soft hissing voice, "SSShredder... coming."

 

The teenagers paled at her words, but Shen wasn't done. "Comet," she hissed at them with an imploring expression.

 

At the seemingly random word, the teenagers blinked. "What?" asked Mikey in confusion.

 

"Meet again at Comet," she said. "Now run."

 

With that, Shen bolted for the exit.

 

Her children let out cries of alarm, and hurried after her, but she was too fast for them to keep up with.

 

The seven teenagers burst out of the hatch into the sewers just in time to slam it shut on Shredder's enraged howl upon finding that they had escaped.

 

But when they looked around for Tang Shen, the snake woman was nowhere in sight.

 

Before the disappointment of that realization could sink in, Donnie cell phone began ringing.

 

Answering it as they hurried to get as far away from Shredder's lair as possible, Donnie said, "Yes, Metalhead, we're okay. We got Mother out, but…" he trailed off as his face fell. "But we lost her again. We'll-we'll explain when we get to the Lair."

 

And with that, the seven disappointed teenagers hurried like shadows through the sewers to safety.

 

___________________________

 

Shen shot through the sewers at great speeds, keeping her senses open for any oncoming attacks.

 

But no one was following her. Not her enemies, and, unfortunately, not her children either. As much as she wanted them to come with her, she knew it would be too dangerous with the Foot on high alert. If they managed to follow them, then who knew what would happen to Yoshi.

 

Finally, she arrived at the manhole of her destination, and eased out of it as silently as possible.

 

Then like a shadow, she slithered through Coney Island to the latest of her hideouts. Since the invasion, she'd made sure to move her nest every few weeks, and her latest happened to be inside a funhouse within the once lively amusement park.

 

As she slipped into the funhouse, she shifted back into her more human form, and approached the hospital bed she'd placed there for her husband to sleep on.

 

Taking the hand of her still sleeping love, Tang Shen gave it a gentle squeeze. "Wake sssoon, my love," she said softly to him. "Our babiesss have come home."

 

But Yoshi slept on, silent as ever.

 

With a small sigh, Shen curled herself up in her nest, and tried to get some rest, and await for when their children would find her again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well they're back in New York, but they didn't get the home coming they were hoping for.


	51. Reunion So Bitter Sweet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The search for their mother is on, but the Hamato teens are not the only ones on the hunt.

"So are you going to tell us where you're taking us, Jason?" asked Casey irritably.

 

"Yeah," agreed Donnie. "We really should be looking into that 'comet' comment Mother mentioned."

 

The other five newly returned teens also voiced their agreements, but the former gecko mutant just grinned at them as he continued to lead them through the sewers. "Don't sweat it, dudes," he said cheerfully. "Rockwell and Metalhead are working on the comet thing, and trust me, you do not want to miss this."

 

"Miss what exactly?" asked Leo.

 

Jason just sent them all a wide grin, and pressed against a brick in the sewer wall.

 

The teenagers all jumped as a grinding screech filled the tunnels, and the wall opened up to reveal a blinding light that left them blinking spots from their eyes.

 

"Welcome to the Shelter," said Jason cheerfully.

 

When the spots cleared, they all had to gasp at the sight before them.

 

Beyond the hidden door was a massive chamber filled with people. Normal, non-mutated people milling about the space looking like survivors from a post-apocalypse movie, but they were all  _human_.

 

As they gaped at the sight before them, the sight of two familiar figures caught Casey's gaze, making his eyes widen even further.

 

"Dad…?" he whispered hoarsely. "Shadow…?"

 

The vigilante's voice was barely audible, but somehow the man and daughter still heard it, and looked up towards the door, and their own eyes widened at the sight of the boy.

 

Mr. Jones let out a strangled sounding gasp, and Shadow let out a delighted squeal of,  _"CASEY!"_

 

The sound of his sister's voice after months of fearing the worst was enough to get Casey's feet moving, and he ran into the Shelter towards them.

 

Mr. Jones and Shadow met him halfway, and the three practically collided in a tight hug, overwhelmed with joy at being reunited for so long.

 

Slowly the rest of the group entered after him, and felt smiles grow on their faces at the heartwarming sight.

 

April was so caught up in feeling happy for Casey's reunion that she almost didn't hear her own name getting called.

 

_"April?!"_

 

Turning to look in the direction her name, the happiness April had felt since arriving at the Shelter tripled as she saw who was speaking. "Aunt Robyn!" she cried, rushing over to her aunt.

 

The kindly looking red-haired woman caught her niece in a tight embrace, and burst into tears of joy at being reunited with one of her family again, and April's eyes filled with tears soon after as she hugged her back.

 

Though the five Hamato siblings felt happy for their friends, they couldn't help but feel a bitter sweet ache at the sight of the reunions, knowing that their own with their parents had yet to really happen.

 

To avoid such thoughts, Leo turned to Jason. "What  _is_  this place?" he asked, his siblings looking over curiously as well.

 

"Like I said, dudes, we call it the Shelter," said Jason with a shrug. "This place has been, like, the Mighty Mutanimal's main mission from the start. Save as many people as we can from the Kraang. It's cramped, overcrowded, and a little bit drafty, but it beats being mutated."

 

"How did you find this place, anyway?" asked Donnie as he stared around at the chamber. "I've never seen marking like those on the wall before. And what's with those crystals?"

 

"Well, that's kinda a long story," said Jason. "Ya see, during the invasion-"

 

The skater went on to regale the other teens with the story of how he, Slash, and Malachi had stumbled across the place while saving their families, blissfully unaware that the six of them were being watched.

 

"Do you see vat I see, comrade Zeck?" asked a tall, blond, Russian man with a diamond for a right eye.

 

Next to him was a skinny black man with a large purple Mohawk, an wearing an outfit that looked like something out of  _Tron_. At the Russian's words, Zeck turned to look towards the entrance to the Shelter, and blinked in surprise. He then reached up to take off his sunglasses, and rubbed his eyes. "Yo, am I seein' what I think I'm seein'?" he asked, not sounding pleased. "Ain't more mutants runnin' around the last thing we need? Am I right, Steranko?"

 

Steranko gave the man next to him a dry look. "Vat I am seeing is ticket out of zis place," he said.

 

That made Zeck turn an look at him with interest.

 

Seeing he now had his partner's attention, Steranko continued softly so as not to be overheard by the rest of those in the Shelter, "As you know, Before aliens took over the city, I was arms dealer, smuggling veapons to ze Foot Clan."

 

"I know that, dawg," said Zeck with a roll of his eyes. "And ya hired me to steal some helmet from them a few months back. But what's that gotta do with gettin' us out of this city? 'Cause we've gotta get out of this city."

 

"Is no vay out zrough usual methods," said Steranko. "Ven henchmen try to make out of city, zey all get mutate. Ivan Steranko never turn into freak," the Russian vowed solemnly.

 

"Yeah," agreed Zeck. "Lucky for us, those Mutantanimal freaks found us and brought us here. But what's the freaky turtles gotta do with gettin' past the million alien robots?" asked he, looking confused. "I'd go myself, but my invisibility field is totally jacked. I'm jacked!"

 

Steranko nodded, and explained, "Is dangerous, but Shredder only one vho can get us out of city. Ve make deal."

 

Zeck blinked in confusion, and glanced back at the entrance. "You sayin' we make some deal about them turtles?" he asked in confusion.

 

"Zey not always turtles before zey mutate," said Steranko with a smirk. "Zey and other Asian boy and girl are actually ninja children of voman Shredder loves. He vant zem and zeir mother for himself."

 

Zeck's face lit up as he caught on to the plan. "So you're sayin' we can use them as bargainin' chips with Shredder to get outa the city."

 

"Da," agreed Steranko. "Oroku Saki vill pay handsome for children. All ve really need is vone, but more ze better."

 

The two crooks snickered, and huddled together to plan their next move.

 

_______________________

 

It was decided that they would let April and Casey stay at the Shelter a while longer to reconnect with their loved ones, while the Hamatos and Jason returned to the Lair to begin their search for Shen and Yoshi once again.

 

"Any luck, Metalhead?" asked Donnie as he wandered over to where his robot and the monkey doctor were searching for what Shen could have meant by 'comet'.

 

The two looked up as he approached, and Dr. Rockwell scowled and let out a pointed cough. "Ahem!"

 

Donnie rolled his eyes, " _And_  Dr. Rockwell? Did you guys find anything about what our mother said?" he added dryly. The genius didn't know what the monkey mutant's problem with him was, but ever since their arrival at the Lair, Rockwell had always seemed to go out of his way to prove that he was better than Donnie, be it comparing their high intellects to bragging about his psychic powers..

 

"Yeah, dudes?" asked Mikey. "Did Mother mean that a giant comet is coming? Is it gonna do to us what it did to the dinosaurs?" He looked terrified at the very idea.

 

"Not likely, little brother," said Miwa dryly.

 

Raph shrugged. "I'm just impressed he actually  _knows_  what happened to the dinosaurs."

 

Mikey sent a glare at his red wearing brother. "Hey, dinosaurs are cool! I happen to know a ton of stuff about 'em."

 

"Focus guys," Leo said to get them back on track. "It's more likely Mother meant comet as a location to find her." He then turned back to Rockwell and Metalhead. "So what did you find?"

 

Metalhead beeped and pulled up a holographic map of New York City.

 

"Metalhead and I have managed to deduce three possible locations from your extremely vague intimation," said Rockwell primly as three red dots appeared on the map. "There is Comet Cleaners on Bleaker Street. An utterly abysmal looking film called  _Earth Versus the Comet Creeps_  is to be playing at the Argosy Theatre. Why I am at a loss to explain, since it is not like anyone would go to it for fear of being caught by the Kraang. And finally, there is the Coney Comet Roller Coaster at Coney Island. If it really was a location your mother was referring too, it is most likely one of these three."

 

"Dibs on Coney Island!" shouted Mikey, waving his hand in the air like he was in class. He then turned his puppy-dog eyes on Leo and said, "Please can I check out the roller coaster!  _Pleeease!_  Hook a turtle up!"

 

Leo rolled his eyes, but relented. "Donnie and Metalhead, you take Comet Cleaners. Raph and Miwa, you take the movie theater. Me and Mikey will check out Coney Island."

 

As Mikey let out a loud cheer at getting his wish, Donnie began passing out spray bottles of retro-mutagen.

 

"I have just enough retro-mutagen brewed for  _three_  doses," said Donnie, pointedly ignoring the looks of longing on both Leo and (to a lesser extent) Dr. Rockwell's faces at the sight of the orange ooze. "Each team gets  _one_. It'll be weeks before I finish more."

 

"So in other words don't waste it, gotcha," said Raph as he eyed the liquid, and strapped it securely to his belt.

 

Donnie then sighed. "Mother's condition is unique. There's no guarantee this will even work on her."

 

"We still gotta try, D," said Mikey, giving his genius brother a hopeful thumbs up. "Have faith in your mad science skills."

 

Slash, who had been observing them from nearby with the rest of the Mutanimals, spoke up. "Wouldn't it be better if the rest of us came with you? Safety in numbers does a lot of good against the Kraang."

 

Leo was careful to keep his distaste of the idea off his face, and said fairly, "No offence, but since Mother's mutation she hasn't exactly been… friendly towards people who aren't family."

 

Donnie nodded, and looked at the mutants and Jason apologetically. "She doesn't attack us because of maternal instincts, and Metalhead is around me so much he doesn't smell like a threat, but anyone else, well-"

 

"The Shredder is more friendly than she is," said Miwa bluntly.

 

"Exactly," said Donnie, taking up the story again. "She was even hostile towards Father most of the time. If you guys come with us, she may just end up attacking you because she feels threatened."

 

Leatherhead bowed his head, and sighed. "They are right, my friends," he said gravely to the other Mutanimals. "Before her mutation, Shen was one of the gentlest souls I have ever met. But since her transformation she would attack me on sight, unless she was having a rare moment of clarity. But I'm afraid those did not happen very often."

 

Jason and Malachi also nodded solemnly, also remembering how Shen had reacted towards them in the days before the invasion.

 

Slash nodded reluctantly, and said, "Alright. But if you guys need any backup, we're just a phone call away."

 

"We appreciate that, Slash," said Raph quickly once he realized Leo didn't plan on saying any such thing.

 

"Let's just go already," said Miwa as she shoved past them all to head towards the exit, and the rest of her siblings and Metalhead followed after her.

 

_______________________

 

"Do you know where we are?" asked Zeck as he and Steranko made their way trough the sewer tunnels.

 

"Net," said Steranko, shaking his head.

 

Recognizing the Russian word for 'no', Zeck sighed. The two had been so caught up in their planning that they almost hadn't noticed the five ninja children leaving with Jason. By the time the two had managed to sneak out of the Shelter after them, the teenagers were long gone.

 

Not willing to give up their ticket to freedom so easily, the two crooks hurried off into the sewers in hopes of catching up to them, but several tunnels later it was becoming clear they would not find the teenagers this way.

 

Just then, a sound in the tunnels ahead of them had the two duck out of sight to avoid being spotted. As the sound grew louder, the two poked their heads out to see a patrol of Kraang marching past them.

 

Once the patrol had passed, Zeck let out a fearful whimper. "Ya know, on second thought, things at the Shelter ain't so bad. Let's call it a night and head back there, what'd ya say?"

 

Steranko started to nod his head in agreement, only to glance around at the tunnels in confusion, and say, "Is good idea, comrade. Just vone problem. Vich vay is Shelter again?"

 

Zeck blinked, and looked around as well. To his horror, all the sewer tunnels looked exactly the same, and he couldn't even hazard a guess to which way he and Steranko had even come from.

 

"Oh no, no, no, no, no, no,  _no!"_  said Zeck, his voice becoming more frantic and higher pitched with each 'no'. "We're lost, dawg! Completely turned around lost! How we supposed to get back to safety if we don't know were we been?"

 

"Calm down," said Steranko. "Ve vill be fine. All ve need is to take moment to get our bearings. Zen vay vill become clear, and ve return to Shelter."

 

Zeck took a deep breath to calm himself. "Okay," he said, still sounding nervous but better than he had been. "Okay."

 

Steranko and Zeck took a moment to take in their surroundings, and try to figure a way out of the mess they were in.

 

Then in unison, the two nodded to each other and said, "The Shelter is this way," while each pointed in the opposite direction of the other.

 

What followed was a very loud argument to try and determine with of them was right, which was only brought to a stop when they heard another Kraang patrol heading their way, and they hurried above ground to avoid the aliens.

 

"What now?" asked Zeck, looking even more panicked than before.

 

Steranko carefully peered out of the alley they'd come up in. "Ve not far from my old secret hideout. Ve go zere, and try to come up vith vay back to-"

 

The Russian cut himself off and his eyes widened as a graffiti-covered party wagon drove past with a very familiar looking turtle sitting in the front seat.

 

"Is turtles!" he said, forgetting to be quiet in his excitement. "Ve have found zem again! Follow me!"

 

He grabbed Zeck and dragged the thief into a nearby van with the words  _'Bebop Records_ ' and  _'Rocksteady Rascals_ ' painted on the side. One quick hotwiring later, the van was rushing down the street after their quarry.

 

_______________________

 

The party wagon pulled to a stop a few blocks from Comet Cleaners, giving Donnie and Metalhead enough space to sneak into the Laundromat without being spotted.

 

After that, Leo drove the party wagon to the theater to drop off Raph and Miwa before heading onwards with Mikey to Coney Island.

 

As the two teenagers made their way passed the concession stand in the lobby, Raph glanced around and asked his sister, "You really think Mother would be holed up in here."

 

Miwa shrugged as she kept her eyes peeled for any sign of Shen. "Could be," she admitted, nodding at the sign to encourage moviegoers to buy snacks before entering. "It's warm, dry, and there's food to eat."

 

Raph shot a skeptical look back at the concession stand and scoffed, "If you want to live off stale popcorn for four months."

 

"Desperate times, little brother," said Miwa fairly. "After all, food is food. Besides, you told us you once saw Mother try to eat a rat. I don't think she's feeling picky about what she eats right now."

 

Raph shuddered as he remembered the hungry expression on Shen's face when a rat made the mistake of coming into her secret room at the dojo. The rodent had beat a hasty retreat the second it saw her, but that didn't stop Shen from lunging at it hungrily. "Don't remind me."

 

The two of them eventually found the room showing  _Earth Versus the Comet Creeps_. As expected in a post-alien invaded city, the theater seats were deserted, and the movie played on the screen to no audience.

 

Raph paused a moment to look at the fake-looking, ugly, three-eyed tentacle monster on the screen that was vaporizing a scientist who was trying to reason with it. With a snort he said, "Maybe Mikey went to the wrong place, he loves bad movies this."

 

Miwa glanced at the screen, and smirked in agreement. "We'll get it for him on DVD you guys' next birthday. Still, gotta wonder if those Comet Creeps are some weird relative of the Kraang."

 

Seeing the resemblance, Raph let out a soft laugh, and the two continued their search.

 

The two teenagers turned the entire movie theater upside-down, but could not find a single trace of neither mother nor their father had ever been there.

 

"I guess this place is a wash," said Raph as the two stepped outside to figure out what to do next. "Should we try to catch up to the others, or go back to the Lair to wait for them?"

 

Miwa gave him a pointed look, and Raph realized that was a pretty stupid question. "You're right," he said. "I couldn't wait around for them to bring us news either. Let's go catch up to the others."

 

"Works for me," said Miwa. "I'll head to Coney Island. You run and meet Donnie at the cleaners."

 

Raph nodded, and the two split off into opposite directions.

 

Or at least they started to, before a van advertising music came to a screeching halt right in front of Raph.

 

"Say what?" asked the turtle in surprise as he pulled out his sais to fight. Seeing this, Miwa doubled back, and positioned herself beside him with her tantō at the ready.

 

The doors to the van burst open, and two oddly dressed men stepped out and sneered down at him.

 

Not recognizing either of them, Miwa said, "Okay, I'll bite. Who are you clowns supposed to be?"

 

"Yeah," Raph agreed, looking at Zeck's choice in clothing incredulously. "1987 called, it want's its jumpsuit back."

 

Zeck was far from pleased at that remark. "Wh-wh-wh-wh-wha? You makin' fun o' my suit? I will bust you in you're dang head!"

 

Then with a whoop, the thief inflated his Mohawk, and sent if flying at the two siblings.

 

As they dodged away, Miwa's eyes widened in recognition. "Wait!" she said, "I remember these guys now. They're the jokers who tried to steal Shrdder's helmet that one time when Tenshi got sick."

 

Raph's own eyes widened as he remembered watching that chase. "Oh yeah. The entire Foot Clan chasing after the invisible man, and the Russian in the helicopter. How could I forget."

 

The turtled then had to dodge again as said Russian tried to punch him with his brass-knuckled fists. "Is good zat you remember us, boy," said Steranko with a sneer. "Because soon you vill be our ticket out of city."

 

"Oh, and how are we supposed to do that?" snarled Raph as he slashed at the man with his blades, only to have to dive to the side when Zeck shot at him with his hip lasers.

 

"By offering you up as trade to Shredder, of course," Steranko nastily as he threw another punch, this time at Miwa, who ducked out of the way just in time.

 

The two siblings exchanged uneasy glances when they heard that, and traded nods.

 

They couldn't let themselves be caught, and Raph stealthily reached for his belt to send an emergency signal on his cell phone.

 

While they were having their silent conversation, Zeck had started firing his hip lasers at them again while letting out his signature 'hee hee's, and making both teens duck for cover.

 

Scowling in annoyance, Miwa darted at the thief, leaving Raph to try and match muscles with the Russian.

 

As Zeck whooped and dodged every blow she threw at him, Miwa finally got fed up and shouted, "Do you ever  _Shut UP!"_

 

The only reply she got from the thief was another of his Mohawk blasts.

 

"He does not," called Steranko from over were he was locked in combat with Raphael. "Trust me, I know."

 

"Perfect," growled Miwa sarcastically as she dove at Zeck again.

 

Zeck dodged her blow, and said, "Yer one feisty ninja girl, ain't ya?"

 

"You've seen nothing yet," said Miwa as she pulled out an egg of blinding powder and threw it at Zeck's face.

 

But the thief just grinned, and swung his hips so that the laser blasted the egg out of the air, raining the stinging powder into Miwa's eyes rather than his.

 

Coughing, and trying to wipe the powder away, she heard her brother shout her code name, and Zeck laugh at her predicament. "Don't worry I would never hurt a lady..." he said smugly.

 

A second later, Miwa felt her feet get kicked out from under her, and Zeck continued, "But I'll trip her."

 

Miwa snarled, and slashed her tantō in the direction she'd heard Zeck's voice, only to hear him laugh as he ducked out of the way.

 

From his fight, Raph growled at the sight of his sister blindly trying to fight back against the thief, and tried to break off from Steranko to help her, only for the Russian to take advantage of his distraction, and sucker punch the turtle in the face.

 

While Raph was dazed from the blow, Steranko lifted him up, and tossed him like a ragdoll in Miwa's direction, making him crash into his sister, and send both of them sprawling to the ground in a heap.

 

Before either of them could regain their bearings, Zeck set his hip lasers to stun, and zapped both of them to knock them out cold.

 

Grinning at their victory, Steranko lifted the two teenagers up and tossed them into the back of their stolen van. "Good vork, comrade Zeck. Ve now have vay out of city full of alien freaks."

 

Zeck smirked as well, but then noticed that Raph's cell phone had been knocked free from his belt when Steranko had tossed him, and was open on the articles Rockwell had given them about the dry cleaners and Coney Island.

 

Lifting up his glasses to get a better look at the information, Zeck grinned. "Yo, Steranko. Is Shredder still gonna be mad we tried to steal his helmet thingy?"

 

"Ze Kuro Kabuto?" Steranko asked frowning. "Maybe. Vhy?"

 

"'Cause if he is, then maybe we should sweeten the deal with him, and get him a few more brats," said Zeck, holding up the phone for the Russian to see. "And I bet I know where the rest of them ninja brats are."

 

_______________________

 

When Donnie's cell phone lit up with the emergency signal, his heart dropped at the sight.

 

He barely had time to register that the signal had come from Raph's phone before Leo's contact number filled the screen to show he was calling.

 

"You got the signal too?" his older brother asked the second Donnie answered.

 

"Yeah," said Donnie worriedly.

 

"I'm turning Mikey and I around, and we're heading back to the theater. Can you make it there on foot?" Leo asked.

 

"Yes," said Donnie, already on his way out the door, Metalhead on his heels. "Wait, you're not at Coney Island yet?"

 

"We were just getting there when our phones went off," said Leo distractedly.

 

Donnie frowned thoughtfully. "Keep going," he said. "Mother's not here at the cleaners, but she might still be at the roller-coaster. We have to find her as soon a possible."

 

"But Raph and Mi-" Leo started to say.

 

"I'm closer, and I'll get there on foot much faster than you will in the party wagon. Metalhead and I will back them up, and if we need more help, I'll call you. But we still have to find our parents as soon as possible. You know that, Leo," Donnie said as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop with his robot not far behind.

 

Donnie could practically hear Leo scowling over the phone, but the lead turtle conceded his point. "Call us the second things look bad, Donnie," he ordered.

 

"Will do, boss," said Donnie as he hung up his phone, and focused on making a particularly wide jump.

 

Soon the teen and robot were skidding to a halt in front of the movie theater with Miwa and Raphael nowhere in sight, and the street silent as the grave.

 

"Oh, that's not a good sign," said Donnie, before glancing down at Metalhead, who was scanning the area. "Any ideas, Metalhead?"

 

Metalhead whirred, and pointed to several laser burns peppering the walls of the theater. Donnie ran his finger along the marks, noting that they were still warm to the touch. "These are fresh. Probably from whatever trouble Armonia and Iyasa were in. Do you think the Kraang got them?"

 

Metalhead shook his head no, and pulled up a hologram showing the readings he'd gotten from his scan, and compared them to readings of Kraang laser fire.

 

Donnie bent down to look closely at the hologram, and his frown deepened. "You're right, these burns didn't come from any Kraang weapon. But it's still pretty high tech. I've never seen readings like this before, have you?"

 

Metalhead buzzed in a negative sounding way.

 

Donnie sighed, and ran tugged off his hood to run his hand through his hair. "Then that means that Iyasa and Armonia are gone, and likely taken by some unknown party," he summed up as he pulled out his cell phone to report to Leo. "Could this night get any better?" he asked sarcastically.

 

Metalhead made played an audio clip of an explosion, and gave his creator a shrug.

 

Donnie had to crack a smile as he hit Leo's speed dial. "You're right, there is that."

 

_______________________

 

Mikey eyed Leo out of the corner of his eye as his older brother reluctantly turned the party wagon around to head back to Coney Island.

 

"Donnie's going to back Raph and Mi up, he thinks we should keep heading to Coney Island to look for Mother," Leo said tightly, making it clear how he felt about the matter.

 

Mikey bit his lip, his own enthusiasm for the trip to the amusement park had all but evaporated the instant their phones had lit up with the emergency signal, and even with the reassurance that Donnie was going to check on them along with all the firepower Metalhead packed, he still couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that something was wrong.

 

Trying to remain positive, Mikey gave Leo a slightly forced grin, and said, "No worries, dude. I'm sure it's nothing. Bet'cha Raph probably butt dialed us on accident. You know these shells of ours just bump into the darnest thing sometimes."

 

Leo cracked a small smile at his little brother's attempts to cheer him up. "I noticed," he said dryly, before returning his eyes to the road as they pulled up to the Coney Island parking lot. "But if that were the case, Raph or Miwa would have answered when we tried to call them."

 

Stashing their vehicle, the two turtles quickly hopped the fence, and began making their way through the park.

 

Still trying to get both of their minds off their worry, Mikey eagerly pointed out the various rides and games as they walked through the park, chattering brightly about fond memories of the times their family had come to the amusement park for a day of fun.

 

The babbling seemed to work somewhat, as Leo's face took on an expression of wistful nostalgia every time Mikey pointed out something new, and seemed a little less tense than before.

 

But that all flew out the window a few minutes later when Leo's phone rang once again, displaying Donnie's name in the caller ID.

 

Leo answered it in a heartbeat. "Did you find them?"

 

Mikey can just tell by the way Leo's face pinched with worry an instant later that the answer was a negative.

 

He opened his mouth to ask what had happened, when a flash of white out of the corner of his eye had him snapping his head around in time to see a large snake tail vanish around the corner of a booth.

 

"Dude!" he shouted, pointing in that direction, but his brother was too busy talking on the phone with Donnie to do little more than shoot Mikey a glare for interrupting him.

 

Seeing his mother flash by again, Mikey grabbed Leo's head, and forced him to turn and look in the direction she had gone, giving him just enough time to catch a glimpse of her before she ducked out of sight once again.

 

"Good work, Mikey," he breathed, before hurriedly informing Donnie of their discovery and ordering him to call the second he had found more information on the apparent kidnapping, before both boys rushed after the serpentine figure as she ducked into the haunted house.

 

Mikey gulped audibly as he realized that. "She went into the Ghost House," he whimpered. " _Why'd_  she have to go into the Ghost House? She knows it freaks me out."

 

Leo rolled his eyes, and grabbed Mikey by the elbow to drag him inside, making his little brother whine fearfully all the way.

 

As the two turtles made their way through the black light lit attraction, they strained their ears to hear any sort of indication where their mother was over the pre-recorded sound effects that played as they made their way through the house. Still, they couldn't help but jump as various props popped out at them, jolting their already tense nerves.

 

Finally, Leo spotted their mother slithering past up ahead, and hurried after her, making Mikey squeak in fear at his sudden absence, and run to catch up to them.

 

As the two entered the hall of mirrors in the fun house, Leo hurried forwards when he caught sight of Shen crouched just down the hall. "Mother!" he shouted as he ran to her, only to fall back on his shell after running into a mirror instead.

 

Despite the situation, Mikey couldn't help but laugh at the sight. "Smooth, bro," he called teasingly.

 

Leo glanced back to berate his little brother, but froze as he heard a loud hiss echo through the maze.

 

Then, without warning, he was tackled into another one of Shen's constricting hugs, and his mother nuzzled his cheek affectionately.

 

Mikey's eyes lit up at the sight, and he bounced over to join the hug with a shout of, "MOM!" to which Shen was happy to ablige.

 

As Leo was squeezed between Mikey and Shen, he couldn't help but let out a relieved sort of laugh as well. "We're glad to see you too, Mother?"

 

Slowly, he managed to untangle himself from the hug, and tugged Mikey back as well, much to both of their disappointment.

 

"Sorry, Mother, we can hug more later," said Leo as he held up his spray gun of retro-mutagen. "This should cure your mutation, and after that we have some other things to take care of."

 

From the slightly wild expression on his mother's Medusa-like face, he couldn't be sure of how much she understood of what he was saying, but she held still as her son pointed the spray gun at her, and let the orange mist wash over her.

 

Once the bottle was empty, Leo and Mikey took a step back, and waited for the retro mutagen to take effect.

 

And waited…

 

And waited…

 

"Nothing's happening," said Mikey, his brow pinching with worry. "Something should be happening now, right? With Jason, he turned back really quickly."

 

"It doesn't  _work!_ " Leo said, looking at the now empty bottle with a panicked expression. "Why didn't it work?"

 

"Do I look like Donnie to you, bro? I don't know," said Mikey, who was also growing panicked as well.

 

But before either could fall into hysterics, Shen reached over, and placed a clawed hand onto each of their shoulders, bringing their attention back to her.

 

She stared at them for a long moment of silence, before inclining her head towards deeper into the fun house. "Myyyy Yossshiii," she hissed, and released them to slither on down the hallway.

 

Exchanging wide-eyed looks as they registered what she'd said, the two turtles rushed after the snake as quickly as they could.

 

The hall of mirrors eventually opened up into a much bigger room that had once been a papier-mâché graveyard, and both teenagers stopped dead at the threshold as they gazed at the sight before them.

 

In the middle of the room amongst the toppled foam tombstones was what looked like the results of a raid on a hospital. Various IVs were scattered on the floor, and a hospital bed stood in the center of the room with a familiar figure lying atop it, his chest rising and falling peacefully.

 

"Father," Leo breathed softly as he dazedly stepped into the room, and didn't stop until he was at his father's side, and taking his hand.

 

Mikey walked over to the other side of the bed, his face a mix of relief that his father was alive, and worry at the fact he hadn't so much as twitched when Leo approached him. "Dad? Can you hear us?" he asked, shaking Yoshi's shoulder slightly.

 

Shen sat coiled at the foot of the bed, her head bowed sadly. "Wooon't waaake," she said. "Liiike thisss sssince theee fallll."

 

Leo's eyes turned downcast. "I guess that's what his spirit meant when he said he was 'separated from his body'." Seeing his mother's confused expression at his words, he said, "Explain later."

 

"So what now, Leo?" asked Mikey. "We found Mom and Dad, but he's still out of it, Mother's not de-mutating, and Raph and Mi are still missing."

 

Shen let out an alarmed sounding hiss at that, and Leo frowned as he tried to think up an answer to his brother's question.

 

Before he could say anything, all three family members tensed as the sound of a car engine could be heard outside of the funhouse, only for it to come to a stop, and the muffled sound of doors slamming hit their ears.

 

"You don't think that's Donnie, do you?" asked Mikey nervously.

 

Before Leo could reply for a second time, an unfamiliar voice rang out. "NINJA BRATSSS!" came a slight whiny sounding male voice, "COME OUT AND PLAYYY!"

 

Exchanging glances at the fact whoever that was knew they were here, Leo said softly. "I have a hunch it's more to do with whoever took Raph and Mi."

 

As if to confirm Leo's suspicions, the voice called out again. "If you surrender, we won't hurt the girl and the turtle freak!"

 

"Pinkie Promise!" added another voice with a Russian accent.

 

Shen let out a hissing snarl at the implication of harm coming to her children, and made to go bursting out of the funhouse, but Leo grabbed her tail to stop her.

 

"Those guys don't know you're here yet, Mother," he said in a calming tone. "So it'd be better to let us go take care of them, and you stay here to protect Father, and give us back up if we need it."

 

"Yeah, you'd be, like, our secret weapon!" added Mikey brightly.

 

Shen did not look happy about the idea, but before she could protest, the two teenagers darted out of the graveyard room towards the exit.

 

They crouched by the open door back out to the park, and peered out it discreetly to get a better look at their opponents.

 

"They don't looks so tough," whispered Mikey as he looked at the Russian, and the oddly dressed man with a Mohawk.

 

"They were somehow able to kidnap Iyasa and Armonia, we shouldn't underestimate them," Leo replied as he had a nagging feeling that he'd seen them somewhere before.

 

"You think they got 'em in the Rocksteady and Bebop truck?" asked Mikey pointing at the vehicle the two had arrived in.

 

"Probably." Leo replied. "I'll go bust them out and let Donnie know what's happened, you distract the goons."

 

"Like a turtle do," said Mikey cheerfully, and the two broke off in separate directions.

 

"Last chance!" shouted the mohawked man. "If ya'll want your sibs to avoid the beating of a lifetime, better come out now!"

 

"Ready or not, here ve come!" added the Russian.

 

"Forget it, we don't trust you dudes!" shouted Mikey from behind one of the game booths, turning the crooks' attention towards his direction.

 

"You has no choice! In five seconds I pop turtle freak's head like ze blueberries!" shouted Steranko with a smirk as he and his partner began encroaching on Mikey's hiding place, allowing Leo to slip closer towards the van undetected.

 

"Ah four, ah three, ah two, ah  _one_ …!" shouted Zeck, trying to pressure the teenager into coming out.

 

It worked somewhat, and Mikey stepped out of his hiding place with his hands out in surrender. "Okay! Don't hurt 'em!" he shouted walking towards the two slowly. "Let's talk this over."

 

He then paused, and looked the two kidnappers up and down, and asked, "Um, so who are you guys, anyway?"

 

Steranko and Zeck exchanged glances. Seeing no harm in letting the turtle know who would be handing him over to the Shredder, Steranko said, "I am Ivan Steranko, arms dealer."

 

"And  _I_  am Anton Zeck, baby. Master thief," said Zeck as he struck a pose, and let out one of his signature 'hee hees'

 

Out of the corner of his eye, Mikey caught sight of Leo reaching the van, and knew he had to keep the goons attention away from his brother. So to do that, Mikey blew a raspberry at the crooks, and gave them a condescending look.

 

"Oh please," he said cockily, making the two villains stare at him for his impudence. "One, never heard of you. And two, I'm not even surprised 'cause those names are  _lame!"_

 

Steranko and Zeck gaped at him open mouthed, before fury flashed across both of their faces, and they bellowed,  _"WHAT!?_ " in unison.

 

"Yup," the orange wearing turtle said smugly. "Completely and totally lame. I bet no one even bothers to remember them. Lucky for you two, it just so happens I am awesome at namin' stuff."

 

Zeck gawked at Mikey again, wondering if this turtle was for real. "Wha-what jus- You can' just go around changin' people's names, freak!" he shouted indignantly.

 

Mikey pretended not to hear the thief as he gazed around at the rides and games for inspiration. "How about, Pork Rinds and Chili Cheese Fry!" he said, spotting a snack bar.

 

"Which would be which?" wondered Zeck out loud, as he made a face in disgust.

 

Seeing another snack bar, Mikey offered, "How about Sprinkles and Hot Sause?"

 

"Net," snarled Steranko as he and Zeck began stalking towards Mikey, already sick of his chatter.

 

Getting nervous, Mikey blurted out the next thing he saw, which he had to admit was bad even for him. "The Royal Weenies?"

 

Both were towering over Mikey now, and their angry and annoyed faces were answer enough.

 

In desperation, Mikey glanced in Leo's direction to see if he had freed Raph and Miwa yet, only for his attention to be drawn to the writing on the van they'd arrived in.

 

"Then how 'bout, um, Bebop and Rocksteady?" he offered as his last offer.

 

Zeck scowled, and leaned into Mikey's face. "Is that what you do?" he asked with an unimpressed tone. "Randomly name people based on stuff you see around you?"

 

Mikey shrugged. "Pretty much," he answered. "Though the other bad guys all gave me more to work with." He didn't mention that was because the other bad guys were usually mutants.

 

Zeck scoffed, but Steranko was rubbing his chin with a thoughtful expression. "Eh, is not so bad. Kind of like the Rocksteady," he said with a grin.

 

Zeck, now called Bebop, smacked himself on the forehead, and glanced towards the offending van that had resulted in the nickname.

 

Only for his eyes to widen behind his glasses as he spotted Leo crouched by the back door, trying to pick the lock.

 

"Ah-Ha!" Bebop shouted, hurrying over to where Leo was, making the blue wearing ninja look up in surprise. "You think you can get past me, son? I saw you a mile away!"

 

But before Bebop could do anything, Mikey jump kicked the thief away from his brother, and began spinning his nunchucks threateningly.

 

Rocksteady smirked at the sight, and flexed his muscles, showing off the brass knuckles that adorned his fists, "No vone can face ze Bebop and Rocksteady!"

 

Bebop gave his partner an outraged look. "I am not gonna be called 'Bebop', got me? That is the dumbest name _EVAH!"_

 

While the two were distracted once again, Leo frantically began picking the lock again, and Mikey moved to stand between the goons and the van to block him from view.

 

"Seriously though," the orange wearing ninja said. "Why you guys trying to kidnap us? What'd ever do to you, Bebop?"

 

That made Bebop wheel around and glare at him furiously. "Stop callin' me that name, fool! I hate that name! I  _hate_  that name!" he shouted like a little kid throwing a temper tantrum.

 

Mikey as watched the grown man act like a five-year-old, he didn't notice Bebop's partner making his way towards him until he was sent flying by a brass knuckled punch to the gut, sending him flying back into Leo.

 

Brought back to their reason for being there, the two men began marching towards the two boys with sinister grins on their faces.

 

Leo was knocked away from the van, and scowled up at the two men who were the cause of their current problems. "We need a better distraction," he said.

 

On cue, Tang Shen burst out of the haunted house, and spat venom into Rocksteady's eyes.

 

As the Russian howled in pain, Bebop shrieked in fear, and began shooting his hip lasers at the snake woman fearfully, making Shen dive for cover.

 

As Shen took off through the fair grounds with Bebop on her tail, Leo and Mikey exchanged horrified glances. "MOTHER!" they shouted in unison, taking off after the two to protect Shen, leaving Rocksteady to nurse his stinging eyes.

 

Within the van, the racket outside awoke Miwa and Raph from their slumber, making them sit up and wince at the pounding in their heads.

 

Realizing what had happened, they both began cursing at their misfortune, and focused on escaping the van.

 

They climbed out in time to see one of the men who had captured them, and they jumped out ready for round two.

 

The Russian man rubbed his eyes to clear his vision as best he could from the stinging venom, and saw the two teenagers stalking towards him.

 

Rocksteady took one look at the two of them, and groaned. "Just vat ve need," he grumbled as he prepared to fight the two of them.

 

Miwa and Raph exchanged smirks before running at the Russian with their weapons.

 

Meanwhile, with Bebop, he was having a hard time catching Tang Shen. Despite chasing her through the amusement park, the serpent woman had vanished amongst the carnival games.

 

"Aw man," groaned the thief as he turned back to regroup with his partner. "Stupid snake woman."

 

A nunchuck to the face had him falling back on his butt, and he looked up to see Leo and Mikey glaring down at him.

 

"Don't you talk that way about our mother," snarled Leo, his eyes white with anger.

 

Bebop blinked at them in surprise, before his lip curled in disgust. " _That's_  you're momma?" he said with a snort. "I see where ya'll got your good looks."

 

That only served to make the two turtles even more enraged, and they dove at him with fervor, driving the thief back towards the haunted house.

 

Bebop and Rocksteady both did their best against their opponents, but found themselves outmatched and herded together like a pair of trapped animals.

 

As the two goons stood back to back, and the angry ninja teens surrounded the them on all sides, Bebop glanced over his shoulder and asked, "Still think we can take them, Steranko?"

 

Rocksteady gazed at the four ninjas with a strategic glare, and said, "Da. Ve can still vin. Be tricky vith four on two, but still only baby teenagers." But even as he said it, he didn't look like he really believed it.

 

"Uh, correction," said a new voice, and they all turned to look and see Donnie and Metalhead arrive on the scene. "Make that six on two," the genius said as he pulled his bō from its holster on his back, and Metalhead showed off all his laser blasters.

 

Just then Shen slithered out of her hiding place to join the circle, hissing furiously at the two men.

 

"Oh yeah! Now it's seven!" cheered Mikey at the sight of their mom.

 

"Still liking those odds?" asked Leo boldly, smirking at their opponents.

 

The two goons paled at the sight before them, and gulped audibly.

 

"We're in big trouble, aren't we," said Bebop rhetorically.

 

"Oh yeah," said Raph as he cracked his knuckles threateningly.

 

As one, the seven Hamatos dove at their enemies, and the fight was over before it had even begun.

 

_______________________

 

The occupants of the Lair (including April and Casey, who had since returned from the Shelter) were milling around as they waited for their friends to return.

 

Finally, they heard the sound of the turnstiles moving, signaling their arrival. They all looked up to see Leo and Raph carrying an unconscious Master Yoshi between them, with the rest of the teenagers and Metalhead trailing behind them. Shen was also there, lingering by the entrance with a wary expression on her face.

 

"You found them!" cheered Casey as he and the others gathered round.

 

Donnie gave them a tired smile, and Metalhead gave a thumbs-up next to him. "Yeah, we did. But Father's still unconscious, and Mother-" He glanced over to the entrance where Shen was coiled up, and staring at Malachi and Pete with an expression that could only be described as hungry. "She's still pretty out of it. The retro-mutagen- it didn't work."

 

April went over to Donnie and gave his arm a comforting squeeze. "You'll find a way, Donnie. You always do."

 

Donnie gave her a grateful glance.

 

Leo looked at the redhead, and asked, "April, could you try waking Father?"

 

April looked nervous, but nodded. "I can try," she promised, making her way to crouch next to Yoshi.

 

"And should she fail, I will attempt us my paychic powers to do so as well," offered Rockwell. "Though, I believe since April is better acquainted with your father, she has a better chance of reviving him than I would."

 

The siblings gave the monkey a grateful nod, and turned their attention to April.

 

The girl cupped Yoshi's face in her hands, and tilted his head up to press his forehead against hers. "Master Yoshi," she said. "Please, wake up. Wake up.  _WAKE UP!_ "

 

There was a pulse, and a small wave of energy burst from April's head into Yoshi's and the ninja master's eyes snapped open a moment later, making April jump back, and his children crowd around to take her place.

 

"Father?" asked Leo carefully as he and his siblings waited on baited breath..

 

Yoshi blinked, and reached up slowly to pinch his brow, before focusing on the faces around him. "My… sons…" he rasped in a voice that had clearly not been used for months. "My… daughter… You… are… here…"

 

The five teenagers lit up like Christmas trees, and pulled their father into a group hug out of sheer joy. " ** _Father!"_**

 

The watching mutants and teens grinned at the sight, and even Shen perked up from her position at the entrance.

 

The snake woman smiled at the sight of her beloved awake at last, before turning to leave.

 

Seeing her about to go, Miwa jumped to her feet and hurried after her. "Wait Mother!"

 

That drew Yoshi's attention, and he tried to rise from the couch, only to find that the atrophy from his four-month coma had left him to weak to do so. Still he called out, " _Shen!"_

 

Tang Shen paused at the calls, but made no move to come back to the Lair. "Wooon't beee farrr," she hissed. "Toooo Dangerousss tooo beee clossse."

 

She sent another hungry glance at the bird mutants, making them shift uncomfortably, and they all had to concede her point.

 

"Be careful," said Leo sadly.

 

"Just you wait, Mother," said Donnie. "I'll find a cure."

 

Yoshi looked like the idea of Shen leaving was physically painful to him, but he bowed his head, and said, "Be safe, my Love."

 

Shen spared them a small smile, before slithering away down the tunnels.

 

There was a tense silence, before Raph reached for the retro-mutagen bottle still clipped to his belt, and held it out to Donnie. "So what do we do with this?" he asked.

 

Donnie held up his own unused bottle and hesitated. "Well, with one of the doses, I try to find a way to expand our supply. Something that will help us demutate all the humans the Kraang have captured. But with the other…" he gave a sweeping glance at all those around him. "With the other, One of you can reverse your mutation. If you want to, that is."

 

The humans turned mutants were struck dumb by the offer for a moment.

 

Raph recovered first. "I already told you. I ain't taking the cure until after you fix Mother. So thanks, but no thanks."

 

Mikey nodded his head. "Ditto, bro. Mom's first. Snakes before turtles, dude."

 

Leo looked down at his green hands, before clenching his eyes shut and turning away. "Now's not the time to be selfish," he said in a tight voice. "And I can't deny the advantages being a turtle gives me. I'll-I'll take the cure  _after_  we save the city."

 

Yoshi gave his mutated sons a proud look at their words.

 

Malachi also shook his head. "I appreciate thine offer, Sir Donatello. But my perspective of such is still unchanged. I still prefer mine feathered form to that of mine previous self."

 

With that said, Rockwell was the last to give his opinion, and they all looked at him in askance.

 

The monkey mutant lifted his helmet to rub his head regretfully, before saying, "As with Leonardo, I must admit this mutated form is better fit for the situation we find ourselves in at the moment. We do not know if my psychic powers would remain with me should I return to human form, nor if the extra experimentation the Kraang performed on me would make me immune to your retro-mutagen cure similar to how your mother is. With that in mind, I must regretfully decline until further testing is done."

 

There was a brief silence as everyone absorbed what Rockwell just said. When it finally sank in, Casey couldn't help but blurt out, "So  _none_  of you are gonna use it?"

 

They all exchanged glances and shrugged. "I guess so," said Leo looking bemused. "I mean, that's everyone it would do any good for. I doubt the three of you want to go back to what you once were," he added, glancing at Slash, Leatherhead, and Pete.

 

The three former animals shook their head in a firm 'no'. The idea of going back to being a dumb animal had little appeal to them.

 

Donnie glanced in the direction of the makeshift lab and workshop he and Rockwell had been using, which had once been his second workshop for projects underground. "Not necessarily," he said, tugging off his mask and hood, before heading in that direction.

 

The others exchanged glances, and made to follow him, leaving an exhausted Yoshi on the couch.

 

Entering the lab, Donnie walked over to a corner, and pulled a sheet off the cylindrical container positioned there, and the others' eyes widened in realization at what they saw underneath.

 

The frozen gaze of Timothy, AKA the Pulverizer stared back at him from behind the glass.

 

In the time before the invasion, when Donnie had been rushing to complete the Turtle Mech and the retro-mutagen cure, he had had the container containing the Mutagen Man relocated to the Lair lab because seeing the literal face of one of his failures had only added to his stress in those tense days, and he had moved him out of sight before the guilt became too much to bare. A cowardly act he was extremely grateful for now.

 

"Time to keep my promise, Timothy," said Donnie softly, laying one of his hands against the frosted glass. Then with a determined gleam in his eyes, he activated a mechanism he'd created to begin thawing out the mutant so that he could be given his cure.

 

He had been kept waiting long enough.

 

_______________________

 

The commotion at Coney Island had not escaped the attention of those who were controlling the city. Not long after the reunited Hamato family left, a Foot patrol led by Rahzar arrived in the amusement park to investigate.

 

What they found there gave the canine mutant pause, before he burst out laughing at the sight before him.

 

Unconscious, and tied up within a dunking booth sat Ivan Steranko and Anton Zeck, two people who had been on the Shredder's (admittedly, very long) shit list since their attempt to steal the Kuro Kabuto from the Shedder months ago.

 

"Well, this is a surprise," he said with a nasty grin. "A present all gift wrapped just for me."

 

After thoroughly searching the park for the Hamatos (because who else could have done it) and finding nothing, Rahzar had the Foot-Bots drag the two thugs back to Foot HQ, and presented them to the Shredder.

 

The two were slapped awake, and quickly found themselves quailing under the glare of the Shredder standing before them.

 

Steranko did his best to give his former business partner a weak smile. "Shredder," he said in a nervous voice. "Long time, no see. Ve vere just-"

 

"Silence!" snapped the Shredder, and Steranko shut his mouth instantly, and Zeck began trembling next to him.

 

Suddenly, the thief notice a green glow coming from behind him, and notice that right behind where the two of them were sitting was a hole in the ground that led to a vat of mutagen.

 

Realizing what was in store for them, Zeck paled, and shouted in hysterics, "I DON'T WANT TO BE A MUTANT! I'M TOO HANDSOME! THE LADIES LOVE ME! AND-!"

 

He was cut off when the Shredder grabbed him by the front of his jumpsuit, and yanked him up to look directly into the Shredder's scared eyes.

 

"You stole my sacred helmet, and caused my men to lose the opportunity to find Shen and her children," said the Shredder menacingly. "Your fates are sealed."

 

Then with that, he thrust Zeck backwards down the hole into the already prepared mutagen vat.

 

Steranko looked down in terror as the silhouette of his partner writhed within the green ooze, changing shape right before his eyes into something twisted and deformed.

 

Finally, the mutagen flushed out of the vat, allowing Zeck to be caught in a net beneath it.

 

Realizing his new form, Zeck let out a squeal of horror. "Oh no!  _Look at me!_  I'm a damn  _warthog!_ "

 

Steranko turned to look back at the Shredder, and pleaded, "Oh no, no, no! You cannot do zis! Shredder, how long have we known each other? It is ten years, eh!"

 

The Shredder only narrowed his eyes, and kicked the Russian in the face, sending him flying back into the rapidly refilling mutagen vat.

 

Steranko screamed as he fell into the ooze, and like Zeck was transformed by the goo.

 

Below him, Bebop stepped back as the vat once again emptied, and deposited the newly mutated rhino onto the net next to him.

 

Rocksteady cried out in alarm as he took in his massive gray hands, and mutated form, and he and Bebop began panicking anew.

 

The screeching sound of metal had them cease their noise, and look up to see the Shredder staring down at them as he scraped his gauntlet against the wall to get their attention.

 

"Enough," he snarled dangerously. "You work for me now." His tone left no room for argument.

 

Bebop and Rocksteady exchanged terrified glances, and gulped.

 

One thing was very clear to them.

 

They should have never left the Shelter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the gang's totally back together, just not in the way you would really expect. Reunions all around. Yes, I mashed together Serpent Hunt and The Pig and the Rhino, but I honestly thought they could have been the same episode in the show, and making two was a bit too drawn out.


	52. Time to Get Medieval

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A late night on the roof tops yields unexpected results.

What Donnie was currently doing was both dangerous and really stupid, but at the moment he couldn't bring himself to care.

 

His 'reunion' with his friend, Timothy, had not gone at all as he'd hoped.

 

The wait for Mutagen Man to thaw out had been agonizingly slow in Donnie's opinion. He did not want to attempt de-mutating his friend in his frozen state, and had instead melted the ice trapping him slowly as to not harm the goo monster in the process.

 

Finally, Mutagen Man was back to his gelatinous, if dazed, state.

 

Before the mutant could recover his senses and possibly attack them again (and before Donnie lost his nerve), the genius had dumped the retro-mutagen into the container, and stepped back to wait.

 

The effect was instantaneous. Immediately, Timothy's slime-like form began to pull itself together around his organs in a transformation that was almost to disgusting to describe, and had left many of the watching mutants and teenagers feeling sick to their stomachs.

 

When it was finally over, a whole and healthy Timothy lay unconscious at the bottom of Mutagen Man's jar, buck-naked (a sight that also made many of the observers nauseous), but completely human.

 

Pulling him out of the jar, and stuffing him into one of the oversized sweat suits the turtles wore to hide their mutation, Donnie waited on baited breath for his friend to awaken.

 

But when Timothy finally did, the first thing he did was groan and look around before asking the genius, "Who are you?" in an utterly confused voice, the lack of recognition on his face echoing his question.

 

Said question sent Donnie reeling, and he could do little more than gape at his friend as he tried to form a coherent answer. Finally he managed to ask in a strangled sounding voice, "Y-you don't remember me?"

 

Timothy shook his head. "No. Should I? Where are we anyway?"

 

Donnie made a strangled high-pitched sound in the back of his throat.

 

Seeing as it didn't look like he'd get any answers from Donnie, Timothy began gazing around the room, and his eyes eventually fell on Donnie's brothers and the Mighty Mutanimals.

 

Eyes widening at the sight of them, Timothy screamed.

 

And screamed.

 

And screamed some more, and no amount of coaxing or assurances could calm him down.

 

Finally the chubby boy's eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell back in a dead faint (probably from lack of oxygen from screaming).

 

They decided it might be better to move Timothy to the Shelter before he woke up again. Hopefully after the situation was explained to him, and there weren't any mutants in sight he would calm down. Maybe even remember his friendship with Donnie.

 

But now, two days later, that still hadn't happened. Timothy had absolutely no recollection of Donatello Hamato and their friendship, and the sight of both the genius, or any of the mutants or ninjas was enough to send the boy back into hysterics. He had hidden himself away in one of the back rooms of the Shelter, and refused to come out if any of the Hamato Clan or Mighty Mutanimals were present.

 

One of the other inhabitants of the shelter, who knew a thing or two about psychology, told them that it was likely Timothy had repressed his memories of his mutation and everything connected to it, and seeing any reminder of those events were causing his distress.

 

And apparently, everything included his friendship with the genius ninja.

 

The despair and guilt over his friend's condition had sunk like a heavy weight in Donnie's stomach, until finally he felt he had to get some air.

 

So here he was, being dangerously stupid as he sat atop a water tower in the middle of an alien-infested New York trying to clear his head under the night sky.

 

As he was absently toying with the idea of turning the water tower into a blimp, his siblings finally found him.

 

"You realize you're taking a huge risk just coming up here just to pout, right?" Leo asked, looking up at him from the rooftop below.

 

"Aw, stick it in your shell," snapped Donnie, not in the mood for a lecture right now.

 

Mikey blinked at Donnie's response, and glanced between Donnie and Raph briefly before asking, "Did D and Raph switch bodies when I wasn't looking?"

 

Raph gave his baby brother a dry look, before yanking the smaller turtle into a headlock.

 

Mikey squealed as Raph's arm wrapped around his neck, and chocked out, "My mistake. Totally Raph."

 

Miwa snickered at the sight, before turning her attention back to her remaining human brother. "Seriously though. I get that you need to sulk, but it'd be better if you were doing it somewhere where you weren't in danger of getting captured, tortured, and needing us to come rescue you."

 

Donnie sent his sister a dry look, before sighing and jumping down from the water tower.

 

"I know, I know," he said, still looking depressed. "It's just… I know you guys didn't think much of him, but Tim was my friend. And now he freaks out at the very sight of me, and I just-" he gave a helpless shrug, unable to fully convey what he was feeling.

 

His siblings exchanged sympathetic glances, and Mikey moved over to pat Donnie on the shoulder. "I know how you feel, dude," he said. "I'm, like, super worried Irma will have a similar reaction to us when we free her and the other Kraangatized humans. Just being friends with  _us_  got her kidnapped and traded out for that freaky Kraang Subprime jerk. Who knows how she'll feel about that." The youngest looked worried at the very thought.

 

Raph hesitated to address anything 'touchy-feely', but still added, "I get it too. I felt the same way when Slash went nuts on you guys. But you gotta remember that Slash has really turned himself around. For all we know, Pulverizer might do the same."

 

Miwa gave a disgusted snort at Raph's comparison, and Leo didn't look fully comfortable with it either.

 

The red wearing turtle turned in their direction, and raised an eye-ridge. "What?" he asked. "You two have had some beef with Slash and the Mutanimals since we got here. What's the deal?"

 

Miwa just gave a huff, and turned up her nose at the question.

 

Leo, on the other hand, twiddled his thumbs for a minute before opening his mouth to answer-

 

Only for his reply to turn into a strangled gasp as he caught sight of a white light suddenly appearing in the sky above them.

 

Startled by his reaction, Leo's siblings followed his gaze, and gaped as they saw it too.

 

Before their eyes, the white light expanded into a bright, glowing doorway, out of which a girl in a blue leotard, cape, and helmet appeared.

 

"Whoa!" gasped Mikey as the girl seemed to hover in midair before the doorway, holding a scepter with a large hourglass on one end in her hands and gazing around curiously.

 

Then the girl seemed to realize that gravity was a thing, and began plunging towards the rooftop with a scream.

 

Acting quickly, Mikey dove forwards to catch her, and the two landed in a heap on the roof.

 

As Mikey slowly untangled himself from the mystery girl, one thing took his notice as he got his first good look at her.

 

She was, with out a doubt, the cutest girl he'd ever seen, despite the weird helmet on her head.

 

"Whoa, are you okay?" he asked in a slightly dazed voice, dimly aware of his siblings gathering around to check on them.

 

Mystery girl turned and looked at Mikey, and gave him a small smile, and the turtle felt himself growing faint. Just when he thought she couldn't get any cuter.

 

The girl then turned her attention to the rest of them, and gasped. "Whoa," she breathed, looking thrilled to be in their very presence. "The leader, Leonardo. The warrior, Raphael. The badass, Miwa. The inventor, Donatello. And the cute one, Michelangelo."

 

Mikey beamed at being called cute, but the rest of the group were a little unnerved about how this total stranger seemed to know so much about them.

 

"Wow, that's me," said Mikey. "She knows us, dudes."

 

"I found you," the mystery girl said, jumping to her feet with a wide grin. "I actually found you! The Turtle Warriors of Legend when they're  _actual **turtles!**_  This is so grocking  _COLD!"_  she cheered.

 

The four boys could only stare at her, and wonder what she was babbling about, but Miwa noticed that they were about to have other problems. "Uh, guys," she said, drawing her tantō. "Need I remind you we are currently in enemy territory?"

 

The other's turned, and immediately saw what she meant. All the lights and noise from the mystery girl's entrance had caught the attention of the Kraang, and now several Stealth Ships were flying their way with lasers charged to fire.

 

Seeing that, the mystery girl gave a gasp of, "Oh grock." She then frowned in concentration and the scepter in her hands began to glow with a golden light.

 

Suddenly a bubble burst out of the scepter, and spread out around the rooftop they were on.

 

The Hamatos, who had been gearing up for a fight, blinked in surprise as all movement outside their bubble seemed to freeze in its tracks.

 

Seeing as they were seemingly no longer under alien threat, they turned back to the girl in hopes of getting some answers.

 

"Okay, start talking, sister," said Raph, jabbing his finger in her direction. "Who are you? Why did you call us legends? How do you even know about us? And how the  _heck_  did you do… all of  _that?"_  he waved at the golden bubble they were in as he said 'that'.

 

The girl looked slightly sheepish. "Um, in order. I'm Renet. I come from the future, and,  _wow_ , you guys are, like,  _so_  famous, and that's why I know about you. Meeting you is  _way_  more interesting than meeting Genghis Khan, or Billy the Kid, or Socrates!"

 

Donnie looked at her skeptically. "Please. You're saying you're from the future (which with the whole time freezing thing, I'm inclined to believe you on it), and  _we_  are important enough to be in history books? You expect us to believe  _that?_ "

 

Renet nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! You save the world! Many times!"

 

The five teenagers stared at her in shock. As of now, they had only really saved the world once with the Technodrome. But if she was telling the truth, and they were set to do that again, then that meant…

 

They all exchanged grins, and Donnie let out a cheer of, "Awesome! High five!"

 

The other four clapped their hands with his enthusiastically. If that meant they would find some way to beat back the Kraang, they would take a hundred girls falling out of weird glowing doors. This day was already looking up.

 

Meanwhile, Mikey was sidling up towards Renet with a cheesy grin on his face, and said, "Hey there, the name's Michelangelo. But you can call me Mikey, Angelo is my middle name."

 

"No it's not," said Miwa dryly, effectively shooting down her brother's attempt at flirting. "We're Japanese, we don't have middle names."

 

Mikey glowered at her for that, and Renet giggled.

 

"So, time travel, and apparently time manipulation," said Donnie, waving his hand at the bubble they were in and looking curious. "Would you mind explaining a little more about that?"

 

Renet beamed (which made Mikey shift his glare onto Donnie) and explained, "Oh, that's easy. I'm a Time Master." She held up her scepter, and struck a pose, only to stumble, and nearly drop said scepter. "Okay," she admitted. "Assistant Time Master In Training."

 

Mikey was looking at the girl with stars in his eyes, but his siblings exchanged skeptical glances with each other. "So how long until this all blows up in our faces?" asked Raph.

 

"I give it five minutes," said Leo.

 

"Less," remarked Miwa dryly.

 

Hearing them, Renet hesitated, and looked sheepish. "Yeah, you're not wrong there, I sorta need you help. See, I was kinda followed by an evil freak from the future who wants to control all of time and space."

 

The ninjas gaped at her as they absorbed that bombshell, and another doorway opened above their heads, and an ugly demon-like creature with large horns, and goat-like feet, and wearing large metal gauntlets floated out of it to glower down at the teenagers.

 

"Called it," said Miwa.

 

Renet stared up at the figure fearfully, and said, "It's him. Savanti Romero!"

 

Romero's mouth quirked at Renet's introduction, and he dropped from the door onto the rooftop with an impact that caused the whole building to shake.

 

Looking around with an unimpressed expression, the demon creature said in a pompous voice, "How droll. The early twenty-first century, mid Kraang invasion. Why would you pick this year?"

 

Renet backed away fearfully, and the ninjas jumped between her and the freak from the future with their weapons at the ready.

 

Looking amused, Savanti continued undeterred. "Oh, I see. The Turtle Warriors, of course." He gave Renet a smug glance. "But you must realize they can't defeat me? Your history is wrong. Give me the time scepter, and I shall let you live."

 

Renet simply stepped even farther away from him, and tightened her grip on the scepter nervously.

 

Not about to let some creep pick on a girl who had come to them for help, Leo said, "Ninjas, let's welcome this freak New York style."

 

With that the five of them rushed forwards to attack, but Savanti pressed a button on his gauntlets. Instantly he became surrounded in an orange bubble similar to the one Renet had created to keep the Kraang out of their hair.

 

Instantly the five teenagers were frozen in mid air, and Savanti Romero waved his hand at them as if swatting a pesky fly. Doing so caused the teenagers to be sent flying backwards and crash onto the roof in a heap, and left Renet unprotected.

 

The Time Master In Training stared up at the approaching demon-like creature as he held his claws out to her and demanded, "Give it to me, girl!"

 

"Not this time," snapped Renet, whipping the staff out in front of her as the hourglass began glowing with a golden light.

 

The light then burst from the Time Scepter with enough force to send Renet tumbling back, and blast Savanti clear off the roof and into another glowing doorway with a shout of, "NO!"

 

Jumping back to her feet, Renet beamed at them as she twirled her staff in her hand clumsily. "Wow! That was, like, the most evil Time Master  _ever,_  right? No worries, I sent him a hundred million years into the past."

 

The Hamatos just stared at her.

 

"I think I speak for us all when I say  _we have no **idea**  what is  **going ON!"**_ shouted Donnie. If he had known all this would happen earlier, he'd have picked a quieter rooftop to sulk on.

 

Renet winced. "Oh, right, yeah, sorry. Let me explain everything." She cleared her throat and said, "In the future, we Time Masters are the protectors of time, space, and reality itself. I'm apprentice to the top guy in our order, Lord Simultaneous. Last night, someone tried to steal the Time Scepter, a piece of tech so advanced it can not only control time, it can bend reality itself."

 

The Hamatos winced as they realized just how powerful and dangerous the scepter Renet was currently twirling like a baton was, and winced when it fell out of her grip and hit to the rooftop with a clatter.

 

Undeterred, Renet picked it up again and continued, "It was Savanti Romero, the evil mutant Time Master. With the scepter he could rule all of reality, changing history to suit his cruel whims. So I took it from him, and used it to lure him to the  _one_ era he could be defeated in. Now, by the  _famous_  Turtle Warriors."

 

But Leo spotted a glaring flaw in her story. "But we didn't defeat him,  _you_  did. So history was  _totally_ wrong."

 

Renet just blinked at them as Leo's words sunk in.

 

She was brought out of her musings when the Time Scepter began to glow in her hands. "Oh grock, this isn't good," she said in a worried tone. "Savanti is making changes in the past! He's trying to wipe us out in the present!"

 

"He can  _do_  that?" Donnie asked.

 

"Oh yeah, that happens a lot," said Renet, looking put out. "I guess I should have let you guys defeat him like history said." She turned to them with an imploring expression. "Can you help me?" she begged.

 

"Help you?" asked Raph incredulously. "We don't even know you!"

 

"Never stopped us before," Miwa remarked with a shrug.

 

"Come on guys!" Mikey said, moving to stand next to Renet. "One day we're going to be famous for doing great things! This is one of 'em!"

 

He then cast a glance at Renet to see if she looked impressed at his words, and was happy to see her beaming at him gratefully.

 

But before anything else could be said, a crash like thunder split the air, and a giant, glowing, white head appeared in the sky to angrily shout, "RENEEET!"

 

Renet gulped, and her face pinched in the expression of someone caught doing something they shouldn't. "Lord Simultaneous! Aw man, I'm  _so_  busted!"

 

"FOOLISH CHILD!" boomed Lord Simultaneous' voice. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?"

 

But Renet was already running. "We gotta get out of here!" she shouted. "Lord S is gonna kill me!"

 

With that she opened another time door, and dove through it.

 

Mikey rushed after her. "Renet, wait for me!" he shouted.

 

"Mikey!" yelled Raph in exasperation as their little brother dove through the glowing door after the girl they barely knew.

 

With an exchange of helpless shrugs, the four older siblings ran through the door after them, Lord Simultaneous' voice booming above them as they went.

 

"RENET, YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME! I  _WILL_  FIND YOU!" he shouted as the door closed after them.

 

With a yell of anger, the glowing white head vanished, and the time bubble Renet had cast over the rooftop disappeared as well.

 

Immediately the Kraang Stealth Ships descended onto the rooftop to capture the teenagers who had been there moments before, but to their utter confusion, not a soul could be found.

 

They immediately began playing the Kraang version of Rock Paper Scissors to see which of them would have the misfortune of reporting this failure to Kraangs Prime and Subprime.

 

______________________\

 

Within a peaceful forest in England, a glowing white door opened and deposited the six teenagers in a heap on the leaf-strewn floor.

 

Mikey was the first to get untangled, and he rubbed his head and groaned. "Urgh, where the heck are we?" he asked, looking around curiously.

 

"More like  _when_  are we?" said Renet as she slowly climbed to her feet.

 

Donnie spotted a signpost not far away, and moved over to take a closer look. "Avalon, Camelot, The Tower of the Demon," he read off it, before glancing at his siblings with a wince. "This is not good."

 

"Um guys, look," said Leo pointing off into the distance.

 

They all turned to see a sight that looked straight out of one of Sir Malachi's favorite movies. A lush green countryside spread out before them with very old-fashioned villages dotting across it, and a shadowy castle could be seen off in the distance.

 

"We're in medieval times!" shouted Donnie as the realization sank in.

 

"England in the year 980 A.D." said Renet. "That is so cold, right?"

 

Miwa scowled at the scene. "If we run into any Black Knights, French jerks, or freaks who say 'Ni!' I am going to scream."

 

A wide grin spread across Mikey's face, and he opened his mouth.

 

"Mikey, if you start quoting Monty Python I'll slap the green off you," Raph threatened, giving his brother a stern glare.

 

Mikey wisely snapped his mouth shut again.

 

"So why are we here?" asked Miwa, glancing at Renet. "I thought you said you sent that guy back to dinosaur times, or something."

 

Renet looked sheepish again. "Um, well, I meant to send him back a hundred million years, but I guess it fell short. You have to help me stop him."

 

Leo glanced at the rest of his siblings, and said, "Looks like we have no choice, guys. We gotta save history."

 

"Yes!" cheered Renet. "You guys are such groovy daddy-os!"

 

"Save the world, save history, is there anything we're not supposed to be saving?" asked Miwa rhetorically.

 

Renet grinned. "No, not much. You guys end up saving a whole lot of stuff."

 

Miwa hadn't been expecting an answer to that question, and blinked at Renet slightly for her response. Then she shrugged. "Something to look forward to, I guess."

 

Just then, Mikey perked up, and he hurried over to Renet. "Oh snap! Renet, I've got a rad idea!"

 

He whispered it into her ear, and she giggled. "The scepter can do that," she said happily. "It's just a little quantum manipulation."

 

Mikey grinned and moved over to stand by his siblings and posed as if he was getting his picture taken.

 

The Time Scepter began glowing once again as Renet spun it in her hands, and pointed it at the five of them before slamming the end of it into the ground.

 

There was a flash of gold light that blinded the ninjas, but once the sparks faded from their eyes, all but Mikey's jaws dropped in shock.

 

All five of them were dressed in the outfits Malachi had created in his Mazes and Mutants illusion the day they'd met him. But that wasn't what was so surprising to the ninjas.

 

What was surprising was that Leo, Raph, and Mikey no longer had the appearance of turtles. All three were  _human_  once again.

 

Leo yanked off the helmet of his knight outfit, and stared at his reflection in the shiny surface. "No way!" he gasped.

 

Mikey preened in his elf outfit, and tossed his long curly hair over his shoulder. "Way, dude," he said, waggling all ten of his fingers at his brother, enjoying having five on each hand again instead of three.

 

Raph stared down at the human hands poking out of his hobbit costume (though, fortunately, the transformation had not included the short height of said creatures), before snatching Leo's helmet from his hands, and stared at the face he hadn't seen in months with wide eyes.

 

Miwa in her thief outfit and Donnie in wizard robes and a beard exchanged glances before staring at the sight of their fully human family once again.

 

"It's only temporary, sorry," said Renet as they took in what happened. "History says you three stay turtles awhile longer in New York. It's kinda important to you guys getting your names in the history books."

 

Mikey grinned at their expressions. "I thought we should do the whole 'when in Rome' thing," he said brightly. "And with the three of us, you know,  _not_  looking like turtles, we'll be less likely to be burned at the stake or something."

 

"That's… actually pretty smart," said Leo in surprise at his brother thinking ahead.

 

Mikey's grin widened, and he leaned over to Leo and whispered, "Plus, I wanted to look extra sweet for Renet. It's the elf ears. Chicks dig 'em," he said with a wink, tapping at his now pointed ears.

 

Leo rolled his eyes good-naturedly, but before he could reply, the sound of hoof beats caught his attention.

 

They all turned to see four knights in full armor approaching on horseback.

 

"Halt, strangers!" called one of the knights in a whiny sounding voice. "This land belongs to the king. What business have you here?"

 

The teenagers exchanged glances.

 

Then Donnie spoke up in his best attempt to mimic the knight's whiny accent. "Good sir, we are trying to find the tower of Savanti Romero."

 

The knights jolted at his words, and the one who had spoken to them actually fell off his horse in shock. "Egad!" he shouted as he got to his feet. "You do  _not_  want to go there!" He then glanced around nervously, and added with a whisper, "You don't even want to speak his name, lest you summon him."

 

"Who?" asked Mikey in a loud, cocky voice. "Savanti Romero? That punk? Please, I could take that horn headed freak in my  _sleep_."

 

As Mikey spoke, a figure floated down behind him without his notice, causing his siblings to tense, and the rest of the knights fell off their horses in fear.

 

Heedless of this, Mikey continued his bragging. "He's chump change. A crumb snatcher. I'm not scared of him in the-"

 

He paused as it finally seemed to register to him the looks on all of their faced. "He's right behind me, isn't he?" he asked rhetorically, before looking over his shoulder with a whimper.

 

Savanti Romero snarled down at him with a mouth full of fangs, before he slammed his fist into Mikey hard enough to send him flying.

 

"FOOLS!" shouted Savanti angrily. Then, before anyone could react, he snatched the Time Scepter from Renet's grip, and sent her slamming into a tree.

 

Grinning at his prize, Savanti said, "Finally! The scepter is  _mine!"_  He then burst into a bout of evil laughter, holding the scepter above his head in victory.

 

Terrified, the four knights bolted away, leaving their horses behind.

 

Renet, however, got back to her feet, and glared at Savanti angrily. "The Time Scepter will never stop the Turtle Warriors!" She then hesitated, and added more weakly. "So maybe you'll give it back?"

 

"NEVER!" shouted Savanti as he slammed the scepter into the ground, causing to glow with its golden light. " _You shall be forever stuck in the confines of time!"_  he bellowed in an echoing voice as the light washed over the six teenagers.

 

"GET HIM!" shouted Leo once the light stopped blinding them.

 

But Savanti Romero merely laughed as they charged towards him, then vanished without a trace.

 

A moment later, the teenagers vanished as well, only to reappear a second later, watching as Savanti said, " _You shall be forever stuck in the confines of time!"_

 

"GET HIM!" shouted Leo again, only for them all to vanish and reappear once again.

 

" _You shall be forever stuck in the confines of time!"_

 

Realizing that this was the third time they'd heard that line, Raph glanced around and shouted, "What the heck is going on?"

 

"Yeah, didn't this just happen?" asked Mikey in confusion.

 

"Savanti must have stuck us in some kind of time loop," said Donnie worriedly just as they vanished and reappear again.

 

" _You shall be forever stuck in-"_

 

"-In the confines of time, we know, we know!" shouted Miwa in irritation. "Are we going to have to listen to this for eternity?"

 

"Dudes, I think we just might!" shouted Mikey as he started to panic.

 

Raph turned to look at Renet for ideas. "Well, Headdress?" he asked, "You got us into this!"

 

Renet glanced down at the knuckledusters on her hands, and a smirk spread across her face as she crashed them together, making them glow with a blue light just as they all vanished and reappeared in another loop.

 

" _You shall be forever stuck in the-"_  was all Savanti managed to say before Renet darted forwards with a shout, and slammed her fist into the demon's cheek.

 

Savanti staggered back with a grunt, and with a flash of gold, the time loop shattered around them, and the demon vanished from sight.

 

The siblings stared at the Assistant Time Master in awe. "You… punched out the time loop?" Donnie asked in amazement.

 

Renet nodded, looking bashful at all of their stares.

 

Miwa reached over and placed her hand on Mikey's shoulder. "She has my approval," the kunoichi said sagely. "Marry that girl."

 

Leo, Raph, and Donnie all nodded in agreement, still amazed at what Renet had done.

 

Mikey turned scarlet, and yanked the hood of his cloak up to cover his face in embarrassment.

 

"Come on," said Renet, who was also blushing at Miwa's words. "We, uh, we have to find Savanti." And with that, she awkwardly turned and hurried over to the horses the knights had left abandoned.

 

She, Leo, and Donnie mounted three of the horses without much trouble, but Raph looked uneasy as he approached the animals. "Why'd it have to be horses," he grumbled.

 

At Renet's questioning look at his comment, Miwa snickered and explained, "Let's just say, when we were little, Raph had a little incident on a pony ride, and-"

 

"SHUT UP!" shouted Raph, his face turning an angry red.

 

Miwa just laughed, and mounted the last horse, before waving for Raph to climb up behind her, which he reluctantly did.

 

Renet shook her head at their antics, before helping Mikey to climb up on her horse behind her, and they all took off towards the Tower of the Demon.

 

"So now we're riding a horse together, is this our first date?" Mikey couldn't help but ask as they went.

 

Renet sent him a teasing smirk. "Mikey, aren't you a little old for me?" she asked. "I haven't even been born yet."

 

Mikey bit back a whimper at that response, before his eyes lit up, and he replied, "Well, since we're in, like, King Arthur times, then I haven't been born yet either. Does that make us even?"

 

Renet giggled, and Mikey counted that as a win.

 

______________________\

 

Within a large castle that looked straight out of a horror movie, Savanti Romero sat upon his throne in the clock tower (despite such things not having been invented yet), and studied the Time Scepter as he tried to decide what evil he should do with it first.

 

"How will I go about controlling all of time and space," he mused aloud to himself. "So many possibilities for evil. Perhaps I'll dominate the present age, so the future will never exist?"

 

But his thoughts were interrupted as the Time Scepter began to flash. He waved the staff, and a yellow cloud appeared before him, showing Renet and the Hamato siblings riding towards his tower on horseback.

 

"What!" he growled at the sight. "Renet broke the time loop? Well played, girl. Well played. But Savanti Romero has other plans."

 

His laughter echoed throughout the clock tower as he used the Time Scepter to send another obstacle to seal the teenagers' doom.

 

______________________\

 

As they rode along, Leo noticed that Donnie had been oddly quiet throughout the entire ride.

 

Pulling his horse up along side his genius brother, Leo asked, "Still feeling down about the Pulverizer?"

 

Donnie glanced at his older brother, before heaving a sigh and nodding.

 

"Wanna talk about it?" Leo offered, making it clear he was willing to listen if Donnie wanted.

 

Donnie glanced up at their siblings and Renet, who were riding a few paces ahead, and not really paying attention to the two's conversation.

 

Seeing as they weren't likely to be interrupted, Donnie turned back to Leo and said, "I know you guys never really liked Timothy but…"

 

"But he was your friend," Leo finished for him. "And it hurts he doesn't remember you."

 

Donnie nodded, looking blue. "He was. Once you got him out of those stupid costumes, he was actually a lot of fun to be around, if for no other reason, than to do dorky things together that you can laugh about later. In fact, you'd actually have liked him, Leo, he was as big a Space Heroes nerd as you are."

 

Leo looked doubtful at that, but kept quiet, and nodded to tell Donnie to continue.

 

Donnie then sighed, and added, "But it's not just that he was my friend, he was also  _my_  responsibility. Father told me when I started teaching him some moves that by training him I was responsible for him. And… with all that happened…"

 

"You feel like you failed," said Leo, realizing what his brother was feeling.

 

Donnie gave him an angry look. "Leo, he was tricked into joining the Foot, turned into a goo monster trapped in a jar, driven insane with jealousy towards me and April, then frozen in an ice cube only to awaken in a city ravaged by an alien invasion, surrounded by mutants, and having no memory of how he could have possibly gotten there. I don't  _feel_  like I failed, I  _DID_  fail!"

 

At that admission, the anger drained from Donnie, and he repeated sadly. "I did fail him, and now I've lost a friend because of it."

 

Leo frowned, and leaned across the gap between them to place his hand on Donnie's shoulder while being careful not to fall off his horse in the process. "We all should have done better where Timothy was concerned, Donnie. We all failed, not just you."

 

He then leaned back into his saddle, and gave his little brother an encouraging smile. "But don't give up just yet. Timothy may remember in time, and we'll send the Kraang packing in the meantime. Even if we messed up before, we can still find a way to turn it around."

 

Donnie sent Leo a grateful glance, and nodded. "Thanks, Leo."

 

The genius then faced forward to see where they were headed, and his face fell as the broken archway leading into a creepy cemetery drew closer, and he could see the other two horses paused in front of it. "Though somehow, I don't see this scenery helping to improve my mood any," he said dryly as he and Leo caught up with the others.

 

Leo winced and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, but Savanti's tower is just past this uber creepy cemetery," he said, pointing towards the menacing tower in the distance. He then urged his horse forwards into the graveyard, and the rest of the group exchanged uneasy glances, before reluctantly following after him.

 

Uber creepy was an apt way to describe the place. It was dark, desolate, and there were piles of bones littered throughout the crypts and tombstones, making the place look like something out of a horror movie.

 

As she steered their horse past the graves, Miwa leaned back slightly and whispered to Raph, "So what are our odds of this going south in the next five minutes."

 

Raph snorted. "With our luck, high. My money's on skeleton zombies, you?"

 

"Evil spirits," said Miwa. "Usual wager?"

 

"Done," Raph replied.

 

Mikey had been cowering in his and Renet's saddle, and hearing his brother and sister's words had only increased his anxiety. "Can we go, like,  _around_  the uber creepy cemetery?" he asked, wishing he still had his shell so he could hide within it.

 

"That would be the smart thing to do," added Miwa pointedly.

 

Leo opened his mouth to no doubt give a perfectly reasonable response to explain why they were taking the obviously most dangerous path, rather than do what Miwa had labeled 'the smart thing', but before he could utter a word, Savanti Romero appeared overhead in a flash.

 

"FOOLS!" the demon bellowed, startling their horses, and causing Raph to fall off his. "Do you think you can sneak up on the greatest Time Master ever? Savanti Romero rules everything… even  _death!"_

 

With that, the Time Scepter in his hands glowed, and the ground began rattling under their feet as boney hands began bursting out of the Earth, making all the horses throw their riders off in panic.

 

From where he was sprawled on the ground, Raph leapt to his feet, and couldn't help but punch his fist in the air and yell, "Ha! Called it!"

 

Miwa grumbled as she climbed to her feet as well, and passed Raph some money.

 

Leo shot the two a glare. "Really not the time now, guys," he said as he drew his swords, and prepared to fight the skeleton hoards.

 

"Dudes, this is like my worst nightmare times ten!" shouted Mikey as he helped Renet to her feet.

 

"Even worse than a world without pizza?" Donnie couldn't help but ask incredulously.

 

Mikey blinked as he thought about that, before amending, "Okay, second worst."

 

Savanti laughed at their predicament, before vanishing once again, leaving them to their fate.

 

With the skeletons surrounding them, the ninjas and Renet surged forwards to beat them back.

 

Donnie, Miwa, and Renet seemed to have no trouble fighting off their boney opponents, but Leo, Raph, and Mikey seemed to be having some trouble.

 

Raph clashed his sais against a skeleton, and tried to out muscle the bag of bones, only to fine himself being overpowered by the skeleton's strength. "Is it me, or are these freaks stronger than they look?" he called to the others.

 

Mikey, who had opted using his elven bow over his nunchucks, found himself getting pushed back as one of the skeletons crashed its shield against it. "It's not just you!" he replied.

 

The youngest caught sight of another skeleton attacking from his back, but didn't move much to stop it.

 

Only to be tackled out of the way by Miwa, before the skeleton could drive its sword into his unprotected back. The skeleton instead crashed into the one that had been attacking Mikey from the front, and they both fell to the ground in a pile of bones.

 

"What are you thinking?" Miwa shouted at her little brother for his recklessness.

 

Mikey frowned at being yelled at. "What's the deal, it was just gonna hit my-" He broke off and blinked as he realized something.

 

"-Shell," Leo finished for him, as he struggled to take down his own skeletal attacker. "We've gotten so used to the strength and protection from being turtles, that to be suddenly without it-" he broke off in order to dart forwards, and slice through the skeleton with a single blow, scattering its pieces, "-makes fighting a whole lot harder," he finished.

 

"So we gotta relearn our limits," said Raph as he used his sais to disarm his opponent, and kick the boney attacker away. "I can work with that."

 

Still, three teens who had been human since the start of this journey stuck closer to the three former turtles just to be safe.

 

Just as it was looking like they were winning, the skeletons began to slowly reassemble themselves for round two, swarming the teenagers once more.

 

As Mikey used his bow to shoot the head off a skeleton that was trying to sneak up on Renet, the time girl's glowing knuckleduster fizzled and winked out.

 

"Well, my energy knuckles are burned out," she said to Mikey, who was still letting arrows fly next to her. "I brought the only weapon I have left is a single entropy dart. One last resort to destroy the scepter."

 

Mikey paused from his arrow shooting to give Renet a panicked glance, and the others didn't take the news too well either.

 

"Destroy the scepter?" asked Donnie, looking at her worriedly. "But we'll be trapped here forever!"

 

"And from what I know of history, I do  _not_  want to be a woman in this time period," added Miwa. "I'll be burned as a witch before the end of the week."

 

Leo, meanwhile, managed to find his and the others horses, and drove them towards where his siblings were fighting.

 

Mounting his, Leo called out, "Come on Turtle Warriors of Legend! Let's ride!"

 

The others quickly remounted their horses, and rode as swiftly as they could out of the cemetery.

 

The skeleton hoards attempted to give chase, but the moment they set foot out of the graveyard grounds, the crumbled to the ground as harmless piles of bones once more.

 

Seeing that, Miwa grumbled, "All the more reason we should have gone  _around_  the cemetery in the first place."

 

Leo shot her a dirty look, but said nothing.

 

Once they were safely away from the cemetery, Leo insisted they get off their horses and spar for a few minutes for the three former turtles to get semi-used to their limits once again, before riding on to face the demon.

 

It wasn't long after that that their horses carried them to the threshold of Savanti's castle.

 

Leaving the horses outside, the teens used ninja stealth to make their way into the fortress (Mikey aiding Renet in her sneaking skills), and worked their way up the clock tower to find Savanti sitting upon his throne, still pondering how to best rule time and space.

 

"I suppose I could conquer the twenty-fifth century fairly easily," he mused aloud. "But I really want to see the  _look_  on the other Time Masters' faces when I neutralize them."

 

As the demon-like creature chuckled evilly at that thought, the ninjas and Renet positioned themselves on the rafters above him, ready to strike.

 

They were silent for a moment, waiting for the best opportunity, only for Savanti to glance up at them with a bored expression and say blandly, "Come on, attack. I haven't got all the time in the world." He grinned wickedly at the scepter, and added, "Most of it, yes."

 

Needing no further prompting, the teenagers dove from the rafters to attack Savanti all at once, but the demon merely activated the scepter to freeze them in mid air.

 

"Toys are such fun," sneered Savanti. He then reversed time, and put them all back up in the rafters a few moments before they'd jumped.

 

"Okay guys, we'll sneak across on that chandelier chain, and-" Leo was saying before he broke off as a wave of déjà vu hit him. "Wait? Didn't we just do this?"

 

"Aw no," groaned Donnie. "He's messing with time again."

 

"GET HIM!" shouted Raph, and they all leapt from the rafters once again, only to be caught in glowing orange bubbles on the way down.

 

"You make it all so easy," taunted Savanti as he lounged on his throne, smirking at them all. He chuckled sinisterly as he got to his hooved feet, and began pacing in front of their bubbles, contemplating what horrible fate to bestow upon them.

 

"Shall I freeze you in time forever?" he said, smirking at the teenagers as he walked past each bubble. "Devolve you back into six little monkeys? Ohohoh, or perhaps primal sludge?"

 

Mikey actually looked thoughtful at Savanti's musings. "Primal sludge doesn't sound so bad," he said, cocking his head thoughtfully.

 

"Primal sludge is  _real_  bad, Mikey," Renet corrected him from the bubble next to his.

 

"That goes without saying," muttered Miwa, glowering at Savanti as he passed her bubble.

 

The demon merely chuckled at her sour look, and tapped on her bubble just enough to jostle her, laughing as she wobbled within the bubble, and glared at him like she was trying to set him on fire with her eyes.

 

While Savanti's attention was focused on the kunoichi, Renet readied her entropy dart. If there was no way they could beat Savanti, at least she would keep the Time Scepter out of his hands as well.

 

Seeing this, Donnie hissed to her, "Don't use it, we'll never get home!"

 

Renet hesitated, before aiming her dart again.

 

Only instead of aiming for Savanti, she aimed it towards Mikey's bubble and fired. The dart popped both of their bubbles sending the two tumbling to the floor with a yelp.

 

Savanti turned at the sound, and upon seeing them free, he shouted, "WHAT!"

 

But Mikey was already moving. In a lightning fast motion, he had his kusarigama in his hand, and sent the chain flying at the demon, tying him up, and causing him to drop the Time Scepter.

 

"Aw yeah!" cheered Mikey as Renet dove for the scepter.

 

With the time device out of Savanti's hands, the bubbles around the rest of Mikey's siblings vanished, and the four ninjas surged forwards to help.

 

Seeing this, Savanti roared, "NO!" and managed hit a switch on his throne the entire clock tower to shake, making the teens loose their balance, and cause the Time Scepter to slip out of Renet's reach off the platform and into the giant grinding gears below.

 

A second later, the platform around the throne retracted into the walls, sending the teenagers falling towards the gears as well.

 

Undeterred, Renet hopped from one gear to the next, trying to get to the scepter, only for Savanti to be right at her heels, his girth making the entire tower shake every time he landed.

 

Determined to protect Renet, Mikey was right behind them, and delivered a roundhouse kick to Savanti. "Forget it, Freak job!" he shouted.

 

With a snarl, Savanti grabbed Mikey and threw him into Donnie, who had been coming to aid him. The two fell in a heap on one of the gears.

 

Mikey groaned and rubbed his back as he and Donnie got back to their feet. "I forgot how much it hurts not to have a shell," he said with a wince.

 

Savanti just sneered at them.

 

Taking advantage of that distraction, Raph and Miwa dove at the demon from opposite sides, but Savanti merely tapped a button on his gauntlets and another bubble appeared around him, protecting him from harm no matter how much they hammered at the glowing surface.

 

Leo came over to try and help them, only for Savanti to burst the bubble in a shockwave that sent all three flying away from him.

 

Barely catching a gear to keep from falling to his doom, Raph shouted to the others, "He's invulnerable!"

 

Deeming the ninjas beneath his notice for now, the demon once again began making his way towards the Time Scepter and Renet, who was still chasing it.

 

Landing on the gear both were on, Savanti breathed fire at her, sending both the scepter and the girl tumbling downwards.

 

Renet managed to catch herself, and the chase was on to reach the scepter, all of them hopping from gear to gear after the staff as it kept falling down the tower.

 

Every time Renet would get close to the scepter, Savanti would be there to beat her back, only to be beaten back himself by the ninjas as Renet picked herself up and made another attempt.

 

Finally, the ninjas managed to surround Savanti at all sides, and succeeded in distracting him enough from Renet that he was unable to move past them.

 

That didn't mean that they were winning, it just meant they could keep him pinned in one place.

 

As Savanti threw Mikey into Leo (who promptly agreed having a shell hurt less) and backhanded Miwa away, Donnie managed to get close and grabbed the scepter, "We just need to-!" the genius started to say, but Savanti grabbed him by the throat before he could finish.

 

The demon snarled at the teen in his hand, and prepared to breath fire in the genius' face.

 

But before he could, Raph suddenly reared up behind them, and drove his blade into Savanti's gauntlet. "-Need to do  _this!"_  the ninja dressed as a hobbit shouted as the gauntlet began to crackle with electricity.

 

Savanti dropped Donnie and roared in pain as the lightning from his gauntlets electrocuted him, and spread throughout the tower, forcing all the gears to stop moving.

 

Savanti fell to his knees, and only had time to mutter, "Oh dear," before Mikey kicked him in the face once again, sending him flying off the platform.

 

"It's the blue button, Donatello!" shouted Renet hurriedly, wanting to end this fight before Savanti could get his second wind.

 

Pressing the button she had indicated, Donnie said, "Let's see how this thing works!"

 

The scepter shone brightly in his hands, and he aimed it at Savanti Romero with a fierce glare.

 

Savanti stared back at him fearfully, and said, "Turtle Warrior, let's talk before you make any rash decisions!"

 

But Donnie would have none of it, and he used the Time Scepter to zap the cowering demon, and send him through another glowing door, this time for good.

 

Just to be sure, Raph turned to Renet and asked, "So are you sure this time? Is he gone for good?"

 

"Absolutely," said Renet confidentially. She then paused, and added, "Sort of… Ninety-six percent certain."

 

"Oh that's reassuring," said Miwa, trading an uneasy glance with her brothers.

 

Before any of the Hamatos could question Renet further, a crackling noise cut through the air, and Lord Simultaneous' head appeared above them once again.

 

Renet winced as her mentor's voice boomed through the clock tower. "RENET! YOU MUST COME BACK TO THE FUTURE  _NOW!_  YOU! ARE!  _GROUNDED!"_

 

Renet rolled her eyes and groaned, "Aw grock." In a louder voice she replied, "On my way, Lord Simultaneous. Just gotta drop off my friends first."

 

Lord Simultaneous looked at the five ninjas, and for the first time his face shifted from scorn to something like impressed. "OH? THE TURTLE WARRIORS OF LEGEND? VERY COLD!" he said before vanishing once again.

 

With a sigh, Renet turned to the others and said, "Okay everybody, let's go home."

 

Seeing as this might be his last chance to do so, Mikey shifted nervously and said, "Renet? Can we kick it in the future together? Just you and me for a little while?"

 

Seeing his hopeful expression, Renet's face broke into a warm smile. "Aw," she said, "I would love that, Mikey. Maybe someday when I'm after I'm done being grounded."

 

With that, she leaned over and kissed Mikey on the cheek, and Miwa had to dart forward to catch him before he swooned off the platform.

 

Shooting the time girl a smirk over her brother's head, the kunoichi said, "I have dibs on being the Maid of Honor."

 

That snapped Mikey out of it, and they both turned pink.

 

"L-lets go home, Turtle heroes," stuttered Renet as she tried to regain her composure.

 

With a wave of the Time Scepter, Renet opened another door, and they all walked through, Mikey calling "COWABUNGA!" as he did so.

 

Only this time, flying through time was not as smooth as before. As they moved from one time to the next, flashes of lightning split the void and made the ride bumpy and terrifying.

 

"Oh no!" shouted Renet in a panicked voice as she struggled to hold them all together to get through. "Time interference! Something's wrong!"

 

Just then,  _something_  seemed to latch on to the Hamato siblings, and drag the away from Renet.

 

"GUYS!" shouted Renet as she wheeled around and used the Time Scepter to try and catch them before they got too far away.

 

But before she could pull them back, a swirling vortex opened up behind them, and sucked the five ninjas in, leaving Renet floating in the darkness alone.

 

"Oh no," she breathed worriedly, before urging the Time Scepter to find them again.

 

But for once the scepter didn't glow, or do anything to help her.

 

______________________

 

In a forest just outside of Tokyo, a time door opened up, and deposited the five Hamato siblings in a heap.

 

Unfortunately, Leo had landed on the top of the pile, and being that he was still dressed in a heavy suit of armor, it made things very uncomfortable for everyone involved.

 

When they finally untangled themselves, Raph got to his feet and groaned, "Where the heck are we now?"

 

"The time stream must have been messed with," said Leo as he tugged off his helmet, and looked like he was contemplating just chucking it away. Focusing back on the matter at hand, he turned see a city in the distance.

 

Recognizing it, Donnie said, "We're in  _Japan?_  Well, at least we're back in modern times."

 

Miwa snorted. "Yeah, I'm gonna love explaining to Father how we ended up on the other side of the world. Not to mention how much trouble it's going to be to sneak back into New York City."

 

Her brothers all winced as they realized just how much trouble they were in.

 

"At least it can't get any worse," said Mikey brightly.

 

"Please tell me you didn't just say that," Raph groaned.

 

On cue, a volley of arrows embedded themselves in the ground at the teenagers' feet, making them all jump back in alarm.

 

Standing back to back in a circle, the teenagers' eyes widened as they caught sight of their attackers.

 

"Dudes, ninjas!" Mikey whispered as he readied his bow to fire.

 

Indeed out of the trees leapt a squadron of ninjas in red suits. All of whom were wearing a very familiar symbol on their uniforms.

 

The Hamato crest.

 

"I think we're in  _deep_  trouble," Leo said to his siblings as the red ninjas closed in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is late. Yeah, I did Turtles in Time early. There's a reason for this. Which I will explain later ;)


	53. Back to the Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the teens find themselves in their parents' past. they try to navigate their way home without erasing themselves from existence.

Once it sank in this was really happening, the five teenagers bolted.

 

To sum things up, they were in a country on the other side of the world from where they should be, quite possibly a time period not their own, they were still tired and sore from their medieval adventure with Renet, and now they were being chased by ninjas while still wearing the Mazes and Mutants outfits said Apprentice Time Master had given them.

 

Needless to say, it was a strange day, even by their standards.

 

Unfortunately for them, the ninjas in red clothes gave chase to the teenagers, before surrounding them once again.

 

Like lightning, one the squad attacked the teenagers, making them scatter and defend themselves as best they could.

 

But these ninjas were far more skilled than the Foot Ninjas or Foot-Bots had ever been, and they had numbers on their side. It was quickly became clear that this was a battle the teenagers could not win.

 

"These guys are  _good!_ " shouted Donnie as barely dodged a sword swipe to the neck, though it still managed to slice off the wizard beard he's been sporting since Renet had cast her spell.

 

"Less admiring, more butt kicking," Miwa snapped back as she locked swords with the own opponent, only to be sucker punched by another ninja coming in from the left.

 

Raph barely dodged a volley of shuriken, which imbedded themselves in a tree not far from where Leo had another ninja in a headlock, giving the boy in the knight costume a good look at the crest blazoned upon them.

 

"They're not just ninja," he called to the others. "They're Hamato Clan! Father's-"

 

Before he could finish, the ninja in his grip managed to pull free, and punched Leo in the face, knocking off his helmet.

 

"But the Hamato Clan doesn't exist anymore! Right?" shouted Raph, whose sais were locked above his head as he held off his own opponent (and hoping that none of these ninja understood English, otherwise they'd be in even bigger trouble for saying such things).

 

Before anyone could answer him, the ninja he was fighting head butted Raph and kicked him back. The rest of his siblings received similar treatment and they were all tossed together in a heap as the ninjas closed in on them once again.

 

"What is going on here?" asked a chillingly familiar voice in Japanese, making the five teenagers tense.

 

The crowd of ninjas parted, allowing a Japanese man who looked barely in his twenties, and dressed in crimson Hamato robes to step past them.

 

"Shredder?" Leo whispered as he and his siblings all jolted in recognition of the man who had (and someday would) make their lives hell.

 

Oroku Saki didn't seem to hear the knight, and he sneered at the sight of the siblings. "Is  _this_ what all this fuss is about?" Saki asked to the ninja squad. "A group of silly  _cosplayers?"_

 

The squad of ninjas shifted as if sheepish of their superior's assessment.

 

Saki then turned to glare at the teenagers. Addressing them, he demanded, "Who are you and what are you doing here? This is private land?"

 

The siblings hesitated, and exchanged glances wonder what they could even say. It wasn't like they could introduce themselves as the future children of Saki's adoptive brother and the love of his life. With how young (and  _not_  horribly burn-scared) their future enemy looked, who knew if Shen and Yoshi were even dating yet.

 

Needless to say, that moment was a really rotten time for Renet's spell to wear off, reverting Leo, Raph, and Mikey back to mutant turtles, and shifting Donnie and Miwa into their own black ninja garb in a flash of golden light.

 

Instantly the surrounding ninjas jerked away from the five teenagers with cries of alarm. The teens themselves weren't much better off as they tensed in shock at what had just happened.

 

" _Yokai!_ " gasped Saki in horror at the sight of them. "This cannot be!"

 

It was then that Mikey recovered enough of his wits to throw down a smoke bomb, and allow he and his siblings to vanish into the trees.

 

The ninja squad stared around in confusion as the smoke cleared to show the strange intruders were no longer there.

 

"Saki-san, what were they?" asked one of the ninja.

 

"I do not know," Saki replied. "But I  _will_  find out."

 

He then turned to lead the squad away, intending to report this finding to his father.

 

__________________________

 

The second they were sure they had ditched the ninja squad and freaky young Shredder, Mikey let out a sigh of relief. "Whew, close call, dudes. Awesome save by Mikey, thank you very much."

 

"Yeah, yeah, give yourself a pat on the back," said Miwa as she ran next to him.

 

Mikey grinned, and tried to do just that, only to find that his shell was in the way, making himself look very awkward as he tried to run and bend his arm around his shell at the same time.

 

Donnie, meanwhile, was looking thoughtful. "Oroku Saki was part of the Hamato Clan  _before_  he became the Shredder. From what out parents told us, at some point around the time Mother and Father got engaged to be married, he found out about his true heritage and stormed off, never to be seen again until…"

 

"Until the night Mother got those scars on her back," said Raph darkly, thinking of the ugly marks that had adorn his mother's back for as long as he could remember.

 

Donnie winced and nodded. "Right," he confirmed.

 

Leo did the calculations in his head. "So we're at least eighteen or nineteen years in the past before he left. But why here? Why now?"

 

"Who knows?" growled Raph angrily. "Twenty bucks says it's all Renet's fault. She doesn't know the first thing about time travel."

 

Miwa however looked contemplative. "Maybe we're here so we can kill Shedder before he becomes the problem we know he'll be."

 

Her brothers fell silent as that thought was posed to them. None of them had taken a life before, but to off Shredder before he could murder their clan, scar their mother's back, drive them from their family home, attack them mercilessly in his thirst for vengence, and directly or indirectly cause the mutations of four of their family members was a  _very_  tempting thought.

 

But in the end, Leo regretfully shook his head. "As much as I hate to admit it, no. If Shredder had died before he could leave the clan, the four of us would have never been born in New York, and probably none of us would've be there to stop the Kraang."

 

Miwa looked grudging, but conceded Leo's point. Terrible as Shredder was, Earth would probably have been screwed if the Hamatos hadn't been in New York to stop, and continue to fight the Kraang.

 

"And if you want to be totally accurate, we might end up not even existing in the first place," added Donnie. "If events don't play out as they're supposed to, who's to say Mother and Father would, er, conceive us, and you know…"

 

Raph made a face of disgust. "Thanks Donnie. I  _so_  needed that mental image," he said sarcastically.

 

"Yo guys, check it!" Mikey called from up ahead. They turned to see the youngest crouched by some rocks as he stared at something in the distance.

 

Moving to stand by him, they followed his gaze to see a dojo with the Hamato crest decorating it. "That's Dad's old dojo, right?" asked Mikey, already knowing the answer.

 

Leo's face turned serious, and he began making his way towards the dojo silently. "Come on, ninjas," he whispered over his shoulder. "Maybe Father and Mother are in there."

 

As the teenagers crouched hidden outside the dojo's door, they could hear the sound of Oroku Saki's voice floating out of the building.

 

"I saw it with my own eyes," said Saki as he sat stiffly in front of a wizened old man, surrounded by more ninja, most likely from the patrol the teens had encountered. "At first we thought they were simply teenagers in costumes. But then they changed right before us. Three of them were small green men in masks, clearly the yokai of legend, and they were accompanied by two ninja I have never seen before."

 

"Who's the old guy?" whispered Mikey in confusion.

 

Miwa elbowed him to be quiet. "That's our grandfather, Dummy. He died before even I was born," she hissed.

 

Mikey's eyes widened in wonder, and he looked at the old man with new interest, "Grandpa?"

 

Sensing what his brother was thinking, Leo placed a restraining hand on the back of Mikey's shell. "I know you wanna meet him, Mikey," the leader whispered. "But we  _can't_  be seen."

 

Mikey looked crestfallen, but stayed hidden.

 

The teens' grandfather, Hamato Yuuta, listened to Saki's story silently, his face betraying no emotion.

 

But before the old man could say anything in response, laughter rang out through the dojo.

 

"Yokai?" said a familiar voice with an equally familiar face stepped into the room. "Your imagination has run wild, Saki."

 

The five siblings could stop the gasps of shock that burst out of them at the sight of the man only a few years older than they were.

 

Drawing back, Leo shared a goggle-eyed look with his brothers and sister. "Whoa, young Father," he breathed.

 

"He looks like he did in those old photos," whispered Miwa, remembering one of the few photo albums Shen managed to salvage when she and Yoshi fled to New York.

 

"He looks so weird without his beard," Mikey muttered, leaning further into the door to get a better look.

 

Worried he'd be spotted, Raph jerked forwards and grabbed Mikey, yanking him back into hiding.

 

None of them noticed how Hamato Yuuta's eyes flickered in their direction briefly before focusing back on his sons before him.

 

Yoshi seemed not to have noticed the stir he'd caused, and sauntered over to stand by Saki with a smirk. "Small green men? Spirits? Ninja aside from those in our clan? Monsters?" He laughed and patted Saki on the head in a fond but patronizing way. "Your head has always been in the clouds, brother. The only magic in these forests is there when Chung I is visiting, and he is off in China at the moment."

 

"Do not be too dismissive of the supernatural world, Yoshi," said Yuuta calmly. "Chung I is not the only source of mysticism within it. There are many dimensions, many beings that permeate what we call reality."

 

"He has  _no_  idea," mumbled Miwa, thinking of her own multi-dimensional adventures.

 

"My apologies, Father," said Yoshi, bowing to the Ninja Master before taking a seat next to his adopted brother. "Please, continue Saki. Let us hear more of this  _interesting_  tale," he added, his tone making it clear he still didn't believe a word of it.

 

Saki scowled and rounded on Yoshi. "Do not mock me, Yoshi!" he snapped. "I know what I saw!"

 

Any other angry words were cut off as Yuuta began coughing into his hand, looking sicker and frailer than before. "Some legends say, when the yokai arrives, tragedy is sure to follow."

 

Those listening failed to see the old man's eyes flicker towards the eavesdropping siblings once again.

 

Mikey, meanwhile, shot a glance at his siblings and asked, "Wait, so they think  _we're_ yokai? Like in Mom's stories?"

 

"Apparently," said Raph gruffly, remembering how Shen had mentioned his resemblance to a kappa when he first mutated months ago.

 

"Or at least that you three are, anyway," added Miwa. "I'm not sure what they think of us."

 

"So our father, our grandfather, and our mortal enemy think you three are mythical Japanese monsters. Just great, as if this couldn't get anymore complicated," muttered Donnie sarcastically.

 

Leo sent a glare at his siblings, and held his finger to his lips. "Shh," he hissed. "How many times do I have to tell you guys that ninjas are  _silent!"_

 

All Leo got for his troubles were four silent raspberries blown in his direction.

 

While the five of them were having that exchange, Yuuta had risen to his feet, and left the room, most of the other ninjas filing out after him until only Yoshi and Saki were left.

 

With a gruff sigh, Saki rose to his feet, and moved to stand on one end of the tatami mats as Yoshi mimicked him on the other side of the room, and prepared to spar.

 

"I tell you, Yoshi, we  _all_ saw them," said Saki as the two bowed stiffly to each other.

 

"It reminds me of the yokai friends we invented as children," said Yoshi as he shifted into a fighting position and the two began circling each other. "Remember Saki?"

 

Then with a cry, both men rushed forwards to strike.

 

The five watching teenagers were awed by the speed and precision of their father and future enemy, but even as they fought they continued their conversation.

 

"You never listen to me," growled Saki as he locked his arms against Yoshi's, trying to out muscle his opponent. "Just like Tang Shen!"

 

Yoshi jolted at the mention of the woman they both loved, and Saki used that to his advantage to knee Yoshi in the gut.

 

Knocked back a few steps, Yoshi recovered and scowled at his brother. "Yet again you speak of Shen?" he said angrily, only to duck as Saki aimed a kick at his head.

 

"You care nothing for her," snapped Saki. "Only for the clan! Only for yourself!"

 

That made Yoshi angry, and with a series of precise blows, he threw Saki to the ground hard, making his future children wince as the saw the impact.

 

Yoshi stood over where Saki lay, arms crossed as he tried to reign in his temper. "That is not true, Brother!" he protested. He then took a deep breath, and said in a more sympathetic voice "I have always been there for you."

 

He then held out his hand to help Saki to his feet, only for the latter to smack the hand away in rage, making Yoshi draw back with a hurt expression on his face.

 

Saki took no notice of it, or simply didn't care as he growled up at Yoshi, anger permeating his every feature.

 

But before he could snap at Yoshi again, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye, and he turned just in time to see the doors to the outside snap closed, and five figures bolt away into the woods.

 

"What?" said Saki, as he jumped to his feet, and both he and Yoshi hurried over to investigate.

 

But when they opened the door, no one was there.

 

Trying to find some sign of their mysterious intruders, Yoshi glanced to the ground and paled. "Perhaps I was too hasty to dismiss your tale, Brother," he said.

 

At any other time, Saki would have rubbed such words in Yoshi's face. But upon following Yoshi's gaze, his own eyes widened, then narrowed dangerously.

 

Set into the mud outside the dojo was the clear impression of a footprint. One far too large and round to be human, and only consisting of three pointed toes.

 

Meanwhile, the five teenagers bolted through the forest away from the dojo as fast as they could, each trying to fully process what they'd just heard and witnessed.

 

But before they could get too far from the dojo, a stick came out of nowhere and caught Donnie around the foot, sending the genius sprawling to the ground with a cry, and causing the rest to stop and turn back.

 

Groaning as he got back to his feet, Donnie looked up to see the elderly man from the dojo frowning down at him.

 

"So my son was correct," Hamato Yuuta said as he stepped fully out of the foliage. "Three kappa have come to our land, and bring with them two ninja unknown to us."

 

He paused, and studied what he could see of Donnie's face more closely. "Or perhaps not," he amended with an unreadable expression on his face. "I've seen eyes like those before on my son, but you are not any relation I am aware of."

 

Donnie winced, knowing he got his red-brown eye color from his father's side of the family, but before he could respond, Raph was grabbing his arm in a vice grip, and dragging him away from the old man with a protective expression on his face.

 

The red wearing turtle made sure to shove Donnie behind him along with Mikey as they regrouped with the others, and made sure he was shielding the two of them as best he could. Hamato Yuuta may look like a frail old man, but Raph knew he was a ninja master in his own right, and could probably kill them all in a heartbeat if he was so inclined. He was not about to let his younger brothers be hurt, grandfather or not, and from the looks on Miwa and Leo's faces, they had the same idea as him.

 

Yuuta studied Raph's actions, before saying, "I have seen such brash and protective anger in my Yoshi as well," he said evenly, though his eyes regarded them all with suspicion. "Tell me, children, who are you?"

 

Leo hesitated, before stepping forwards and bowing respectfully to his grandfather. "I am Raion, and this is my family, Armonia, Iyasa, Gifuto, and Tenshi" he said, nodding to each sibling in turn. "We mean no harm to you or your clan, Master Yuuta, and I assure you that we will leave as soon as we are able."

 

Yuuta regarded the lead turtle stoically, but before he could reply, a new voice rang out through the forest.

 

"Father!" shouted Yoshi, running into view with Saki at his heels.

 

Yuuta turned to glance at his approaching sons, and when he turned back the five odd teenagers had vanished once again.

 

Frowning slightly, Yuuta followed his sons back to the dojo, listening with half an ear to their discovery of yokai footprints outside their home.

 

Something was odd about those yokai and their companions, more so than usual.

 

He just hoped that whatever it was would not bring about tragedy.

 

But he feared that outcome none-the-less.

 

__________________________

 

After the initial panic at being trapped in a time before any of them were even born had died down, the teenagers found a secluded area of the forest to camp out and wait for Renet to come and bring them home.

 

Only the Assistant Time Master in Training never showed.

 

Days went by, and the sibling were no closer to get tingback to their own time period aside from taking it one day at a time.

 

Mikey moaned dramatically as he slurped at his plastic bowl of instant noodles and sat in front of their campfire. "We haven't had any  _real_  food in days," he moaned. "And we can't keep eating this instant stuff forever."

 

"If you'd rather forage for berries and bugs, be my guest," said Miwa pointedly, tossing another log onto the blaze. "But we have no idea how long we'll be here, and there's only so much we can afford with just Donnie and I doing odd jobs for cash."

 

That caused Mikey to duck his head guiltily. As the only ones still human shaped, Miwa and Donnie had been doing the most to provide the five of them with what they needed from the nearby city.

 

Raph groaned in annoyance, and asked out loud, "Is Renet ever gonna find us and bring us home?  _Seriously,_  I hate time travel."

 

Leo, who had been thinking hard for the last few hours, looked up and said, "I've been giving it some thought. Kinda seems like more than just coincidence we're here, right?"

 

Donnie did some mental calculations, and replied thoughtfully, "Well, the odds that we're in this exact time and place by sheer accident is eight hundred seventy-nine quintillion to one, but… if we're here for a reason, what is it?"

 

The other four exchanged glances and shrugged.

 

"Maybe Mi was onto something when she suggested taking out Shredder now," suggested Raph.

 

"Still a tempting idea, but I don't think so," said Leo. "That would change too much in our own time stream."

 

"Not to mention cause a paradox," added Donnie. "If Shredder died before we were born, then we may not have come back in time, nor would we have known to kill him now in the past."

 

Miwa stared at the campfire thoughtfully. "Maybe we're here to get stronger," she suggested.

 

Her brothers turned to look at her in confusion, so she explained her theory, "The Kraang have taken over New York City, and with the Shredder backing them, the odds are  _not_  in our favor of winning, even with the Mutanimals helping us. And even if we did beat the Kraang, there's still the matter of curing everyone. Maybe we've been sent back here in order to train through the years and become strong enough to fight them off once we catch back up to the present. It would also give Donnie more time to make enough retro-mutagen for everyone, provided we managed to get him what he needs to make it."

 

The quadruplets exchanged glances, turning that idea around in their heads. While not ideal, it wasn't too far out of the realm of possibility, but still…

 

"If that was the case, don't you think we'd have been dumped somewhere where we're less likely to mess up our own births?" Leo asked. "Somewhere more, you know, out of the way that's good for training, and with better access to the science stuff Donnie would need to do that?"

 

"Plus, the key ingredient for the retro-mutagen is April's DNA," added Donnie. "And she hasn't been born yet either."

 

Miwa shrugged. "I don't know, it's just a thought. And if Renet never shows, we really should start planning ahead."

 

The five of them sat in silence as she suggested that, hoping it wouldn't come to that, but fearing that might be the case, with only the crackling of the fire being heard in the still night.

 

They sat contemplating their plans and possibilities for who knows how long, when suddenly the snapping of a twig split the air like a gunshot through the quiet forest.

 

That was all the warning they had before a figure leaped from the trees, and aimed a sword at Donnie's unprotected back.

 

The genius barely managed to roll out of the way, and he and the rest of the ninjas were on their feet in seconds, darting for the tree for cover, and pulling out their weapons.

 

The figure straightened from his attack, and the glow of the campfire revealed it to be Saki, glaring murderously in their direction.

 

"Come out, wretched monsters," he called to them. "I will not allow you to curse this land."

 

The siblings made no move to follow Saki's demands, and prepared themselves to either fight or flee.

 

"Tenshi, we need an exit," hissed Leo as he drew his swords.

 

"I'm out of smoke bombs, dude," Mikey whispered back frantically.

 

Before any of them could suggest another course of action, Saki's sword was driven straight through the tree hiding Raph, missing his left shoulder by barely an inch.

 

Raph let out a strangled gasp at how close he'd come to impalement, and before he could gather his wits, Saki rounded the tree and hit the turtle in the face, sending him sprawling to the ground.

 

Before he could get back up, Saki loomed over him with his sword, and prepared to stab him through the back.

 

But before the blow could fall, Mikey's kusarigama chain wrapped around the blade, giving Leo enough time to grab Raph and help him to safety.

 

With a growl, Saki drew a kunai and sliced through the chain, before throwing the blade at Leo's back.

 

Not about to let their brother get stabbed in the back again, Donnie dove out of hiding, and deflected the kunai with the bladed end of his naginata.

 

Before Saki could attack her brothers a fourth time, Miwa leaped out of the trees with a cry, and clashed her tantō against the blade of his katana.

 

"You're the one who's a monster," the kunoichi hissed angrily as she locked her blade against Saki's.

 

Saki glowered at the girl, and with a snarl he shoved forward with enough force to knock Miwa off her feet, and land on the ground hard on her back.

 

Miwa groaned, but before she could recover Saki raised his sword over his head to strike.

 

Only for another figure to jump between them, and stop Saki's sword with a loud clang of metal.

 

Miwa looked up expecting to see one of her brothers, only to blink in surprise when she realized that it was a woman standing between her and Saki, dressed like she was ready for a night on the town (aside from the long knife in her hands locked against Saki's sword).

 

"What are you doing, Saki?" the woman demanded in a hauntingly familiar voice.

 

As Miwa gaped at the sight, the woman turned around and a hand was lowered into her point of view. Upon seeing who the hand belonged too, the downed kunoichi almost passed out.

 

"Are you alright?" asked a much younger and very much human Tang Shen kindly.

 

Shen's face then pinched in concern at the sight of the teenage girl, even though Miwa's scarf concealed most of her face, there was no mistaking the way her eyes were wide and goggling at the sight of the young woman.

 

It was all too much, and Miwa ignored the hand and bolted into the woods as fast as her legs could carry her.

 

Saki moved to chase her, but Shen stood in his way to block him.

 

"Step aside!" Saki demanded.

 

"No, I will not. Why are you attacking that poor girl, Saki?" demanded Tang Shen. "What could she have possibly done to deserve such treatment?"

 

"She and a boy are in league with the kappa plaguing this forest," snarled Saki. "We  _must_  get rid of them."

 

Shen looked like she didn't fully believe Saki's claim. "Kappa?" she asked in surprise.

 

Saki nodded at Shen, then his expression softened. "It is dangerous here tonight," he said to her. "Let me walk you home, Shen."

 

Shen hesitated, and drew back. "Thank you, Saki, but I can take care of myself. I am also meeting Yoshi soon, and…" she trailed off and hesitated, knowing such was a sore subject to Saki.

 

Saki scowled, and raised his hand like he was about to protest, before letting out a sigh, and turning to leave. There would be no finding the yokai and their companions tonight.

 

Shen also gave a sigh, sheathed her knife, and hid it away in her purse before turning to head towards where she was to meet Yoshi.

 

Though something told her she would not be having as much fun that night as she had anticipated.

 

__________________________

 

_"This is bad!"_

 

The next morning after the attack from Saki, the five time-displaced siblings awoke to Donnie's shouting.

 

Bleary-eyed and exhausted from the run around the night before, Leo groaned as he sat up and looked over towards his panicking genius brother, who was staring at his cell phone with a horrified expression.

 

"What's bad, Donnie?" he asked tiredly.

 

"And can't it be bad later?" groaned Mikey, who rolled over to try and sleep longer.

 

" _NO!_ It can't wait! April's  _gone!"_ Donnie shouted hysterically, showing his siblings his phone screen.

 

His words roused the rest of them, and they all leaned in to see what he was talking about.

 

What they saw on the screen woke them up like a splash of ice-cold water. Displayed on screen was a photo they remembered taking just before they left the farmhouse to go back to New York City. In it, the five siblings, Casey, April, and Metalhead had been posing on the front steps of the house, doing their best to smile before charging off to battle.

 

Only now, the image of April standing arm-in-arm with Donnie had vanished completely, leaving the Donnie in the photo standing awkwardly with his arm bent around nothing.

 

"She vanished right before my eyes," Donnie whimpered. "I miss her, and wanted to see her face this morning, and she faded out of the picture right in front of me."

 

"I don't understand," said Raph. "How's that possible."

 

Mikey looked meek as he whimpered, "Don't you guys watch Sci-Fi? It's just like that movie. This sort of thing happens when you change the  _future_. We're doomed, dudes!  _Doomed!_ "

 

Miwa's face darkened considerably. "It does make some sort of sense," she said. "Anything we do here could change our personal future. And if we never went to New York, then no one would have been there to save April from the Kraang."

 

Donnie's face turned ashen, and he looked like he was about to faint from worry for his girlfriend.

 

"But what did we do that changed the future?" asked Leo.

 

"Well, Shredder attacked us last night. Maybe that had something to do with it," said Raph angrily. "I say we fix it."

 

"And how do you propose we do that, Raph?" asked Leo sarcastically. "Beat him until the future goes back to the way it was."

 

Raph shrugged. "I can't say I'm opposed to that plan."

 

"He might be right," said Miwa. "Mother showed up and stopped Shredder from attacking me while you were getting Raph to safety. Maybe that encounter with her, I don't know,  _did_  something that polluted the time stream."

 

"It could have been that," said Donnie, still looking faint. "Or it could simply be that  _we_  are polluting the time stream just by being here. And the longer we're here, the more warped it becomes."

 

Mikey cringed and clutched at his head. "Dudes, all this time talk is making my brain hurt!" he cried.

 

"So what do we do?" asked Leo, looking lost and worried.

 

Donnie shrugged hopelessly. "Hope Renet gets here and helps us fix things before they get worse."

 

"How could they get worse?" asked Mikey.

 

"Please tell me you didn't just say that," Miwa groaned.

 

Just then, a twig snapped behind them, followed by the unmistakable sound of the jingle of a chain swinging in the breeze.

 

"You had to say it!" growled Raph as they all tensed, and searched the trees for the source of the sound.

 

"Think Shredder's back for round two?" asked Donnie, drawing his bō.

 

"I'd say we're about to find out," Leo replied as they huddled back to back to each other, keeping their eyes peeled for the attack that was sure to come.

 

But despite them all being as prepared as they could be, they were still caught by surprise when a weighted chain swung out at them from the shadows, flew between Raph and Mikey and hooked around Leo's leg, and pulled his feet out from under him, sending him crashing into his siblings. The teenagers all fell to the forest floor in a heap of yelps and curses.

 

But despite being at the bottom of the pile, Leo was still wrenched out from under them, and dragged swiftly towards the wielder of the chain.

 

Recovering his wits quickly, Leo used his sword to slice through the chain on his leg, before rolling into a crouch and throwing a shuriken in the direction of his attacker.

 

The throwing star was caught in between a pair of slender fingers, as the attacker stepped out into the light. The rest of the teens, who had managed to untangle themselves at record speeds and ready themselves for a fight, froze at the sight of him.

 

Once again, Master Yuuta stood before them with a calculating expression.

 

Leo quickly drew back to his siblings, and they all prepared to bolt the second they got the opportunity.

 

But Master Yuuta merely examined the shuriken in his hands thoughtfully. "How is it, I wonder, that a kappa such as yourself managed to gain possession of a blade such as this," he said, turning the shuriken so that they could all see the Hamato Crest engraved into the center.

 

Leo paled as he realized his mistake, and they all shifted uneasily.

 

Hamato Yuuta seemed paid no heed to their nervousness, and began circling the group slowly. "It was not stolen," he said as if pondering the question to himself. "Or my ninja would have reported it missing. And clearly you are well used to using it, if your aim was anything to go by."

 

Yuuta glanced at the skittish teenagers for answers, but all he got in response were several deer-in-the-headlights expressions.

 

Yuuta sighed, before beginning his circle again. "I must admit, you five are a mystery even this old man cannot solve. Three of you are clearly not human, despite that you act as a family, and trust as one as well. You appear out of nowhere, and yet seem to know my family's fighting style as if you'd been trained in it your whole lives. Last night, you attacked my son, and then fled at the sight of a single kunoichi-"

 

"Hey, Oroku Saki attacked  _us_  first!" snapped Miwa, unable to stop herself.

 

"He nearly took my head off!" added Raph angrily.

 

"And tried to stab me in the back!" said Donnie indignantly.

 

"We were just having a camp out, dude," Mikey whined. "Then he came out of nowhere and made me drop my dinner."

 

"Guys, shhh," hissed Leo, glaring at them for the interruption.

 

But Yuuta let out a small chuckle at their complaints, and said, "In many ways you are strange, yet in others you are clearly still adolescents. Truly, I do not know what to make of you children."

 

He then turned, and began walking towards the dojo. "Come," said the old man over his shoulder, clearly expecting them to follow.

 

The teenagers remained frozen where they stood, expressions of utter confusion on their faces.

 

"Come?" Leo questioned.

 

"My foolish son spoiled your dinner last night, did he not," said Yuuta, not looking back at them as he continued on. "It is only right I grant you a meal in recompense."

 

At the mention of food, Mikey immediately perked up and began to hurry after Yuuta.

 

Seeing this, Leo caught his baby brother's arm to stop him. "What are you doing, Tenshi?" he asked.

 

"Dudes, free food," said Mikey jerking his head in the old man's direction. Then at their annoyed expressions he added in a lower voice, "Plus, when are we ever gonna get another chance to have brunch with _Grandpa?_  This is a once in a lifetime opportunity."

 

The others shared a glance, before gazing after Yuuta, who was still continuing onwards despite their hesitance.

 

Finally, with a loud sigh, Leo said, "I'm gonna regret this." But still he released Mikey's arm and followed after the orange wearing turtle to catch up with Yuuta, the rest hurrying after as well.

 

__________________________

 

Soon the five ninjas found themselves sitting within the dojo before Hamato Yuuta as he poured tea for all of them to go with their food.

 

It was a tense and awkward silence as the teenagers stared nervously at the grandfather they had never known, but the elderly man ignored their stares, his face betraying no emotion as he went about his task.

 

By some miracle, the six of them had managed to make it to the dojo without anyone else seeing them, but the siblings remained ready to bolt in the case that someone walked in on them.

 

The tense silence was finally broken when Yuuta looked up at Miwa and said, "Are you of any relation to Tang Shen?"

 

The four brothers froze, and Miwa (who had taken off her hood and scarf for the meal) was only able to produce a strangled choking sound in response.

 

Hoping to change the subject, Leo cleared his throat to gain everyone's attention. "Er, Master Yuuta, sir, we- uh," he struggled to find something to say, but how does one start a conversation with the man who they've never before met, and who's adopted son would eventually go off the deep end from jealousy, slaughter his entire clan, and go on an over fifteen year long crusade to hunt down Yoshi for his perceived revenge against him.

 

Yuuta inclined his head slightly to show he was listening, before looking at the lead turtle again expectantly.

 

Leo shifted uncomfortably, before bowing and saying, "Thank you for the meal, Sir," he said respectfully.

 

His siblings followed his example and bowed as well, leading Yuuta to look almost amused.

 

"You are so much like Tang Shen, young Raion," he remarked with a small chuckle. "Always so formal and polite, despite what you truly feel."

 

At yet another comparison to their mother in a row, Leo shifted even more uncomfortably, and hoped Yuuta would not continue to pursue the question.

 

Fortunately, Yuuta instead set down the teapot, and waved his hand at the food before. "Please, help yourself."

 

The five teenagers quickly clasped their hands and said a quick thanks before eating, or in Mikey's case, shoveling food into his mouth, leading to Miwa smacking him for his poor manners.

 

"Do not abuse the kappa, young woman," said Yuuta, making Miwa freeze and look sheepish. "I have raised two boys, and I am afraid Yoshi had similar manners when he was young as well."

 

Mikey preened at being compared to his father, and Miwa's face turned incredulous at the idea of their ever-proper father having such terrible table manners.

 

As they ate, Raph noticed the abundance of cucumber on his, Leo's and Mikey's plates, and rolled his eyes at them, knowing it was another aspect of the kappa legend.

 

"I am curious," said Yuuta as he slowly raised his own teacup to his lips. "How is it you knew my son's name was  _Oroku_  Saki, when even he does not know his true origin."

 

The elderly man then calmly sipped at his tea as the five teenagers promptly choked on their own meals.

 

Realizing what they'd let slip, Leo thumped his fist against his chest to clear his airways in hopes of giving an answer to cover for them. "Er- well- that is- we-" he spluttered, trying to find something to say.

 

"It's 'cause we know the future," said Raph bluntly next to him, causing all heads to swivel in his direction.

 

Yuuta stared at Raph with an expression of mild interest, while his siblings stared at him with looks that said they were clearly questioning his sanity.

 

Raph rolled his eyes at these reactions, and held up a slice of cucumber for them all to see.

 

"You gave us this, so clearly you know about that old story," he said bluntly, ignoring how looks of realization began dawning on his siblings as he spoke. "Girl meets kappa. Kappa scares girl. Girl chucks cucumber at kappa's head as a result. Turns out, kappa  _likes_  cucumber, and tells girl how to save her village from a hurricane. End of story."

 

Yuuta let out a cough that might actually have been a laugh, and there was no denying the amused expression on his usually stoic face. "That is certainly the most… unique telling I have ever heard. But yes, I do hope to know what misfortune will soon befall this area that it has drawn yokai near."

 

That led to an uncomfortable silence as the five teens exchanged glances. With the delicate balance of the future at stake, there was no telling what could destroy their future, but with Raph admitting to their knowledge, it would be hard to get out of saying  _something_  if only to appease the grandfather they'd never known.

 

After a moment of deliberation, they all turned to Leo in a silent agreement to follow his lead.

 

' _Great, no pressure or anything,'_  Leo thought to himself as he tried to figure out what to say.

 

He turned to look back at Yuuta, who was watching them expectantly.

 

"It is difficult to know, er, what to tell you, and what not too," Leo started honestly. "To know what to change, and what shouldn't be changed. Some very bad things are going to happen to your clan, and… we don't know how to stop it without something even worse happening later on…" He then bowed his head apologetically. "Sorry, this probably isn't making a whole lot of sense."

 

Yuuta nodded in understanding. "Time is a tangled web of decisions and choices," he said sagely. "What may seem like the right choice at one hour can be seen as a grievous mistake at the next."

 

Mikey leaned over and whispered to Donnie, "Wow, now I'm seeing where Father gets his advice from."

 

Donnie rolled his eyes, and elbowed Mikey in the shell to quiet him down.

 

Paying no attention to the youngest two, Yuuta continued, "Tell me what you deem necessary, and keep secret that which you deem dangerous. Any information to help my clan is valued."

 

Leo hesitated one final time, before sighing and saying, "Like I said. There is a great danger coming to your clan in the future, Master Yuuta. But two of the most important things you need to know are this. One is that the danger revolves primarily around your two sons, and Tang Shen. And two, is that Shen and Yoshi  _must_  raise their children in New York City. The fate of several lives depends on it."

 

Yuuta's eyebrows raised, before they pinched into a frown. "My Yoshi? Go to America?" he asked. "I had wanted him to continue the family dojo here. To be the next head of our clan."

 

"He can still do both, Gran-er-dude," said Mikey, barely catching himself before he referred to Yuuta as 'Grandpa'. "Fa-uh-Yoshi's gonna open the  _best_  dojo in New York. It's totally rad, with a lot of foot space, and big upper floor with lots of room, a great basement, and loads of secret-"

 

Donnie had to clap his hand over Mikey's mouth before he spilled the entire floor of their home to the ninja master.

 

Yuuta stared at the pair with an eyebrow raised. "It seems your ability to foresee what is to come is quite clear," he said dryly.

 

Mikey shoved Donnie's hand off his mouth, and rubbed his head sheepishly.

 

Before anything else could be said, the sound of running footsteps reached their ears, and the siblings bolted for hiding places.

 

Just as they vanished from sight, the screen door of the room slammed open, revealing Yoshi who had an expression that looked to be a cross between eagerness and nervousness, followed by a cheerful looking Shen, and a curious but petulant looking Saki.

 

"Good, you are here, Father," said Yoshi when he saw Yuuta. "I must tell you the most wonderful news."

 

Despite the odd advice he had just been given, Yuuta schooled his features, and watched his son expectantly.

 

"Enough beating around the bush, Yoshi. What is it you are so eager to tell us?" Saki growled, but it was clear from the look on his face he had already guessed the answer, and was dreading it.

 

Yoshi's smile wilted slightly, but then Shen moved to stand beside him, and he gained confidence again.

 

"Last night, I asked Shen to be my wife," Yoshi announced to his entire family.

 

"And I accepted," said Shen with a smile, taking Yoshi's hand in hers, and beaming up at him.

 

From their hiding place up in the rafters, Miwa could see Mikey getting misty-eyed next to her at the realization of what they were witnessing. She quickly slapped a hand over his mouth to keep him from cooing over the scene below them.

 

Yuuta smiled at the happy couple and nodded his congratulations to them. Even without the kappas' prediction moments before, he had seen this event coming for many months now. It had been something he had been greatly anticipating, and…

 

He turned to glance at Saki to see his reaction.

 

… Something he had also been dreading.

 

Saki was frozen where he stood, looking as if he could not fully comprehend what he had just heard.

 

Then slowly realization began dawning on his face, and all those in the dojo witnessed first hand the myriad of emotions that flashed across his face.

 

Horror, denial, regret, disappointment, and rage shifted through his features for them all to see, until it finally came to a stop on the last one.

 

Seeing this, Shen hurried forward and took Saki's hand. "I am sorry, Saki," she said. "I know you care for me. But please understand, this is  _my_  decision to make. I only ask that you accept it, and let me go."

 

Behind her, Yoshi looked as though he wanted to move forward and comfort his brother, but knew his doing so would be greatly unwelcomed in the light of what was happening.

 

The rage on Saki's face melted briefly, and he stared at Shen with an expression of pure longing.

 

But then the fury returned, and he jerked away from her. "Never," he said hoarsely, before storming out of the room, slamming the screen door behind him so hard it made the entire dojo rattle.

 

There was a tense silence following his departure that seemed to stretch for eternity as the room's occupants both seen and hidden held their breaths.

 

Finally, Yoshi broke it with a heavy sigh. "Sad to say, but he took the news better than I thought he would," he said. "Though I will likely sleep with one eye open tonight, so he doesn't try to gut me."

 

Shen scowled and swatted his arm.

 

"Give your brother time, Yoshi," said Yuuta. "One's heart can bring the greatest of joys, and the deepest of pains. Healing from the latter requires patience and care. Saki is strong, he will recover from this if he chooses to do so."

 

Yoshi nodded, still looking disappointed. "I suppose it was really too much to hope that he might actually be happy for us," he said with another sigh.

 

Shen glanced up at him, and gently took his hand in hers. "Do you regret it?" she asked softly.

 

Yoshi's eyes snapped up to meet hers, and he clasped her hand tightly in both of his, and looked at his new fiancé imploringly. "Never, my love," he said earnestly.

 

Shen smiled up at him, and the couple quietly walked hand in hand out of the room, leaving Yuuta alone with his mysterious guests once again.

 

The five of them carefully slipped from their hiding places, and hesitated.

 

It was clear to them they had overstayed their welcome, but if they just left things as they were…

 

Sensing the source of their anxiety, Yuuta said, "Thank you for bestowing an old man with your wisdom," he said. "Come back again should you ever be hungry."

 

Hearing the dismissal in his words, the teenagers turned to leave Yuuta to his thoughts.

 

But as they reached the door, Yuuta called after them one last time.

 

"The danger you foresee, it comes from Saki, doesn't it," he asked rhetorically.

 

The siblings froze at the door and exchanged glances.

 

Their silence was answer enough, and Yuuta nodded solemnly. "I see."

 

After a moment's hesitation, the five teens slipped out the door and vanished back into the forest.

 

There was nothing more they could do for now.

 

__________________________

 

An antique rack of hundred-year-old katanas went flying across a far room of the dojo, smashing to pieces as it hit the ground.

 

Saki let out a bellow or rage, and sent another rack of weapons to join the first's fate.

 

His anger far from abated, Saki continued to wreak destruction on the furniture and priceless artifacts decorating the room.

 

_He **loved**  Shen!_

 

_Yoshi didn't deserve her, **he** did!_

 

_It should be **him**  marrying Shen, not Yoshi!_

 

_This was **not**  supposed to happen!_

 

_It shouldn't be Yoshi!_

 

_It should be **him!**_

 

**_Nobody but HIM!_ **

 

Soon the room was in shambles, and Saki stood breathing heavily in the center of it.

 

With a final yell of fury, he fell to his knees and slammed his fists against the floorboards.

 

Only for his hands to break clear through the boards, and reveal a hidden compartment beneath them.

 

The surprise at finding the compartment broke through his haze of anger.

 

Carefully, Saki pried the boards up to fully reveal a locked chest hidden beneath the floor.

 

Curious, he pulled the chest up out of the compartment, and set it on the floor before him.

 

Brushing off the dust covering the box, he started in surprise as he recognized the crest etched into the chest.

 

The Foot Clan Crest.

 

Why was a box bearing his clan's former rival's crest hidden beneath the floorboards of the Hamato Dojo.

 

Saki, of course, knew of the Foot Clan's history. They had been a rival clan known for their cruel methods, leading to a bitter and bloody rivalry between them and the Hamato Clan. When he and Yoshi had been babies, their father had led a charge against the Foot Clan, and the ensuing battle had left the Foot crippled. They had never recovered from their loss that night, and died out not long after that. In that time, the Hamato Clan had flourished, and had been unequalled ever since.

 

Perhaps this was some spoils of war left from that battle. A trophy taken from the Foot to show the Hamatos' greater might.

 

But then why was it hidden away, and not displayed proudly to deter other future enemies of the clan?

 

And if it was some trophy, what did the box contain?

 

Unable to leave these question unanswered, Saki carefully picked the lock on the box, and peered inside.

 

Resting within the chest was only two things, a journal and a metal kabuto with three long points.

 

Ignoring the helmet for now, Saki reached down for the journal, and opened it, skimming the first page.

 

Only to freeze, and stare at the page with abject horror as the words upon it slowly sank into his brain.

 

Then with a sort of frenzy, he tore through the rest of the book, reading every word on its pages as if his life depended on it.

 

When he finally reached the end, the tome fell slack from his hands as he sat rigidly in the room, its words spinning in his head.

 

It now made sense why these 'spoils of war' weren't displayed with pride. There was no need for them…

 

…Not when the greatest prize of them all was in full view for all to see.

 

The son of the deceased Foot Clan leader,

 

_Him._

 

So much made sense now. So many mysteries in his life suddenly were becoming crystal clear.

 

Almost in a daze, Hamato Saki-

 

No,  _Oroku_  Saki, reached over to pick up the helmet, the Kuro Kabuto if the journal he'd read was correct, and stared at his reflection on its gleaming surface despite its years shut away.

 

"It seems this was my destiny all along," he said softly under his breath.

 

He now knew what he must do.

 

__________________________

 

As the five siblings returned to their new campsite in the forest, on a whim, Donnie pulled out his cell phone to see if April's picture had come back.

 

Only to pale as instead of his girlfriend returning, he watched as Casey Jones began fading out as well.

 

"GUYS!" he shouted, pointing the screen at them.

 

They all turned, and gaped as their hockey-loving friend vanished before their eyes.

 

"Hockey Boy," Miwa gasped in an oddly chocked voice.

 

Raph looked ashen at the idea of loosing his best friend, and slumped against a tree as he no longer felt his legs would hold him up. "Casey never was one to stand back and let bad things happen," he said, his expression pale and drawn. "He'd fight against the Kraang no matter the odds, and without back up…"

 

The red wearing turtle didn't have to continue. They all knew Casey would fight for what was right no matter how suicidal the battle was. And without them there to pull him back, he'd either burn himself out or get shot for being reckless.

 

Leo slammed his fist against a tree. "We made the wrong choice," he said, regret pouring off him in waves. "We shouldn't have gone with Yuuta. We should have stayed away from the dojo."

 

"What's the plan now, Leo?" asked Mikey, looking more than a little scared.

 

Leo's eyes narrowed in determination. "If we've already changed the future, then the only noble thing we can do is finish Shredder once and for all."

 

His brothers and sister all nodded in determination. One way or another, this would all end soon.

 

__________________________

 

Hamato Yuuta stared at the destroyed room with a look of resignation.

 

The day he had always feared had not only arrived, but had come at the worst possible time.

 

Any hope he had that the secret remained undiscovered was destroyed when he found the ripped up floorboards, and empty chest.

 

Saki, his beloved son, now knew the truth.

 

And in his distraught emotional state, Yuuta did not know what he would do, but he had his suspicions, and they  _must_ not come to pass.

 

The sound of footsteps behind him alerted Yuuta to the approach of his other beloved son.

 

"Father?" said Yoshi. He then froze as he took in the sight of the wrecked room. "What has happened here?" he asked.

 

"Something I have been dreading since you were very small, my son," said Yuuta gravely. He then turned away. "Come," he said as he started moving. "We must find your brother."

 

"Saki?" asked Yoshi in surprise. "Is he in danger, Father? Are we under attack?"

 

Yuuta refused to meet Yoshi's eyes. "Of a sorts," he admitted. "And I fear that if we do not find him quickly, he will be lost to us forever."

 

Yoshi paled, and hurried on ahead, rushing out into the forest with the intent on finding his brother.

 

Yuuta followed at a more sedated pace, fearing that it may already be too late to save his second son.

 

But still, he had to try.

 

__________________________

 

Saki stood in the shadows and observed the gathered ninja in the clearing of a shrine.

 

He had called forth all the ninjas he trusted. The ones he knew were more loyal to  _him_  than to the clan.

 

Once they had all arrived, he lit a torch and stepped into view, causing them all to start in surprise at the sight of him.

 

No longer was Saki dressed in his crimson Hamato Clan robes. Now his clothes were dark purple, and bore his true crest. The Foot Crest.

 

Jumping atop the shrine to address them all, Saki said, "The Hamato Clan has gotten weak. It is rotting from the inside. The Foot was the oldest of all ninja clans when it was wiped out by Hamato Yuuta," he spat the name of his father figure as if it were poison as he told the story he'd heard his entire life with an entirely new perspective. "When he slayed its master, Oroku Kaiji. My  _father."_

 

The ninja before him's faces were hidden, but even so, he could still see their eyes widen in shock over the news.

 

"I was adopted by the Hamato Clan as an infant," continued Saki, jumping down from the shrine and striding towards them. "Raised by my enemy in  _ignorance!_  I will have my revenge on them  _ALL!"_

 

With that, he threw his torch at the shrine, setting it ablaze.

 

He then lifted a flag bearing the Foot crest from the ground, and raised it high.

 

The message was clear. Join me, or you will burn.

 

One by one, the gathered ninja kneeled before their new master.

 

The Foot Clan had been reborn.

 

But suddenly the kneeling ninjas tensed, and began reaching for their weapons in alarm.

 

Following their gaze, Saki turned to see five shadowy figures crouched on the roof of the burning shrine. Three of them were large and bulky with eerie white eyes shining in the fire's glow. The other two were more human shaped, but still ominous as they glared down at the gathered ninja with accusing stares.

 

"Yokai," Saki whispered, recognizing the figures instantly and backing away from them.

 

Turning and walking through his men, Saki ordered, "Finish them quickly! I have business to attend to," before vanishing into the trees.

 

The Hamato-turned-Foot ninja leaped to their feet, and drew their weapons.

 

The five Hamato siblings leaped down from the shrine with their own weapons drawn, determined to fight their way through the ninja, and finish their target.

 

For a moment, nobody moved as the two groups studied each other wearily.

 

Then one of the Foot Ninja shouted, "You will die here, monsters!"

 

Miwa let out a derisive snort. "After you,  _traitors!"_  she snarled at those who were supposed to be her clan-mates.

 

That caused the standstill to break, and both parties rushed forward shouting battle cries.

 

Like before, the Foot Ninjas' training was far superior to those of the Foot-Bots in present day, but this time around the teenagers had an advantage.

 

The Foot Ninjas were  _terrified_ of them, and the teens took a great deal of joy in scaring them even further.

 

Cackling like maniacs, the five of them slipped in and out of the shadows, using the eerie light of the burning shrine to play up the creepy factor of their movements.

 

Mikey rattled his kusarigama chain as he slammed the weighted end into the face of one of the Foot Ninja, sending him sprawling to the ground. Leo darted out of the shadows to grab another by the shoulders and drag him away screaming. Raph would rise up out of the shadows and tackle his victims into the ground with a feral sounding roar. Donnie stood on his hands, and jumped across the nearby statues as he attacked, his odd posture giving his form a contorted shape in the dim light. And Miwa was using every ounce of her terrifying rage to send any ninja she targeted into a fit of panic, and declaring her the most demonic of them all.

 

With the Foot Ninjas now scared senseless, the five of them climbed up onto some of the statues decorating the shrine, allowing their silhouettes to loom sinisterly over their enemies.

 

Wrapped in his own chains like Jacob Marley, Mikey shouted in his spookiest voice, " _Booyakasha!"_

 

That was the final straw, and the ninjas all fled in terror of the fearsome 'kappa' and their equally wicked friends, throwing cucumbers over their shoulder as they went.

 

As soon as they were gone, Mikey turned to his siblings and beamed. "We should  _so_  do this again next Halloween," he said cheerfully as he munched on one of the discarded cucumbers.

 

Leo rolled his eyes, and jerked his head in the direction Saki had gone. "Come on, Shredder couldn't have gotten far!"

 

The rest of them nodded, and they all took off into the darkened trees, determined to end their families' bloody feud before it even began.

 

__________________________

 

Yoshi continued to rush through the trees, keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of his brother.

 

But even as he ran, he had to wonder just what danger his brother was possibly in.

 

Had the mysterious creatures that Saki had been speaking about attacked him or was it some other outside danger? Why had his father been so unclear when he told him?

 

 _Where_ was Saki?

 

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Yoshi saw someone standing among the trees. He skidded to a stop, and wheeled around with his fists raised in case of attack.

 

Only to freeze as he recognized the figure.

 

"Saki," he breathed with relief, lowering his fists and hurrying towards his brother. "We must go, someone ransacked a room of the dojo, and Father believes there is danger, and-"

 

Yoshi broke off as he fully took in the sight of the man before him, and registering the purple robes with a familiar crest, and the rake-like blades strapped to Saki's hands.

 

"Saki?" Yoshi questioned, taking a step back from his brother in confusion. "Why are you dressed like that?"

 

Saki glowered at Yoshi hatefully in response. "How can one love and hate someone so fiercely?" he said darkly.

 

"What?" asked Yoshi, dread forming in his stomach.

 

"Shen was  _mine!_ " Saki snarled. "You  _knew_  how I felt for her! You took her away from me!"

 

"She made her own choice," said Yoshi, backing farther away from Saki. "And I do not regret her choice, as I love her as well. We never meant to hurt you, brother-"

 

" _NO!"_ Saki roared, making Yoshi start in surprise. "We were never brothers! We were never  _blood!"_

 

Yoshi paled. He had learned that his brother was adopted into his family years ago, but he'd never known much more than that, nor had it ever mattered. Saki was his brother, greatest friend, and most persistent rival. It hadn't mattered where he'd come from to get there.

 

But apparently it had mattered to Saki.

 

"Saki, if this is because you were adopted-" Yoshi tried to reason with him, but was interrupted as Saki let out a cold laugh.

 

"Then you knew," Saki snapped. "I should have known. Not only must I suffer the humiliation of being raised by my enemy clan, but  _you_  made sure to torture me further by taking from me the only thing I've ever loved."

 

" _What?!"_  Yoshi said, his confusion mounting, and his concern over Saki's hostility towards him growing as well. "Saki, what are you  _talking_  about? What enemy?"

 

But Saki merely snarled, and shifted into a battle stance.

 

Seeing there was no way to talk Saki down from this apparent bout of madness he was going through, Yoshi subtly reached for the shuko spikes he'd kept in his pocket. "If your desire is to fight me, brother," he said solemnly, "So be it."

 

With a roar of rage, Saki charged at Yoshi with his blades.

 

Yoshi brought his hands up and caught the blades, but the force of Saki's blow still had him backing into a tree.

 

Yoshi then opened his palms to reveal the metal spikes on his hands, before shoving Saki back.

 

But Saki was not phased, and stabbed at Yoshi again, making him have to duck to avoid the blades.

 

Continuing to dodge Saki's blows, Yoshi managed to catch Saki's arms and tried again to reason with him. "We were raised together, Saki! Do not make me fight you!"

 

"How could I not after so many  _lies!"_  Saki spat. "So much dishonor!"

 

Saki then wrenched his hand free, and tried to stab him in the gut, but Yoshi was faster. With a quick series of precise blows, Yoshi landed three punches on Saki, before flipping him over his shoulder, and sending him sprawling to the ground.

 

"You only dishonor yourself!" shouted Yoshi.

 

Saki roared in rage, and pushed himself back to his feet, and rushed Yoshi, swinging his blades at Yoshi's head, which the latter barely dodged.

 

They likely would have continued fighting until the end of time, but suddenly a figure blurred between them, and they felt a flash of crippling pain.

 

Hamato Yuuta stood between the two in a position he had often taken to discipline them during their fights growing up. Beneath his fingers knelt both of his sons as he pressed into pressure points on their backs to keep them from moving.

 

"Enough!" Yuuta yelled, twisting his fingers so that both men collapsed to the ground from the numbing sensation of the pressure point.

 

"You are brothers," Yuuta scolded. "Act like brothers!"

 

Yoshi looked suitably ashamed of his actions, but Saki only snarled in rage at his feet.

 

Seeing this, Yuuta sighed and stepped away from them. "I see we have much to discuss this night," he said regretfully. "Let us return home."

 

Yoshi climbed to his feet and made to follow.

 

But Saki was beyond reason. He stood as if he were going to follow as well, but then before either of the Hamatos could react, he lashed out with a lightning fast move, grabbed Yuuta by his white robes, and threw him with all his strength into one of the trees.

 

The tree splintered and snapped in two at the force of the blow, and Yuuta let out a painful wheeze as his back slammed into the wood.

 

" _FATHER!_ " shouted Yoshi in horror.

 

In the trees above, five ninja teenagers froze in shock as they realized what they had just witnessed.

 

But Saki's face remained stoic, giving no indication he felt remotely guilty for attacking the only father he had ever known.

 

Yoshi rushed to his father's side, and was alarmed to see blood oozing from Yuuta's mouth, and realized that the elderly man was barely breathing.

 

Knowing he had to get him to a doctor quickly, Yoshi scooped his father into his arms, and turned to run, only for the way to be blocked by Saki.

 

"I  _will_  have my revenge," Saki snarled, making it clear he had no intention of letting Yoshi pass.

 

But then to both men's surprise, five figures leapt down from the trees between Yoshi and Saki, forming a circle around the latter.

 

"Run," one shouted to Yoshi. "We'll hold him off."

 

Yoshi barely spared a glance at his rescuers, and sprinted around them, past Saki, and out of sight.

 

But Saki recognized them instantly. " _You!"_ he snarled venomously.

 

"Us," said Leo, before launching forwards to attack, followed by his siblings.

 

But Saki dodged their every blow.

 

As the five regrouped, the hateful man realized that his opportunity for vengeance that night had failed, and soon Yoshi would have the forest crawling with loyal Hamato Ninja after his head.

 

That is, if these five supernatural creatures didn't finish him first. If they were able to get past all of his men, they must be formidable foes indeed.

 

Realizing this, Saki threw blinding powder at the yokai and their companions, before vanishing into the shadows.

 

But still, the forest echoed with his shout as he fled. "This is not over, Yoshi!" he bellowed over his shoulder. "I will have my revenge! And you will all  _PAY!_ "

 

Hearing this as he ran for safety, Yoshi winced.

 

No matter what happened next, he knew he had lost his brother forever that night.

 

__________________________

 

The doors of a hospital waiting room burst open as Tang Shen rushed through them.

 

The instant she'd heard the news of what had happened, she had dropped everything and rushed to her fiancé's side.

 

Sitting in one of the uncomfortable chairs, Yoshi looked up as she approached.

 

"Is it true?" she gasped as she tried to catch her breath. "Did Saki-? Is Master Yuuta-?"

 

"Saki did attack both Father and myself tonight," Yoshi said, his head bowed. "I'm afraid that it's true."

 

Shen's eyes widened, and she slowly sank into the chair next to Yoshi as she processed the news. Still, she reached up and wrapped her arms around Yoshi, knowing he needed comfort more than anything right now.

 

But Yoshi's eyes remained downcast even as he leaned into the embrace. "Father will survive, but his health… He was already sick before this, and he feels he will no longer be able to lead the Hamato Clan in this state. He is stepping down as head of the clan."

 

Shen's eyes widened as she realized what that meant.

 

Yoshi turned to look her in the eyes. "I am to become the new leader of the clan," he confirmed.

 

Shen felt a bubble of disappointment within her, but she squashed it, knowing now was not the time for her own desires, so all she said in reply was a soft, "Oh."

 

Yoshi reached up, and took one of her hands in his. "I know you have a lot of dreams, Shen," he said. "And know I will do what I can to make them come true."

 

He then managed to smile slightly. "In fact, before falling to sleep, Father mentioned something about allowing us to move the dojo to New York someday. It may take a few years, and it could have just been his medicine talking, but I believe the idea has some merit. What do you think, my love?"

 

Shen stared at him in disbelief for a full minute, before throwing her arms around him. "I think it sounds wonderful, Yoshi," she said into his ear.

 

Neither of the couple noticed a figure had been lingering by the door throughout their conversation, nor did they see as it silently slipped away.

 

__________________________

 

At their campsite, the four brothers listened as Miwa recounted what she'd overheard in the hospital.

 

Mikey let out a sigh of relief, and his entire posture relaxed. "Good," he said, his bright smile returning to his face. "I was really worried about Grandpa for a bit there."

 

Donnie nodded in agreement as he pulled out his phone to see how badly they'd screwed up the future now, only to drop his phone in shock.

 

"They're back!" he shouted, picking it back up off the ground to show the others. "Everything's back to normal!"

 

Sure enough, Casey and April were back in their rightful places grinning out of the picture with the rest of the team.

 

"Great," said Raph. "Except we're still stuck thousands of miles from them, and nineteen years in the  _past!"_

 

"Well, maybe being stuck here won't be so bad," said Mikey. "At least we'll get free cucumber."

 

"And we can get stronger for when the invasion comes," said Miwa.

 

They all nodded in discontent at the idea, only to look up in surprise as a bright light appeared over their head, and out of it tumbled Renet.

 

But Renet was on her feet again an instant later, beaming at them. "Yes, finally I found you!" she said.

 

Mikey's face broke into a wide grin, and he grabbed the girl into a hug. "Renet!" he cheered as he spun her around happily.

 

Renet giggled in his arms, and patted him on the head. "It's good to see you too, Mikey," she said.

 

But not everyone was as pleased as they were. "Where have you been?" Raph demanded. "We've been stuck here for days!"

 

"And we're sick of it," Miwa added, looking far from happy.

 

Renet's face fell. "It's not my fault," she said regretfully. "Seriously, I've spent, like, the last six months trying to hunt you guys down."

 

"Why?" asked Leo, voicing the question they'd all been asking from the start of this misadventure. "Why did we have to come here? Of all times, of all places!"

 

Renet stepped out of Mikey's arms, and held up the Time Scepter. "It was the scepter," she explained. "It brought you here… to make sure Yoshi survived."

 

Donnie blinked in surprise. "Wait, so it's always been this way? We were always destined to come here in time and save our father's life?" he asked.

 

Raph's eyes widened as he remembered a half-forgotten conversation he'd had with Shen, and groaned. "Mother told me once she had a friend who claimed to have seen real kappa," he said. "She must have been talking about Shredder, or one of the other ninjas who saw  _us_."

 

Miwa pinched her brow as she felt a headache forming. "Can we please just go back to our alien-invaded, mutant-filled home?" she asked. "Things there actually make sense."

 

"And the fact that that's true is not something we should be proud of," muttered Donnie.

 

"No problem," said Renet sympathetically as she raised the scepter over her head. "Future New York, here we come."

 

One time door jump later, the five siblings found themselves hidden back in the sewers of the city, and Renet left for the far future a moment later.

 

As they exchanged a glance within the dark smelly sewer, they all knew what the other was thinking, and bolted towards Shen's new hiding place.

 

More than anything, they really wanted to see their parents right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is where the timeline of my fic and the timeline of the show differ. By coming earlier, they set things in motion so that they went differently in here than in the Show. This is why Shredder left earlier, and therefore didn't know Miwa's name, and Shen and Yoshi were surprised to see him in the first chapter. In my original draft, I was going to bring in Lotus from the 80s cartoon, and have her take Shen's role in the episode. But it just wasn't working for me, and it turned to the teens meeting their grandfather instead. Also, the scene where Shredder discovers his origins is based on the IDW comic


	54. A Leader Too Many

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their attempts to plan an assault on the Kraang take a backseat when they're informed of a missile that will mutate the entire planet. Now if only the two teams could work together to stop them.

The Mighty Mutanimals, Casey, and April had no idea why the five Hamato siblings came back looking more than a little bedraggled and clinging to their father like a lifeline. Nor did they know why Donnie had only broken off from the group to give April a desperate hug, and Raph would suddenly start sticking to Casey like glue any time he left the Lair.

 

The only one who was aware of what had transpired with the teens was Yoshi (and maybe Shen, but it was unclear if she had retained the story it in her feral state), and he remained supportive of his children on the matter.

 

But there was no rest for the wicked, and New York wasn't going to save itself. The next few days in the Lair was spent searching for humans still hidden in the city (made easier with April's psychic abilities tracking them), and debating a plan to take out the Kraang once and for all.

 

The debating portion of the plan was mostly between Slash and Leo. Despite being on the same side, neither of them could seem to agree on anything. No matter what idea either leader came up with, the other would shoot it down, causing tensions to run high between the Hamatos and the Mutanimals.

 

But it wasn't just between Leo and Slash. The bitter rivalry between Donnie and Dr. Rockwell also seem growing at a rapid rate. Donnie was determined to defend his position as the genius of the team (humbled only by Mikey's brilliance with anything Kraang). However, the monkey remained affronted that a boy not even half his age could possibly be smarter than him, and took the time to take the teenager down a peg every chance he got. This led to many squabbles with Metalhead or April between them trying to keep them from punching each other.

 

Raph and Miwa were not much in better moods. Miwa was still peeved at Slash for his treatment of her the day he mutated, and the two subsequent meetings between them afterward had done little to endear him to her, and she would often back Leo up in his confrontations with Slash with her own verbal barbs.

 

Raph, on the other hand, was not at all enjoying hiding inside the Lair doing nothing. And while he liked Malachi and Jason in small doses, being stuck in the same space as them on a constant level was wearing on his nerves, and Pigeon Pete seemed to do nothing but annoy the red wearing turtle to death. All this led to Raph being more snappish and rude than usual, and forcing Casey to come up with excuses to go on supply runs just to get Raph out of the Lair before he exploded.

 

This left the rest of the occupants of the Lair to watch uncomfortably as the tensions continued to build up. Yoshi, Kurtzman, and Leatherhead all did their best to smooth things over and keep the peace, but everyone knew that if something didn't change soon, they were all going to pop.

 

It was during one such debate between leaders that no one noticed Mikey slip away from the yelling, and carry Ice Cream Kitty with him into Donnie and Rockwell's lab.

 

Putting a pair of lab goggles on himself and his mutant cat, Mikey began doing his best mad scientist impersonation to relieve his boredom.

 

Humming tunelessly to himself, Mikey began mixing up random chemicals and even more random items (such as an apple core, a bitten piece of pizza, and fishbones) in a large beaker.

 

Lifting up the now glowing blue substance to examine, Mikey said in a British accent, "Hmm, I do believe this plutonium shall react flawlessly with the sodium barcarbonuts. What do you think, Professor Ice Cream Kitty?" he asked, glancing at his pet.

 

Ice Cream Kitty meowed and licked at her frozen stomach.

 

Mikey smiled at the sight and reached for another beaker containing a glowing orange substance. "Then perhaps we should add this hyper-ball solution to Donnie's retro-mutagen," he said, still keeping with the act.

 

At that moment, Donnie happened to walk in to escape the yelling and saw his little brother about to ruin months of hard work.

 

"Mikey," he whispered as he realized what was happening. But the second it sunk in, he raced over to his little brother with a bellow of, "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND!"

 

Mikey was not phased by Donnie's shouts, merely said, "Pish posh and tut-tut, my good man."

 

Donnie was close to hyperventilating from rage. "I've been brewing that retro-mutagen for  _months!_  If you've ruined it, I  _swear-!"_

 

"Hold on, dude," said Mikey, finally dropping the accent as he tilted his blue beaker over the retro-mutagen. "I got this."

 

But Donnie lunged for Mikey, determined to stop him from ruining their only cure for mutation.

 

In the ensuing scuffle, some of the blue liquid went flying from the beaker, and Donnie, Mikey, and Ice Cream Kitty could only watch as one of the flying drops landed in the orange liquid.

 

There was a beat of silence as Mikey and Donnie stood frozen in their tangled state, watching the beaker to see if anything would happen.

 

But the retro-mutagen didn't appear to have changed.

 

Seeing this, Donnie let out a sigh of relief and began planning the murder of his little brother.

 

But just as the breath left his lips, the retro-mutagen began bubbling and glowing. Orange steam began floating off of its surface as it lit up the whole room with its glow.

 

"Oh! Oh no, Mikey!" Donnie yelped as the liquid began to froth and boil in its beaker.

 

A pulse burst from the beaker, sending Donnie, Mikey, and Ice Cream Kitty flying into the lab's wall as the chemicals continued to violently froth in its container.

 

"It's gonna  _explode!"_  screamed Donnie in a very high-pitched voice.

 

The two brothers hugged each other and Ice Cream Kitty for dear life and screamed as a bright light emanated from the beaker, enveloping the entire room with a brilliant golden light.

 

Then the light faded, and the retro-mutagen went back to the way it was, with only a few drops of spilled chemical around its base to indicate that any of that had just happened.

 

The two boys stared at it in shock, having expected to be blown to smithereens by now.

 

"Aw well, that was weak," said Mikey, disappointed at the lack of reaction.

 

That snapped Donnie out of his daze, and he proceeded with his previous plan to murder his baby brother.

 

Said murder attempt was brought to a swift halt with two pairs of giant hands yanked the two apart, and Donnie and Mikey found themselves being held up by Slash and Leatherhead respectively.

 

Donnie didn't appear to care and continued struggling in Slash's massive grip to get at Mikey again.

 

Only to freeze, as the sound of his father's cane reached his ears, and his voice rang out through the lab. "What is going on here?"

 

It was only then the two brothers noticed their noise had attracted the attention of the entire Lair (save for Kurtzman, who was out gathering information), and were all standing in the doorway watching them curiously.

 

All but April, whose attention was instead drawn to the retro-mutagen beaker. "Since when did retro-mutagen start doing  _that?"_  she asked, pointing at it.

 

Everyone turned to follow her gaze and were surprised to see the orange liquid was now sparkling in its glass like someone had poured it full of glitter.

 

_____________________________

 

A few minutes of experimenting later and the two science-minded individuals of the Lair came to a startling, but very welcomed discovery.

 

"Wow! Its bonding rate is phenomenal!" said Donnie as he examined this new retro-mutagen under the microscope, watching as the mutated cells on the slide turned back to normal, before stepping aside for Rockwell to see.

 

"Astounding," said the monkey mutant as he peered through the eyepiece. "This development will save us months of toiling in the lab to create enough retro-mutagen to cure the entire city."

 

Seeing the confused expressions on the rest of the not-so-genius group, Donnie hurried to demonstrate.

 

"Here," he said, dripping a minuscule drop of the retro-mutagen into a full canister of regular mutagen, turning the entire thing orange. "One small drop and I'm able to transform an entire vial of mutagen into  _retro-mutagen!"_  he shouted the last part, geeking-out at the possibilities this carried.

 

The entire room exchanged awestruck glances as that information sank in. If this meant what they thought it meant…

 

"It gets better," said Rockwell, taking the dropper from Donnie, and dipping it into the canister. Sucking out a bit of the solution, he pulled out another canister of mutagen, and let another drop fall into it, repeating the process. "The solution works so well, that any of the changed retro-mutagen can be reused to convert even more mutagen into the like. Our troubles of constantly brewing more of this concoction seem to be solved indefinitely."

 

Donnie nodded along with what Rockwell said, before turning to Mikey excitedly. "Mikey, you're  _amazing!"_  he said, unable to fully believe that this was happening.

 

"I know," said Mikey brightly, who was getting pats on the back from Jason, Malachi, Leatherhead, and Metalhead (who was mostly copying the former three).

 

"Wow, did we step into some kind of alternate dimension here?" asked Raph dryly, still in disbelief at his baby brother's accomplishment.

 

"I chalk it up to another Kraang-genius thing, and won't stress over it," said Miwa with a shrug.

 

"Sounds like a plan to me," agreed Slash.

 

"We ever figure out  _why_  he's a genius at this stuff?" asked Jason.

 

There was a beat of silence as they tried to come up with a reason, but no one was able to answer and they shrugged it off.

 

"Okay, what chemicals did you use to help create the rapid cellular bonding?" Donnie asked excitedly Mikey, and Rockwell quickly summoned a pen and paper to take notes.

 

Mikey frowned to himself as he tried to remember. "Uhh, I think I added a bunch of stuff like urinade, analite, um, moronic acid, and some, uh, garlic cappuccino pizza."

 

"Nope, same dimension," said Raph at Mikey's list of chemicals. The only thing that was even remotely true was probably the part about the pizza.

 

Rockwell smacked his forehead before crumbling up the paper and tossing it over his shoulder in disgust.

 

Donnie wasn't much better as he stared at his little brother. "Are you kidding me?" he asked. "You do  _one_  awesome thing, and you can't even remember how you did it?!"

 

Seeing her boyfriend about to blow a gasket, April went to his side and rubbed his back. "Calm down, Donnie," she said soothingly. "Like Mi said, it's probably part of his weird Kraang know-how."

 

"And perhaps, by that logic, he could do such again if necessary," added Malachi. "Thus may be something to ponder at a later time."

 

"They are right, Donatello," said Yoshi, making them all turn to stare at him. "Be glad that Michelangelo's tomfoolery yielded the gift that it did. Focus on the goal at hand. You must find all of the transformed people of New York and change them back."

 

"Well, we know where they are," said Miwa. "April, Metalhead, and I saw them when we were sucked into Dimension X. The Utrom we met, Mortu, showed us how they were being used as slaves there."

 

Metalhead nodded and plugged himself into Donnie's computer to show the group his video memory file of the event.

 

The gathered teens and mutants looked at the image on the screen and winced.

 

April especially looked downcast. "My dad's there somewhere too," she muttered. "And so's Irma."

 

Mikey's face fell at the mention of their missing friend, and the rest didn't look much happier.

 

"So we drop into TCRI, break into their portal, and zap ourselves to Dimension X," said Raph, as if the plan were that simple.

 

"And  _crush_  any Kraang in our path," agreed Leatherhead.

 

"Sounds good to me," said Casey with a savage grin.

 

"Indeed," said Malachi.

 

Metalhead beeped and gave a thumbs-up in agreement.

 

"Yo, we can do this!" shouted Mikey excitedly. "We can save New York!"

 

"And I've got the perfect new invention to storm Dimension X," said Donnie with an evil grin.

 

"Did you finally finish the Turtle Mech?" asked Miwa.

 

That made Donnie wilt a little. "Ah, no. Different invention."

 

"While the construction of most of the Mech has been completed, Donatello has  _yet_  to obtain a suitable power source to give it life," said Rockwell snidely.

 

Donnie shot him a dirty look. "Not like you've found one that would work either," he grumbled.

 

"Bummer, dudes," said Jason. "It woulda been sweet to trash the Kraang in a giant robot turtle."

 

"For you, maybe," Slash griped mostly to himself. It had always slightly peeved the large turtle that he was too big to fit in the seats and pilot the mech.

 

"Hold on, guys," said Leo. "We can't just go rushing into this. We need a more solid plan than just, break in and zap everything better."

 

Slash snorted. "How much more complicated does it need to be?" he asked. "We have a straight forward goal. Let's go for it."

 

The rest of the group sighed as the two leaders looked like they were going to start yet another argument.

 

"And risk the lives of everyone in New York if we go in half-cocked?" asked Leo. "If we want to save the city we need to do this perfectly."

 

Slash opened his mouth to no doubt say something argumentative when a new voice cut him off.

 

"Forget saving the city for now!" said Jack Kurtzman as he hurried into the Lair, holding up a camera memory card for them to see. "Focus on saving the  _whole world!"_

 

That got all of their attention.

 

Taking Donnie's computer from Metalhead, Kurtzman quickly plugged in the memory card and began shifting through the pictures on it.

 

"As we've been observing, the Kraang have been spending the last few months building a mutagen missile," he said as he shifted through the pictures of the missile's construction. "Which they're gonna fire at the Earth itself."

 

The computer screen then showed the picture of a very attractive dragon-like woman dressed in what appeared to be Kurtzman's clothes, making the others blink, and Miwa reach over to clap her hands over Mikey's eyes while Leatherhead did the same to Jason and Malachi.

 

Kurtzman turned scarlet and quickly moved on to the next picture. He cleared his throat in embarrassment and said, "Just ignore that."

 

Donnie's eyes widened in horror as he realized what Kurtzman was saying. "There's enough mutagen in that payload-"

 

"-To mutate the Earth into another Dimension X," Rockwell finished for him, making Donnie glare at the monkey.

 

"It's rude to finish other people's sentences, Rockwell," the teen genius pointed out.

 

"Well then clearly you'll have to speak faster, Donatello," said Rockwell smugly.

 

Kurtzman shot them all a serious look. He knew as well as anyone that since the teenagers had returned to the city tensions had been running high between the two teams, but this was more important than their squabbles. "Focus," he said firmly. "We're running out of time. The Kraang are going to launch this missile tonight, and we need to stop it.  _Together_ ," he added pointedly.

 

The Hamato Clan and the Mutanimals exchanged skeptical glances at the likelihood of that happening but kept quiet.

 

Donnie nodded to them all, and move to take his computer from Kurtzman to work out a way to stop the missile.

 

A few minutes later he hit upon a solution. "I've got it! We can disable the guidance system, or better yet-"

 

"-Hack in and send the missile somewhere it can't do any harm," finished Rockwell for him.

 

The monkey then screeched as Miwa drove her elbow into his gut. "Interrupt my brother again, and you'll be blasting off  _with_  that missile," said Miwa bitingly, getting sick of the mutant's attempts to upstage her brother.

 

Donnie, who had been glaring at Rockwell for interrupting him again, shot his sister a smile. Rockwell, however, glowered at both of them.

 

"Okay," said Leo, coming up with a plan. "We ninja in from above, and we drop down and disarm the missile."

 

"Forget it," snapped Slash, moving to loom over Leo. "I say ground attack. They won't even know what hit 'em."

 

Leo scowled back up at him. "A ground attack is way too risky," he stated.

 

Surprisingly, it was Raph who stepped between them to break up the fight. "I think the only way this mission is gonna work is if we do both," he stated, trying to draw on the leadership skills he'd learned during Leo's hibernation to get them to listen to him.

 

But the last thing they needed right now was  _another_  leader, and both of the other lead turtles turned and glared at him for interfering.

 

"Forget it, Raphael," snarled Slash, stepping away. "Leave this to the Mighty Mutanimals."

 

He then turned and moved to leave the Lair, Pete and Rockwell following after him, but the three of them paused as they realized half their team hadn't moved.

 

"What are you waiting for?" Slash asked, turning to look back at Malachi, Jason, and Leatherhead, who were still lingering.

 

The three of them exchanged hesitant glances. The had known this was coming, it had only been a matter of time after all.

 

Since the invasion, the Leatherhead, Malachi, and Jason had all been steadfast and proud members of the Mighty Mutanimals and had been happy to follow Slash's lead. But that hadn't changed the fact that  _before_  the invasion they had all been members of the Hamato Clan, and following Leonardo's orders had become second nature in their time as such.

 

Now it seemed the time had come for them to choose just which team they were really on.

 

This seemed to occur to the rest of the Lair as well, and they all watched with baited breaths to see how it played out.

 

"Let's go," said Slash, not liking the idea of losing half of his team, and already wound up from his argument with Leo.

 

But the three of them remained rooted to the spot in indecision.

 

"They don't have to follow you if they don't want to," Leo snapped, glaring at the larger turtle.

 

"Yes they do," Slash said defensively. "They're part of  _my_  team, not  _yours!_ "

 

Leo opened his mouth to retaliate, but Jason spoke up before he could.

 

"Uh, Chief, dudes, I thought we were all on the  _same_  team," the skater said uncomfortably, the alligator and sparrow next to him nodding in agreement.

 

Both lead turtles snapped their mouths shut, and you could cut the silence in the Lair with a knife after that statement, waiting to see who would break it first.

 

Slash remained stoic, knowing that saying or doing the wrong thing at this moment could cost him his teammates. But it was clear from the look on his face he was terrified that that would happen anyway.

 

Kurtzman looked like he was going to step forward and say something, but Yoshi held up a hand to stop him, and cast the other man a look that clearly said, 'They must work this out on their own.'

 

Finally, Leo broke the silence. "You guys can go with him if you want," he said softly.

 

Malachi, Leatherhead, and Jason's heads snapped in his direction in surprise.

 

"Are you certain, Sir Leonardo?" asked Malachi.

 

"Yeah," said Leo, refusing to look at the three of them. "Go on."

 

After another moment of hesitation, Malachi and Jason moved to join the other Mutanimals at the entrance of the Lair, but Leatherhead hung back and gave Leo's shoulder a squeeze.

 

"Thank you, my friend," the alligator said, before moving to follow the rest, and the six Mighty Mutanimals exited the room.

 

With them gone, the remaining occupants of the Lair stared silently at their leader.

 

"My son," said Yoshi, stroking his beard. "I sense there is something you wish to get off your chest."

 

Leo looked like he'd rather pull his head into his shell and hide, but under his father's gaze, he finally said, "I just- I don't know if I have the right to tell those three what to do anymore," he said softly. He then glanced around at the others. "We-we  _abandoned_  them, didn't we? The invasion happened, and while  _we_  were safe at the farmhouse, they were all trapped here just trying to survive. How can I be Jason, Malachi, or Leatherhead's leader if we failed them?"

 

"I wouldn't exactly call the farmhouse 'safe'," Miwa grumbled under her breath.

 

"Wait, is that why you've been going off on Slash this whole time?" Raph asked. "You've been feeling guilty, and jealous of him being the leader here when you couldn't be?"

 

Leo ducking his head, and refusing to look at his immediate younger brother was answer enough.

 

"But that totally isn't your fault, Leo," said Mikey, his eyes big and pleading his brother to believe him.

 

"Between the shock of mutating and hibernation, there is no way you could have done anything to help them," said Donnie in agreement. "And even if you were able to stay awake, remember that you couldn't even walk when you first woke up. You would have been in no shape to lead us on a rescue mission for them."

 

"If anything it's our fault," said Casey, jerking his thumb at himself and the rest of them. "We were the ones still awake and doing junk. We shoulda tried harder to find them before we left the city. But I was too wrapped up with worrying about my family being missing, and you guys being okay that I didn't even think of them 'til we were already miles from the city."

 

"Same here," admitted April guiltily. "In the invasion, everything was just happening so fast, I barely had time to think about anything but what was right in front of me. And when they never showed up to help us try and rescue Irma, well, I guess I just assumed the worst."

 

Even Metalhead let out a sympathetic sounding whirr and patted Leo's arm comfortingly.

 

"Not to mention, if you had taken those three with you when you left, it's quite likely the Shelter would have never been created, and all the people in it would have fallen victim to the Kraang," Kurtzman pointed out. "As terrible as it is you had to leave them, if you had not, a lot of people, myself included, would probably be mutated or worse by now."

 

"But-" Leo tried to deny but was cut off as Yoshi placed a hand on his shoulder.

 

"Listen to the wisdom of your team, my son," said Yoshi. "We all have choices we regret, but we must move forward, and build a better future. Starting with you seven disarming that missile."

 

"You mean eight, Father," said Mikey brightly, pointing at the one he'd forgotten. "Can't forget Metalhead."

 

Said robot let out a beep and nodded his head.

 

Yoshi let out a small smile at the correction. "Yes, my mistake. The  _eight_  of you."

 

Metalhead gave a thumbs-up in thanks.

 

Leo frowned slightly, looked up at them all with a determined expression. "Even if they're not on our team anymore, we should still give the Mutanimals some backup. Raph's right, combining our two plans is our best bet."

 

Raph smirked at the acknowledgment, but said, "I'm also right in saying now that you owe Slash an apology and explanation once all this craziness is over.

 

Leo winced at the idea but nodded in agreement. "Later I will. Right now, we need a way to drop down on that missile." He then looked at their resident genius. "Donnie?" he asked.

 

Donnie's face split into a grin. "I've got something that  _just_  might work," he said proudly.

 

_____________________________

 

"Isn't this the water tower we found you pouting on before the Renet thing happened?" asked Raph staring up at what was supposed to be Donnie's great new invention.

 

" _No!"_  Donnie denied, despite the fact they all knew full well that it was.

 

"A water tower, that's your new invention?" asked Leo skeptically, and Miwa, Casey, and Mikey burst out laughing at the ludicrousy of the idea.

 

"You know these have been invented for years, right," said Miwa sarcastically.

 

"It's not exactly what it appears to be," said Donnie grumpily, not at all happy with his siblings' reaction.

 

"Er, I'm sure it's really useful, Donnie," said April, trying to be supportive, but it was clear to see she didn't think much of the tower either.

 

"What, you keeping some kinda laser attack bot in there?" asked Casey.

 

"Don't we already have Metalhead for that?" asked Raph dryly.

 

Metalhead puffed out his chest and beeped in agreement.

 

"Are we gonna flood the place?" Mikey suggested when he finally stopped laughing.

 

Donnie smirked and hefted himself up onto the water tower. "Not exactly," he said. He then twisted a knob on a tank attached to the tower.

 

Below, the teenagers' eyes widened in surprise as the entire tower seemed to expand, the boards of it falling off as a large balloon began to inflate out of it, until hovering above them was a graffiti-covered blimp.

 

"I give you," said Donnie with a flourish. "The Turtle Blimp!"

 

Casey promptly burst out laughing again.

 

"A blimp?" Miwa questioned, raising an eyebrow. "You're great invention… is a  _blimp?_  What, you couldn't pick a lamer form of transportation?"

 

Donnie glared at her, and Mikey whisper-shouted, "Told'ja we shoulda kept that cowboy helicopter, dude."

 

"Hey, I happen to  _like_  blimps!" said April defensively.

 

"Well that explains a lot," said Casey breathlessly as he recovered from his giggle fit. They all knew if April liked something, Donnie tended to be biased towards it as well.

 

"Knock it off, guys, this is just what we need," said Leo, moving to join Donnie on the blimp. "While the Mutanimals distract the Kraang with a ground assault, we'll fly this over to the missile, and have Donnie and Mikey hack it."

 

"If they don't see us coming in a big slow  _blimp_ ," grumbled Miwa, as the rest moved to join the two of them.

 

"Give me  _some_  credit, Sis," said Donnie dryly. "Do you think I'd build this, and not come up with a way to make it go fast?"

 

Miwa chewed on that for a moment, before shrugging. "Fair enough," she admitted, knowing Donnie's creations hadn't let them down yet.

 

_____________________________

 

At the base of the massive missile, legions of Kraang were gathering to witness what was sure to be their kinds' greatest triumph, as well as make sure no pesky mutants, teenagers, or any combination of the above were able to stop them.

 

As the final preparations were made, and the mutagen filled monstrosity rose up into its firing position, the crowd of Kraang parted to allow one of their highest ranking members step through.

 

The petite form of Irma looked out of place amongst the robots and biodroids, at least until the small android unfolded into its much hulking and more intimidating battle form, revealing Kraang Subprime sitting in the pilot seat.

 

Glaring at his fellow aliens, Kraang Subprime bellowed, "YOU GUYS ARE AS DUMB AS A BOX 'A ROCKS!" He reached over and grabbed one of the nearby androids by the neck, and continued screaming in the unfortunate Kraang's face. " _SERIOUSLY!_  WHAT'S TAKIN' YA SO LONG! IT'S BEEN  _THREE MONTHS!_ "

 

"Much of Kraang's mutagen supply was spent in the invasion of the city known as New York City," droned the Kraang in his grip mechanically.

 

"What is it with the 'Krang's invasion of the city known as New York City'," Kraang Subprime said mockingly as he shook the Kraang in frustration. "What  _is_  that? We been here fer  _thousands_  of years. YA CAN'T EVEN SPEAK  _PROPER ENGLISH?"_

 

"Kraang does not understand the query known as Kraang Subprime's query," said the manhandled Kraang in response.

 

Kraang Subprime snarled and jabbed the purple painted nail of Irma's fingers in the Kraang's face. "I should vaporize yer sorry, pink, tentacled butt for insubordi-WHA!" he was cut off in mid-rant as the sound of laser fire reached whatever Kraang used for ears.

 

At the outer rim of the Kraang legions, several androids were being sent flying as the Mighty Mutanimals burst into view.

 

"Come on, fellas, keep moving!" shouted Slash as he led the crusade, plowing through the Kraang like bowling pins.

 

The rest of the group hurried to follow his lead, and soon even more Kraang were being turned to scrap.

 

Kraang Subprime sat in his Irma-android with a resigned expression as he glanced around at his fellow aliens, who were mostly just standing there watching the Mutanimals' progress.

 

"I am  _surrounded_  by incompetents!" he shouted to the heavens, before throwing the Kraang in his hand away in disgust, and turning to the rest of his troops. "Go! Move it! Hustle!  _GET THEM!"_  he bellowed, and the Kraang surged forward with their blasters firing up.

 

The aliens were so focused on the ground attack that they didn't even notice the large dark shape emerging from the clouds above them making a beeline for the missile.

 

On the Turtle Blimp, Raph stood at the mounted telescope and peered down at the fight below. Grinning at what he saw, he turned to the others and said, "Guys, check it out! We were right, the Mutanimals' ground attack is the perfect distraction."

 

"How are they doing down there, Raph?" asked Leo in concern.

 

Raph peered through the glass again, and took in the sight of Slash and Leatherhead powering through androids with their massive strength, Jason and Pigeon Pete tag teaming the aliens with their own unique styles of fighting (which mostly involved Jason throwing bread at the Kraang and having Pete peck at them for it), Malachi and Rockwell combining their powers for devastating results.

 

"I'd say their kicking butt and taking names," the red wearing turtle said with a wide smirk.

 

Amidst the chaos of the battle, Kraang Subprime began making his way towards the missile controls with a scheming expression on his face.

 

Catching sight of him, Slash darted towards him with his mace held high. "Oh no you don't!" he yelled as he smacked the Kraang spy away from the machinery.

 

Stumbling as he landed from the blow, Kraang Subprime turned and glared at the turtle hatefully, before morphing into a deranged smirk as pink saw blades sprouted between his fingers, and he launched himself at Slash with a laugh.

 

Slash quickly brought up his weapon to block the spinning blades but found himself unable to do anything else for fear of getting sliced.

 

Above, the blimp finally floated into position, and the five ninjas got ready to propel down.

 

"You guys man the controls here," Leo said to Casey and April as he tied his rope securely to his waist.

 

"Got it," said April as she moved to the blimp's steering controls.

 

"Yo, Gifuto, got any weapons on this thing?" asked Casey expectantly.

 

"Trash Cannon's on the left," said Donnie in reply as he double-checked his siblings' ropes to make sure they were good and tight.

 

Casey grinned viciously as he caught sight of the controls, and made his way towards them. "Sweet!"

 

With that taken care of, the five ninjas used their ropes to slide down to the missile, with Metalhead flying down after them.

 

Landing on top of the missile, Raph and Leo quickly transferred their ropes to knot around Donnie and Mikey respectively and stood balanced on the top of the weapon as the younger two began carefully climbing down to a position to hack the missile's controls. Miwa and Metalhead stood guard nearby for when the Kraang inevitably realized that they were there.

 

Reaching the glass casing surrounding the missile's computers, Donnie pulled out a glasscutter and carved a window into it to allow them access.

 

Leaning in the window, the two brothers peered at the blinking lights of the computer before them.

 

"Now according to Kurtzman's data, the missile guidance system uses a form of binary code," mused Donnie thoughtfully.

 

Mikey glanced at his brother, before shrugging. "I have no idea what you just said, bro. But just do what I say, and let me work my magic."

 

Donnie rolled his eyes at his brother's confidence, but complied and began poking his fingers at wherever Mikey told him to.

 

Above them, Metalhead let out a shrill beep and brought out his blasters.

 

Following his gaze, Miwa slid into a defensive position and yelled, "We've got incoming at twelve 'o clock!"

 

The two older brothers turned as well and paled beneath their scales at the sight of flying Kraang coming their way.

 

"We can't fight and hold the others up at the same time!" said Leo. "Armonia, Metalhead, you've got to cover us!"

 

"You got it," said Miwa as she threw Boom Stars at the oncoming Kraang, making some of them explode in mid-air. But others managed to evade the exploding throwing stars but were still cut down by Metalhead's laser fire.

 

One lucky Kraang looked like it was about to land on the missile with them, but before it could do so, it was knocked out of the air by a ball of compressed trash from above.

 

On the blimp, Casey let out a whoop at making his shot and hurried to keep shooting at the Kraang both in the air and on the ground below.

 

But despite their best efforts, a few Kraang still managed to land on the missile, and Miwa kept herself busy cutting them down before they could reach her brothers.

 

Down on the ground below, Slash was still going at it with Kraang Subprime.

 

The hulking android managed to grab the turtle by the front of his shell, and the Irma face's eyes lit up as it tried to fry him with lasers. But Slash managed to wrest himself free, and dove at the head with an angry roar, knocking the head completely off the shoulders of the android.

 

"MY HEAD!" Kraang Subprime screeched in rage and retaliated by kicking Slash hard enough to send him flying.

 

Preening at the blow, Kraang Subprime turned back to the controls, and once again made to launch the missile. "Nobody messes with Kraang Subprime. Now to launch this sucker."

 

Slash was on his feet again as fast as he could, and rushed towards Subprime, latching onto the android's leg in an attempt to stop him, but all he managed to do was slow him down.

 

Seeing what he was doing, the rest of the Mutanimals dropped their fights and rushed to help. Rockwell sent a psychic pull on the metal body to try and draw it back towards him. Leatherhead rammed into Kraang Subprime's side and tried to push him back with all his might. Pete dropped down from above and clung to the arm of the suit to try and weigh it down and stop it. Malachi dug the talons of his non-peg-legged foot into the neck where the head used to be and began flapping his wings as hard as he could to pull back. And finally, Jason slipped into the front Kraang Subprime and began pushing on the alien pilot's face as he tried to shove him back.

 

All this was able to bring Kraang Subprime to a standstill as one arm reached desperately towards the control panel only inches away from him. But then the Kraang gave a smirk despite Jason's hands pressing against his face and made his finger extend just enough to hit the launch button.

 

Instantly the jets beneath the missile roared to life, and the weapon began shaking as it started to lift off.

 

"NO!" shouted Slash as he and his team scrambled back to avoid being fried by the rockets, and watched in horror as it rose into the air.

 

From their window messing with the computer, Donnie and Mikey exchanged horrified looks.

 

"Oh snap, dude!" Mikey shouted.

 

At the top of the missile, they rest of the siblings were having similar reactions.

 

"Hang On!" shouted Leo, shooting a desperate look at his brother and sister.

 

On the ground, Kraang Subprime grinned victoriously. "For the glory of Kraang!" he cheered.

 

Then with a final burst, the missile launched rapidly into the air, shooting past the blimp leaving Casey and April to stare after it with wide eyes.

 

On top of it, Leo, Raph, Miwa, and Metalhead found themselves being pressed against the missiles metal surface as the air pressure pushed them down. They were not at all helped by the fact that some of the Kraang were still on the missile as well, and continued to try and attack them despite the situation.

 

Three of them managed to pry Raph off the metal surface, and sent him tumbling towards the ground, only to be stopped as the rope pulled taught around Donnie's waist. As it did so, the genius let out a pained gasp, and Mikey had to grab him to keep them both from being pulled away. Below them, Raph continued to scream as he dangled above the rapidly vanishing ground.

 

"Hurry up, boys!" shouted Miwa as she clung to the top of the missile with all her might. "It's about to get really hard to breathe soon."

 

"On it dudes!" shouted Mikey as he reached for the controls with one hand, and kept Donnie steady with the other. "One missile heading straight for the sun coming up!"

 

With a final tap, the missile began changing directions, and their work there was done.

 

Glancing dubiously at the drop below them, Leo ordered, "Jump, guys! Metalhead, grab our ropes and try to slow us down as best you can!"

 

With nods of understanding, the five teenagers launched themselves from the missile, and let gravity take effect.

 

Metalhead used his rockets to swoop after them, gathering each of their ropes and then turning his boosters downwards to slow their descent to a nonfatal speed.

 

"Activate your gliders!" shouted Leo as he did so himself.

 

Metal wings sprang out from the teenagers' backs and shells, further helping to slow them down.

 

Seeing them coming, April spun the steering wheel of the blimp to get it into the proper position, and soon enough the whole zeppelin shook as the teens landed and bounced off of the balloon's surface, before managing to grab ahold of the railings to keep themselves from falling again, Metalhead coming down for a landing not long after.

 

"Wow! Too close," Mikey gasped as he clung to the blimp for dear life. "I saw my entire life flash before my eyes."

 

"What did you see?" asked Donnie in hopes that he'd somehow remembered the super-retro-mutagen formula.

 

"Pizza," said Mikey wistfully. "Mostly pizza. It was  _awesome!"_

 

Any disappointment Donnie had at that response was quickly forgotten as April rushed over to him and yanked him into a rib-cracking hug as the sky lit up when the missile hit the sun.

 

The rest of the teens grinned at the sight.

 

"Don't you ever scare me like that again," she demanded when she paused to let him breathe.

 

Donnie managed to let out a dazed hum of agreement before she yanked him into another hug.

 

Below, Pigeon Pete was beaming up at the sight of them. "The ninja-kids got the missile!" he cheered. "Yeah! This calls for a loaf!"

 

With that, he promptly pulled out a loaf of bread from his helmet and split it between him and Malachi in celebration.

 

The short sparrow held his half of the bread up in the air as if in toast. "Oo De Lally!" he cheered, and both birds began munching on their snack.

 

Unbeknownst to them, the Irma head that Slash had knocked off suddenly sprang to life and moved to blast the two of them.

 

Seeing this, Slash shouted, "PETE! MALACHI!  _LOOK OUT!"_

 

Pete reacted quickly grab Malachi and shield the younger bird but still was hit in the back by a laser blast.

 

Before the for the fire could continue, Slash dove between the birds and the head, blocking the lasers with his shell, before leaping up and crushing the head beneath his mace.

 

"You two okay?" the massive turtle asked once he was sure the metallic scrap could do no more damage.

 

"I'm good," Pete squeaked out.

 

"As am I," said Malachi, fluttering out of Pete's hold. "I owe you both a debt of the greatest gratitude."

 

Slash sighed in relief as he helped Pete to his feet. "Anytime, kid. Anytime."

 

From above, Leo witnessed the whole thing through the telescope and stood impressed.

 

" _NOOOO!"_ wailed Kraang Subprime as it finally sank in what had happened.

 

But then a shout of "GOONGALA!" came from above, and the Kraang spy had to duck as Casey began firing more of his trash cannonballs at the remaining alien troops.

 

"Kraang, Retreat!" shouted Subprime to the remaining aliens. "Right now! Retreat!"

 

Following his order, the Kraang fled the scene, leaving the teens, mutants, combinations of the both, and one short robot to celebrate their victory.

 

As Mikey rushed over to pull Malachi, Jason, and Leatherhead into a big group hug, Raph and Donnie did their best to make amends with Pete and Rockwell respectively (with mixed results).

 

Meanwhile, Leo made his way over towards Slash, bringing a reluctant Miwa along with him.

 

"Slash," he said solemnly to gain the larger turtle's attention. "I owe you an apology. I was letting my guilt over leaving LH, Jason, and Malachi behind, and my jealousy that they were now following you instead cloud my judgment, and for that I am sorry."

 

Slash's eyes widened in surprise at Leo's words, before glancing skeptically over at Miwa, knowing she wasn't one for apologies.

 

Scowling, the kunoichi gave a heavy sigh, and admitted, "I was too harsh too. I'm still mad about you tying me up, but I can see you're not the same mutant who did that anymore." She then turned and stalked away without saying anything else.

 

Knowing that that was probably as close to an apology as he was going to get, Slash nodded after her, before turning his attention back to Leo.

 

The smaller turtle managed to give him a friendly grin. "I gotta admit, Slash," said Leo. "You stepped up and saved your teammates when they needed you the most. I'm glad the guys had you to watch their back while we were gone."

 

Slash smirked. "Told'ja I'd changed, Leonardo," he said, holding out a hand for Leo to shake. "I'm a different kinda turtle now."

 

Leo shook his hand with a grin.

 

Slash then turned to address the rest of their gathered team. "Alright, fellas," he said. "Time to storm TCRI."

 

Seeing where he was going, Leo took up the instructions as well. "We go to Dimension X, and save the citizens of New York."

 

With determined nods of agreement, the entire group hurried off to plan their next move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. I keep forgetting to post the next chapter. And so the Battle for New York begins. What do you think, with everyone involved will it run smoothly, or still be a big mess? At least Leo's on better terms with Slash now, and though Miwa still has some issues, she's willing to try and work past them.


	55. Saving the World (Again)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This time all the Hamato siblings head into Dimension X, but who knows what they will find there.

Several minutes of planning later the Turtle Blimp was flying through the air once again, heading in the direction of TCRI.

 

As they flew, Leo called for those aboard to go over the plan one last time to make sure they all had it down.

 

"It's all on the Mighty Mutanimals plus Casey and April," explained Donnie as he drove the blimp through the air. "First they break into TCRI, then Doc Rockwell activates the portal."

 

"And then it's hello Dimension X," said Mikey excitedly.

 

"Once we're there, Metalhead and I will guide you since we've been there before," said Miwa, taking up the explanation. "Not that I'm too sure how much help we'll be, Dimension X is  _weird."_

 

Metalhead nodded in agreement, and played the theme song from the X Files over his speakers.

 

"I get the first part, makes sense. It's the 'save millions of mutated New Yorkers' part I don't get," said Raph skeptically.

 

"Well, Donnie's got that super-retro-mutagen stuff. That'll work, uh, right Donnie," said Leo, still a bit iffy about that part of the plan as well. It was hard to plan for a siege on a place he'd never been. And Miwa, April, and Metalhead's descriptions and videos of the place didn't really make much sense.

 

Donnie beamed and held up a canister of the modified mutagen. "Heck yeah," he said. "And once we change all the humans back Rockwell will hone in on us with the Kraang Portal, and, theoretically, teleport us all back to Earth… Hopefully… maybe…" he added, not looking as sure about his explanation as when he started.

 

Raph shot him an extremely unimpressed look. "Yup," he said dryly. "We're doomed."

 

"It's an awesome plan, Raph," said Mikey bouncing up into a dramatic pose. "Dimension X, here we come!"

 

Miwa gave her baby brother an amused glance. "Well, someone's excited."

 

"Duh, Sis," said Mikey with a grin. "We already know I am awesome with Kraang stuff, right?"

 

His siblings and Metalhead exchanged glances. "Riiight," said Leo slowly. "So?"

 

" _So_  just imagine how much  _more_ awesome I'll be in a dimension that is Kraang  _everything!"_  Mikey said excitedly.

 

His brothers and sister all paled at the thought.

 

"That… sounds utterly terrifying," said Donnie, looking like he was imagining his worst nightmare come true.

 

"So,  _So_  doomed," Raph repeated, his expression much the same.

 

Metalhead made a sound of a missile dropping to the ground and exploding in agreement.

 

Mikey blew a raspberry at them all.

 

"I just hope the Mutanimals don't screw this up," said Leo looking worried. "If they can't get that portal open…"

 

He trailed off, but they all knew what he wasn't saying.

 

"They'll be fine," said Raph. "An eight team butt kicking machine like them, they'll turn the place into another crater."

 

"Why are April and Casey going with the Mutanimals instead of us?" asked Mikey curiously.

 

"Well, neither of them are as trained as the rest of us, and lets face it, ours is the more dangerous half of the mission," said Miwa.

 

"And after repeatedly storming TRCI and knowing just how messed up that place is, that's saying something," grumbled Raph.

 

"And also because I don't have enough oxygen converters for Casey to come with us, and I'd rather not bring April into the place where the Kraang have been trying to kidnap her too from the beginning of this mess," said Donnie. "They may have gotten most of what they wanted from her in the invasion, but who's to say they won't do more if they got their tentacles on her again."

 

"Oh," said Mikey in a small voice, remembering the state April had been in when he and Donnie had rescued her in the invasion. He knew Donnie still had nightmares of the vacant expression on her face as the Kraang sucked her mental energy right out of her head.

 

Miwa reached over to pat Mikey on the shoulder. "Like he said, don't worry about it. We'll go in, save everyone, and be back in New York in no time."

 

"And once all the people are de-mutated, we can de-mutate you three as well," added Donnie.

 

That brought the turtles' thought process to a screeching halt, and they all turned to stare at Donnie. "Wait,  _what?"_  all three said in unison.

 

The genius looked startled at their reaction. "Well, yeah," he said. "Didn't you guys want to? I mean, with the super-mutagen there's really no more reason to wait."

 

The three exchanged glances. "But, Mother-" Raph started to say.

 

"Guys, we now pretty much have an unlimited supply of retro-mutagen for me to work with to cure Mother," Donnie pointed out. "The necessity to hoard it has passed. You could be human again, isn't that what you want?"

 

It was clear such a thought had not occurred to any of them, returning to normal had seemed like such a far off thing with retro-mutagen being so hard to make, and all the crisis in their lives to focus on instead. To have it suddenly offered practically on a silver platter had left them flummoxed.

 

Seeing how her brothers seemed to have been thrown for a loop, Miwa said, "Let's focus on saving New York first. There'll be plenty of time to talk about this later."

 

Leo shook himself to snap out of his daze, and nodded in agreement. "Right. We have a mission to finish."

 

He moved to stand at the edge of the blimp, and looked down at TCRI. "If our friends can pull it off so we can even get it started," he added, growing worried once again.

 

____________________________

 

Within the portal room of TCRI, a wall suddenly exploded inwards, taking the aliens in the building completely by surprise.

 

Charging through the hole were eight figures the Kraang quickly recognized, and knew immediately none of them were coming out of this without bruises.

 

"Aw Kraang," said one of the Kraang with as close to an 'oh shit' expression as the aliens were capable of.

 

"Mutanimals HO!" shouted Slash as he led the charge against the aliens, and his five teammates plus two extra teenagers followed after him, and the room quickly descended into chaos.

 

Slash smashed the aliens with his mace. Leatherhead ripped them to shreds with his brute strength. Dr. Rockwell brainblasted any alien in his sights. Pete and Jason teamed up to outwit their opponents. Malachi tricked them into shooting each other. April and Casey stood back to back pummeling any Kraang they could get their hands on with their weapons. All together, it was an all out brawl, and with the element of surprise on their side, it was clear the Mutanimals were winning.

 

"Crush KRAANG!" bellowed Leatherhead as he smashed three of the androids together with his bare hands.

 

"You said it, LH!" agreed Casey as he sent one of his exploding hockey pucks flying at a couple of Kraang reinforcements rushing into the room, causing them to explode before they could do anything.

 

As Slash bashed through his own opponents, he glanced over at Rockwell and yelled, "Doc! Get that portal up pronto!"

 

Rockwell nodded, and leaped towards the portal's controls, leap frogging onto a couple of Kraang as he did so.

 

After beating off the only Kraang manning the computer, Rockwell began rapidly pressing the buttons on the controls. "Hacking in now!" he called down to the others.

 

"Bodacious, dude," cheered Jason from where he was bashing a Kraang over the head with his skateboard.

 

Slash nodded in agreement. "April, Jason, you two guard Rockwell's back! The rest of us we'll keep these chumps busy!" he ordered.

 

"On it!" agreed April as she sliced of an android head with her tessen, and hurried towards the monkey doctor, Jason following at her heels. The two of them stood on either side of the mutant and used their chosen weapons to bock laser fire, and pelt the Kraang with shuriken Donnie had let them borrow.

 

"Doc, hurry it up!" shouted Slash as he blocked some laser fire sent his own way with his shell. In annoyance, he threw a chunk of bread at the alien shooting at him, which caused Pete to dive-bomb the android in a hungry frenzy.

 

Finally, Rockwell hit the last button, and the machinery around them hummed to life. "The portal is up!" he announced.

 

In the center of the room, the three cannon like parts of the machine began blasting pink light into the air, shooting it up towards the ceiling and out of the tower.

 

The sky above TCRI began to darken, and the clouds above the building began swirling together in a massive pink vortex of light.

 

On the blimp, not far from the vortex, Mikey let out a whoop at the sight. "Yes! They did it!" he cheered.

 

"Unbelievable," said Leo in amazement.

 

"Hoist the mizzenmast, lads and lady," shouted Raph. "This pirate ship's about jack Dimension X!"

 

"Finally decided you'd rather be a pirate than a princess?" Miwa couldn't help but tease. "You do know it's possible to be both."

 

Raph just shot her a dirty look and tightened his grip on the garbage cannon controls.

 

"Ready your oxygen converters, guys," called Donnie as he stuck his straw like device into his mouth. His siblings all did the same, not wanting to repeat Miwa's experience of breathing in Dimension X air.

 

As the blimp flew upwards into the portal, Mikey shouted one last, "BOOYAKASHA!" before they all vanished into the swirling pink vortex.

 

On the ground below, a damaged, but still functioning Irma-shaped android looked up at the sight above it (quite a feat, since it was currently lacking a head).

 

A second later, an even more damaged head flew over and attached itself to the neck, allowing Kraang Subprime to peer up at the portal above him.

 

" _So_ , those turtle freaks think they're going to  _my_  home terf?" Subprime asked sarcastically to himself. "Ferget about it."

 

With that, he blasted upwards on his rocket feet, and shot through the portal after them.

 

____________________________

 

In the spiky, pink and silver, bottomless void that was Dimension X, the Turtle Blimp's dark green graffiti covered exterior stood out like a sore thumb.

 

It didn't help that the blimp had appeared upside-down, leaving the brothers gaping as gravity effected their clothes and mask tails, but nothing else as they floated through the dizzying space.

 

"Boys," said Miwa, who had used the bars on the edge of the blimp to flip herself right-side-up, "welcome to Dimension X."

 

Metalhead once again played the X-Files theme song for added effect as he stood upside down like the rest of them.

 

Just like before, the only way one could describe the dimension was  _weird._  The boys gazed around at the floating metallic islands covered in crystal trees and odd, and likely dangerous trees.

 

"Here are some basic ground rules," said Miwa as her brothers tried to pick their jaws up off the floor. "Rule one: don't touch the crystal trees, they explode. Rule two: don't touch the wildlife, it will either try to eat you, vaporize you, or crush you." Miwa paused thoughtfully, then said, "On second thought, let's just make rule one be 'don't touch anything, period'."

 

"Then what's the new rule two," asked Leo, still in a daze.

 

"Be careful where and how you jump or throw things," she said, pointing at their still upside-down position. "The gravity and laws of physics here are, er…" she paused to find the right word to describe it, before finally settling on, "Wonky _."_

 

Just then, a Kraathatrogon swooped by the blimp, the baby faced end of it giggling as it passed.

 

Raph stared at the sight with a goggled expression. "Freak show," he said.

 

"There's no sun, there's no anything," Donnie said, craning his neck to take in as much of the sights as possible.

 

"This. Is. AWESOME!" cheered Mikey, trying to jump in excitement, only to go tumbling off the blimp and out of sight.

 

"TENSHI!" shouted Leo, Raph, and Donnie in horror as they stared into the pink void, trying to spot where he went.

 

But Metalhead simply walked to the other edge of the blimp, and caught Mikey by the ankle as he came flying by out of left field and pulled him back onto the blimp, making his brothers all stare in surprise.

 

"That- This is ridiculous!" shouted Donnie in bewilderment. "Gravity cannot work like this!"

 

"Apparently here it can," muttered Leo as he hurried over to check on Mikey.

 

"Like I said," said Miwa gesturing at Mikey as if to present exhibit A. " _Wonky."_

 

"Sweet!" crowed Mikey. "Can I do that again?"

 

His answer was a resounding and unanimous, " _NO!"_

 

Finally having enough of being upside down, Donnie moved over to the steering wheel, and managed to flip the blimp so they were right-side-up again.

 

"Phew," he said as they started flying through Dimension X without his hood floating up above his head. "Well that's twenty-three percent better."

 

"So, Armonia, Metalhead," said Leo, taking charge so they could do what they came for and get out of this crazy place. "Do you know where the Kraang were keeping the mutated humans?"

 

The kunoichi and the robot exchanged glances, before shaking their heads. "Mortu only showed us them on an outpost video screen," Miwa said. "It didn't exactly provide us with a map of this place along with it."

 

Metalhead nodded in agreement with an apologetic buzz.

 

Leo grimaced as he heard that, before turning to Mikey. "Then, Tenshi, you thought you might be able to use your, er, Kraang sense even more in this place. Is that working for you at all?"

 

Mikey frowned thoughtfully, then held up his hand to signal them to wait. "Hold on," he said, then raised his other hand to press his thumb to his forehead and wiggle his fingers in the air.

 

"Dare I ask what you're doing?" asked Donnie.

 

"I'm trying to sense if they're nearby with my organic antenna," said Mikey in a tone of utter seriousness, despite how ridiculous he currently looked holding his hands against his head like antlers, and making an odd sort of humming sound with his mouth.

 

As he was doing that, Raph sent the rest of his siblings a look that was clearly questioning the youngest's sanity, which only became more pronounced as Mikey began doing a little jig around the blimp all while still waving his hands and humming.

 

Finally, Mikey came to a stop, and pointed in a random direction. "That way!" he declared.

 

The others exchanged glances, and shrugged simultaneously. "It's the best we've got for now," said Leo.

 

"You heard the man, Donnie," said Raph, deciding to just go with it. "Full speed ahead."

 

The genius nodded, and spun the steering wheel to send the blimp flying in the direction Mikey had indicated.

 

Several hours of flying later, it was still suspiciously calm in the floating pink void. Nothing had tried to attack them yet, but they had yet to see any of those they were looking for either.

 

"So, where are all the people?" asked Leo, voicing the question they were all thinking. "Feels like we've been searching forever."

 

"Ya got any idea where we're going, Tenshi? For  _real?_ " asked Raph, his tone making it clear his faith in Mikey's direction sense had long since waned, if it had ever been there in the first place.

 

"Of course I do, dude," said Mikey indignantly.

 

Just then another Kraang Worm flew in front of the blimp and roared at them.

 

"But there are always surprises along the way," Mikey said weakly at the sight of it.

 

"It's a Kraathatrogon!" shouted Donnie, being the only one who remembered the name. "Man the defenses!"

 

Miwa dove for the garbage cannon, and began blasting her ammo at the giant, mutagen-filled worm.

 

But despite her every shot hitting its mark, the worm was still coming for them, snarling angrily as it did so.

 

Raph grabbed his sister, and yanked her out of the way as the Kraathatrogon smashed itself into the garbage cannon, and continued to break its way through the entire balloon.

 

With a rude-sounding noise, the entire blimp started whizzing through the void at breakneck speeds as the air blew out of it.

 

The five teens and their robot had to cling to the handlebars for dear life, until the entire airless blimp crash-landed on one of the silver floating islands, sending them tumbling from the wreckage, bruised (or dented in Metalhead's case) but still in one piece.

 

Slowly they began picking themselves back up, groaning as they did so.

 

"I think I broke my brain," Mikey moaned rubbing his head.

 

"Ha, what brain," said Raph sarcastically as he got to his feet and reached for his sais. "I'm taking this freaky space worm down myself."

 

But just as he said that, the Kraathatrogon looped back around and sent him flying off the side of the island with a scream.

 

The siblings barely had enough time to panic at the sight of him disappearing over the edge, when suddenly Raph's scream came from above them, and he fell down on top of Leo.

 

Donnie was so busy doing a double-take of where Raph had disappeared to where both of his older brothers were now lying in a heap, that he barely noticed the Kraathatrogon coming for him next. Fortunately for him, Miwa did, and she tackled him out of the way.

 

Mikey then leap-frogged over his siblings with a cheer of, "I got this, dudes!"

 

With a series of leaps, Mikey hopped up onto one of the crystal trees, and let out a shout to lure the Kraathatrogon to him, then proceeded to do just what Miwa had specifically warned him not to do.

 

He broke off one of the crystal branches.

 

Miwa let out a strangled gasp at the sight as the tree began flashing as it prepared to blow.

 

But Mikey caught sight of a small bug-like creature crawling on a nearby branch, and grabbed it. Squeezing it tight, a long rope-like tongue shot out of the bug, and attached itself to a nearby rock-formation, yanking Mikey out of the way.

 

But the Kraathatrogon wasn't so lucky, and the tree exploded right in its baby-faced butt.

 

With a screech, the massive worm turned and flew away, still shrieking in pain as it did so.

 

Mikey then came in for a landing in front of his recovered siblings, and examined the crystal branch still in his hand.

 

"Hey, isn't this one of those crystals the Kraang use as a power source?" he questioned out loud as he recognized the crystal. He then grinned, and held it out to Donnie. "Here, Gifuto. I bet you can use this to power the Turtle Mech once we get back to New York."

 

His siblings barely registered his words, as they were too busy gaping at the display they had just witnessed. Seeing as his creator wasn't about to do so any time soon, Metalhead stepped forwards and took the crystal for safe keeping instead.

 

"Mi-Tenshi," said Leo, almost forgetting his brother's codename in his amazement. "How-how did you  _do_ that?"

 

Mikey shrugged in response. "I dunno, it just made sense to me," he said.

 

"Unbelievable," whispered Donnie, still in shock.

 

"So you really are a genius here," said Raph, finally having proof of it shoved in his face, but not fully able to process it.

 

Miwa let out an aggravated sigh. "Sure, why not," she said. "It makes about as much sense as anything here."

 

Metalhead looked at them all and let out a loud series of beeps, which finally broke through Donnie's daze as he nodded in agreement.

 

"You're right, Metalhead," Donnie said. "Weird as it is, Tenshi's Kraang-sense, or whatever it is, can only come in handy here. Any advantage we can get is good, right?"

 

Leo also picked up his jaw and nodded. "You're right," he said with his own nod, before turning to a preening Mikey. "Okay, Kraang Genius, what next?"

 

Mikey opened his mouth to reply, but Donnie cut him off.

 

"Guys, look!" he shouted, pointing at another island in the distance.

 

They all turned, and gaped as they saw what was on the island.

 

There were all the people they were looking for, mindlessly mining for more crystals off the trees on the nearby island. Only now the teens had no battleship to rescue them on.

 

"This just keeps getting worse, and worse, and  _worse_ ," said Leo as he stared at the mutated humans through his spyglass.

 

"We got this, guys," said Mikey cheerfully. "Don't sweat it."

 

"So we need to find a way to turn the humans back…" said Raph thoughtfully.

 

"And then the Mutanimals figure out a way to bring us all home," Donnie finished for him.

 

"It doesn't seem possible," said Leo pessimistically.

 

"Dude, it's the Mighty Mutanimals," said Mikey, looking fully convinced of their friends' awesomeness. "The operative word being  _Mighty_."

 

"Plus April and Casey aren't bad themselves," added Miwa, making the others stare at her. That was unusually high praise coming from her.

 

But Mikey nodded his head enthusiastically. "Trust me, guys. They got it all under control."

 

____________________________

 

Back in New York, all was not well with the Mutanimals in TCRI.

 

"We've gotta keep that portal open!" shouted Slash as he and Leatherhead worked together to beat back the seemingly endless army of Kraang. "For the sake of the city!"

 

"It's impossible!" shouted Pigeon Pete shouted as he evaded the laser fire above their heads. "They just keep coming! And we're getting low on  _sourdough!"_

 

"They mayeth have numbers on their side, but we have valor!" said Malachi as he flew next to Pete. The sparrow then dived at the Kraang with a shout of, "Huzzah!"

 

Just then, the elevator door burst open, and through it stepped a Mrs. Campbell robot followed by reinforcements.

 

"Oh that's not good," remarked Jason from where he and April were still protecting Rockwell from the Kraang.

 

"Why didn't we bust that elevator when we got here?" asked Casey rhetorically as he smacked an exploding puck in the robot woman's direction.

 

But Mrs. Campbell caught the puck right out of the air, and tossed it aside, where it exploded harmlessly in a corner. "Biodroids, Irma-Bots," she ordered and said robots gathered around her.

 

Seeing the robot duplicates of her friend, April winced. "That is  _so_ wrong," she said.

 

"We are in a staggeringly phenomenal amount of danger," said Rockwell when he saw what they were up against.

 

"You said a mouthful," agreed Jason.

 

"Destroy the intruders!" ordered Mrs. Campbell as she armed herself with a laser whip and cracked it to signal the charge.

 

With a bellow, the Biodroids and Irma-Bots rushed forwards to attack, leaving the 'intruders' hopelessly outnumbered.

 

Not that that bothered Leatherhead as he surged forwards to meet them head on. "Bring it on!" he roared as he slammed into on of the Biodroids.

 

"Mutanimals! Don't let 'em near Rockwell!" ordered Slash as he and the rest rushed to join the alligator, leaving Rockwell with his two bodyguards.

 

If the room had been in chaos before, it was utter pandemonium now.

 

And the tide of the battle turned just as fast.

 

Pigeon Pete was taken down first, swarmed by Irma-Bots who pinned him to the ground.

 

Not long after. Casey and Malachi were taken down when they tried to help Pete, and two of the Biodroids were needed to pin Leatherhead who tried to aid the others.

 

April and Jason put up a valiant fight, but were quickly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers against them.

 

This left Rockwell to use his telekinesis to try and deflect his enemies as best he could, but Mrs. Campbell manage to hit him with her whip, and knock off his psychic amplifying helmet, cutting his powers down to the minimum. After that, it only took one Biodroid giving him a firm squeeze in its massive fist to subdue the monkey mutant.

 

Mrs. Campbell stood and observed their fallen enemies with an expression of mechanical disinterest, seeing that Slash was the only one left standing. Opening her rocket elbow and pointing it at the monkey, she said, "Give up, mutant. Or your friends will perish."

 

Rockwell was still struggling in the Biodroid's grip, and sent a desperate look at his leader. "Slash!" he shouted. "You can't let them deactivate the portal! The adolescents will be trapped in Dimension X!"

 

But Mrs. Campbell only buzzed her elbow as she prepared to fire, and several more Biodroids moved to surround the turtle, aiming at him with their butt cannons to add insult to injury.

 

Gazing around at his downed teammates, Slash scowled morosely as he realized what he had to do.

 

With a loud ' _clang_ ' he dropped his mace to the metal floor in surrender.

 

Mrs. Campbell then reached over to press a button on the controls, shutting off the portal and trapping the Hamatos in the other dimension.

 

"My friends," whispered Slash in regret, feeling they had failed their mission. "No!"

 

Mrs. Campbell surveyed them all, and moved to leave. "They may be of use to us later," she said as she swept out of the room. "Lock them up."

 

That was the last thing Slash heard before the Biodroids shot him with a stunning blast and everything went black.

 

____________________________

 

Looking through his spyglass again, Leo tried to plan things out. "It looks like the Kraang have human hybrids on those three islands," he reported.

 

"Those islands are huge, man," said Raph, looking far more skeptical about their plan the longer they were there. "I mean, how are we going to turn all those mutants back into people?"

 

"You forget, Iyasa," said Donnie. "We just need to find a massive amount of mutagen, and convert it into retro-mutagen with this," he finished, holding up his super-retro-mutagen.

 

"Oh is that all," said Raph sarcastically. "A massive amount of mutagen. Let me just milk a few thousand Kraang worms."

 

"Or maybe if we gut them, they'll bleed mutagen instead," offered Miwa. "It'd solve two problems in one."

 

Her brothers and Metalhead stared at her.

 

"Sis," said Leo slowly. "Sometimes you scare me."

 

"Only sometimes?" asked Donnie.

 

Metalhead played the beginning of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in agreement.

 

But then something caught Mikey's eye overhead, and he grinned. "I bet that thing has a ton of mutagen inside of it," he said pointing.

 

The rest followed his gaze, and saw a Technodrome floating a few miles above their heads.

 

"A Technodrome?" asked Leo incredulously. "Tenshi-"

 

"Don't say it," said Mikey, already preening. "I know, I'm a genius."

 

"I was gonna say you're crazy," said Leo pointedly. "Steal a  _Technodrome?"_

 

"And how would we even get there, the blimp's a wreck?" asked Raph.

 

Metalhead beeped and activated his rockets, and Raph rolled his eyes.

 

"How would the  _rest_  of us get there, I mean," he amended.

 

Metalhead promptly landed and let out an annoyed buzz.

 

"Well, we could borrow one of those Stealth Ships parked over there," Donnie suggested sheepishly as he jerked his thumb at a nearby Kraang outpost. "Just sayin'."

 

A grin slowly began spreading across Raph's face. "This is so crazy I'm starting to like this plan," he said.

 

Miwa smirked. "Just think how much damage we could do with one of those things."

 

Leo sent her a sidelong glance. "Really, really scare me sometimes," he repeated, making her smirk grow.

 

Mikey bounded over to take the lead. "Alright guys, stay frosty. Keep quiet, and all those other Raion-isms Raion likes to say."

 

Leo scowled at his baby brother's back and let out an aggravated sigh, knowing he wouldn't win this argument.

 

With that the six of them leapt off the island, only for the teenagers to float upwards, leaving Metalhead behind, and reappearing next to the island at just the right angle to land on it, the robot following soon after with his rockets.

 

Cautiously, they made their way towards the Stealth Ships. Keeping hidden as they eyed the closest one, Leo said, "Okay team, when I give the signal-"

 

"It'll be this," said Mikey, before flapping his arms like wings and imitating a very loud bird. "And then we sneak inside the ship."

 

Leo glared at him for stealing his thunder, but the glare quickly was replaced by a look of worry as he caught sight of something flying towards them from behind Mikey.

 

"That sounds like a  _great_  idea," said the screechy voice of Kraang Subprime as he hovered above their heads in his Irma disguise.

 

"Not this guy again," Donnie deadpanned.

 

"That's right, you freaks," said the Kraang smugly as he unfolded his android into its battle mode, and his alien self began flexing in its cockpit. "Kraang Subprime returns! You like that don't ya? Now come quietly, or I vaporize ya!"

 

Kraang Subprime then blinked in surprise, and had to dodge his body left and right to avoid several crystalline rocks being thrown his way.

 

Mikey had used the time he'd been flexing and bragging to gather up a bunch said rocks, and was now pelting them at the Kraang, who ducked to avoid them.

 

When it finally looked like the youngest was all out, Kraang Subprime turned smug again. "Ha, you missed," he said.

 

But Mikey just looked pointedly at Subprime's feet, and the alien followed his gaze.

 

There, nestled between Subprime's two robotic legs sat three of the crystal rocks.

 

Before the Kraang could react, Mikey opened his mouth and let out a piercing shriek that seemed to echo throughout Dimension X at an earsplitting pitch.

 

The sound made the three rocks detonate, and the resulting explosion sent Kraang Subprime flying off of the island and out of sight.

 

"You did it, little brother!" cheered Raph, pumping his fist in the air.

 

Metalhead reached over to give Mikey a high-three, which the turtle gladly accepted. "That's 'cause I'm sa-sa-sa- _weet!"_  he said cheerfully.

 

"Come on," called Leo, hurrying for the Stealth Ship. "That won't hold that freak off for long."

 

"No," said Miwa dryly as the rest hurried after him. "That would be way too convenient."

 

Once they were inside the ship, Mikey ordered, "Gifuto, Metalhead, get this baby moving."

 

"I'm starting it! I'm starting it!" said Donnie as two of them hurried to the controls. Metalhead plugged himself into the panel, and the genius began pressing buttons on the steering.

 

A few seconds later the entire interior of the Stealth Ship lit up with a pink glow, and the engine hummed to life.

 

"So you really know how to fly this thing?" Leo asked.

 

Donnie laughed. "Of course not. I'm plugging Metalhead into the autopilot, and he's flying it."

 

"Whatever," said Raph. "Just get this bird in the air already!"

 

But Miwa was frowning. "Hold on, Casey told me you guys didn't use Metalhead to copilot the hot rod because Metalhead is a lousy driver? Something about too much  _Grand Theft Auto_."

 

Donnie froze at that realization.

 

Leo exchanged a wide-eyed glance with Raph. "Please tell me you fixed that," said the lead turtle hesitantly.

 

Donnie let out a nervous chuckle and Metalhead gave them a thumbs-up before using the controls to rocket the Stealth Ship into the air as fast as it could go.

 

The teenagers were thrown against the back of the ship from the speed they were going, and they all screamed at the top of their lungs (except for Mikey, who was whooping like he was on a rollercoaster).

 

Below them, Kraang Subprime slowly got back to his feet, and glared after them. He then pulled up a holo-communicator to contact his fellow Kraang. "Kraang Subprime to high base. Kids have hijacked that Stealth Ship."

 

"What are the orders that Kraang Subprime wishes to order as an order?" asked one of the Kraang on the high base.

 

Subprime rolled his eye, and said, "Oi, just shut up already. Do me a favor and unleash the Drako Droid!"

 

On his order, a massive door in the base opened, and out of it stepped a metallic monstrosity. It looked like a robotic dragon with two heads, no eyes, and rows of razor sharp teeth.

 

Two Kraang in saucers flew up into pilot seats atop the Drako Droid's heads to steer, and it was soon rocketing out of the base after the teens' Stealth Ship.

 

Within said Stealth Ship, the occupants had stopped screaming, but the force from the speed they were going still had the siblings pinned to the wall.

 

"So to sum it up," said Raph sarcastically from where he lay pressed between Donnie and Mikey. "We're in another Dimension, trying to do the impossible and save all the people of New York, and riding in a ship piloted by a Donnie's crazy robot who can only drive like he's in a car chase."

 

"If anyone's next words are along the lines of, 'It can't it get any worse,' I can't be held responsible for my actions," said Miwa, looking decidedly not amused.

 

There was a beat of silence to see if anyone would meet her challenge, but then something on the windshield of the ship caught Leo's eye.

 

"Uh guys," he said, managing to force his arm up to point.  _"Look!"_

 

The all followed his gaze, and saw the Drako Droid flying at them at top speed, looking menacing as it flew through the pink void-like sky.

 

Raph reached over and smacked Mikey's shoulder.

 

"I DIDN'T SAY IT!" shouted Mikey indignantly.

 

"Yeah, but you were thinking it," Raph grumbled.

 

Miwa reached over and managed to smack the hotheaded turtle as well. "We were all thinking it, Shell Brain."

 

Raph considered her words, the reached over and smacked Donnie too, making the genius squawk. He would have also smacked Leo, but couldn't reach him.

 

"Tenshi, do you know what that is?" asked Leo to get them back on track.

 

"How should I know?" asked Mikey. "I've never seen it before."

 

Just then the Drako Droid opened its twin mouths and began blasting pink lightning at their Stealth Ship.

 

"BRACE YA'LL SELVES!" bellowed Mikey at the sight of the blasts.

 

Metalhead let out a buzz, and swerved the ship upwards to avoid the blasts, rattling his passengers in the process.

 

The robot then put all his crazy driving skills to use, swerving up and down and around the metal islands around them, trying to lose the Drako Droid or make it crash.

 

"Why aren't there seatbelts on this thing!" shouted Miwa as she and her brothers were thrown around the cockpit due to Metalhead's maneuvers.

 

Donnie opened his mouth to no doubt give a technical answer to her question, only to pale as he saw what was coming up ahead of them. "Watch OUT!" he shouted to Metalhead.

 

Ahead of the ship was a jungle gym of spiky metal pipes stretching in all different directions. It was clear that flying through it would be dangerous, and one wrong move could be deadly.

 

But Metalhead simply whirred in anticipation, and flew even faster towards it.

 

The teenagers began screaming again as the sped through the maze of pipes, avoiding the Drako Droid's blasts with several hairpin turns, and narrowly avoiding crashing themselves.

 

The Drako Droid, however, was too big to fit amongst the pipes, and it hovered outside them, roaring in rage.

 

"Booyakasha!" Mikey cheered as Metalhead flew them out of the pipes unscathed, and took off for the Technodrome once again.

 

But the Drako Droid wasn't about to give up so easily. It quickly flew around the pipes, and began blasting at them once again.

 

One such blast managed to hit the back of the Stealth Ship, and it flew out of control towards the Technodrome.

 

The occupants all screamed as the ship plowed straight through the giant ball's metal exterior, leaving a large hole in the side.

 

Behind them, the Drako Droid roared in triumph.

 

____________________________

 

Waking up inside what looked like a large upside-down fishbowl within TCRI was the last thing Slash and his team wanted that night. But even so, here they were.

 

The more muscular of the group did their best to break the glass containing them, but it was no use. Their prison refused to shatter, and they remained trapped.

 

The lack of success was getting to all of them, but it steamed Slash most of all. "Let us out!" he shouted through the glass. "I swear, once I break these walls down, I'll-!"

 

Whatever he would do would remain a mystery as Leatherhead reached over to grab Slash's arm to keep him from hurting himself.

 

"It is useless, my friend," the alligator said in as close to a calming tone as he could manage in their situation.

 

Slash's face fell in defeat, and he sat himself down with a thud (nearly squishing Malachi in the process, but the sparrow managed to duck out of the way).

 

"It's  _my_  fault we got captured," the massive turtle growled to himself. "Maybe Raion was right. Maybe… I'm not fit to lead this team."

 

"That's not it at all," said April in an assuring tone. "He wasn't lying when he said he was upset we left without you guys. He was blaming himself, and taking it out on you, and he was wrong. He knows that, and so do we."

 

"Yeah, dude," said Casey. "You totally missed it when he was acting all mopey and self-doubting at the Lair while you were gone." The vigilante then added, "Plus, my dad told me what you did for him and my sister during the invasion. If it weren't for you and LH, Iyasa and the others would have to be pulling them out of Dimension X along with everyone else."

 

"He speaketh the truth," agreed Malachi. "Such a fate would have no doubt befallen my own parents as well, were it not for thy escort to safety, and discovery of their hiding place."

 

"Same with my Aunt," April piped up.

 

"Ditto with my folks too, as ungrateful as they are," added Jason.

 

"Not to mention Rockwell, Kurtzman and all the people who were at the lab," said Pete, focusing on encouraging Slash to avoid a panic attack from the cramped space they were in. "And I'd have been caught by the Kraang again if you hadn't saved me in the tunnels."

 

Seeing that he was still doubtful Leatherhead crouched down so that he was eye-level with Slash. "I have seen you save humans from the Kraang," he said. "Rescue your fellow mutants, us among them.  _You_  are a good soul, Slash. We are proud to follow you."

 

Slash slowly looked around at the mutants and teenagers staring at him encouragingly. "Thank you," he said gratefully.

 

Then he frowned. "But if we can't save the others, then all the humans of New York are doomed, whether they're in the Shelter or not. We've failed."

 

But Pete had noticed that Rockwell had yet to say a word during the entire pep talk, and turned to look over at the monkey mutant. "What are you doing, Tyler?" he asked, hoping for another distraction.

 

Rockwell sat in a meditative pose at the far side of their cage, and cracked one eye open to glance over at the pigeon. "I'm trying to focus," he said. "So would you kindly pipe down."

 

There was a beat of silence as the rest of them all stared at the monkey.

 

Finally Casey said, "Okay, I'm lost. What's he doing?"

 

"Focusing," Leatherhead replied. "Without the psychic amplifier we stole in a raid on the Kraang, his power is greatly diminished."

 

Seeing how April and Casey still looked a little confused, Jason pointed out of their cage. "The helmet Rockwell was wearing that got knocked off earlier, dudes."

 

"With it equipped, it doth increase his abilities greatly," said Malachi.

 

April frowned, then moved to sit in front of Rockwell. The action broke the monkey's concentration, and he glanced at her in mild annoyance.

 

But April didn't let it phase her. "Maybe I can help," she said. "I have psychic powers too, maybe if we combined them…"

 

Rockwell frowned thoughtfully, before nodding. "The idea has merit," he said, holding out his hands to take hers. "Close your eyes, and concentrate," he said to her, then shot a glance at the rest of the cage's occupants. "And not a peep out of the rest of you. This is a delicate process."

 

The two psychics then closed their eyes, and failed to see Casey send a rude gesture in Rockwell's direction.

 

Below their cage, a decapitated Kraang head slowly lifted from the pile of android parts, and began floating towards a retinal scanner.

 

"IT'S WOR-!" Pete started to cheer, but Malachi and Jason both clapped their hands over his beak to shut him up, and keep the Kraang from figuring out their plan.

 

The head paused in front of the scanner, and it buzzed as it read the commands. The glass case then rose up into the air, and its former occupants traded smirks.

 

They were free, and it was time for round two.

 

____________________________

 

Slowly, a patrol of Kraang approached the Stealth Ship that had crashed into their Technodrome.

 

Upon reaching it, they stood beneath it and pointed their blasters upwards towards the hatch, ready for when their intruders popped out.

 

Only for it to open, and for the teenagers and their robot to leap out and take out the Kraang before they could even have a chance to fire.

 

But more quickly took their downed comrades' place, and the teens had to bolt to avoid the hail of laser fire in their direction. Metalhead took the rear, and returned fire at the Kraang as he followed after them.

 

Following Mikey's lead to the center of the Technodrome, Raph stabbed his sai into the door's control panel, locking the reinforcements out once they were all inside.

 

"We made it," said Raph in disbelief. "Wow, that was easy."

 

Miwa reached over and smacked him on the back of the head. "What did I say about saying things like that."

 

Raph turned to snap at her, only for his face to fall as he realized that they were not alone in the room.

 

Like when the Technodrome had crushed TCRI, the main center of this Technodrome was a massive room of narrow pathways and sharp spinning fan blades around a control panel in the center of the room, all powered by a thick pipe filled with mutagen. Though, unlike the last time they were in the heart of a Technodrome, the entire system wasn't cut in half, and set to explode, and its crew was still rearing to fight.

 

Crewmembers like the several pointing blasters at them at that very moment.

 

"Aw Kraang," groaned Raph as he readied himself for another fight.

 

The Kraang around the control center seemed just as surprised to see the siblings as they were, but recovered from it quickly and pointed their blaster at them. One of the Kraang (that was strangely wearing a pirate hat) gave the order for its comrades to fire.

 

"Ninjas Attack!" bellowed Leo as he led the charge against their enemies.

 

"Shouldn't I be the one giving the orders in Dimension X?" asked Mikey as he leaped up to hop on top of the Kraang flying in saucers overhead, squashing the brain-like aliens beneath his feet.

 

"Am I covered in mutagen zits?" asked Leo rhetorically as he cut down the androids in his path. "No, I'm not. I'll take your ideas and skills into consideration, Tenshi, but I am  _still_  leader of this team!"

 

Mikey paused on top of one of the Kraang saucers (its pilot squealing under his foot), and considered that, before shrugging it off. "Fair enough," he said as he jumped off the Kraang, and used his kusarigama chain to swing like Tarzan around the room, and kick the Kraang in the pirate hat off the platform.

 

"Still," Leo said as he cut down another, only to see several spiderlike Kraang robots start crawling out of a hatch on the wall. "If you can take out all these Kraang droids…"

 

Mikey reached down to pick up a Kraang blaster, and beamed wickedly. "Can do, Boss," he said cheerfully.

 

Meanwhile, Donnie, Raph, and Miwa were using the sickle-shaped fan blades as platforms to jump and dodge more Kraang saucers, all while taking out as many as they could, whether by their weapons or by knocking the aliens into the spinning blades. Metalhead, was flying around as well, trying to zap as many Kraang as he could, and punching several with his rocket fists.

 

Only to turn and stare in surprise as Mikey suddenly came flying by with two Kraang saucers stuck to his feet, and a blaster in each of his hands.

 

"Aw yeah!" he cheered as he began shooting down every Kraang in sight. "Check me out!"

 

He sent one of the Kraang flying into the hatch where the spider-like Kraang-bots were coming from, effectively blocking it off. The rest of the aliens in the room were soon sent falling past the fan blades into the dark depth below.

 

"Tenshi! That was amazing!" shouted Raph, too impressed to keep up his usual tough-guy image.

 

Metalhead beeped in agreement, and gave the youngest a double thumbs-up.

 

Mikey grinned back from where he was still hovering on the saucers. "Dimension X, plus years of video games equals  _Tenshi Awesomeness!"_

 

"You have competition," Miwa couldn't help but tease Leo lightly.

 

Leo rolled his eyes in response. "Great, let's just get this thing moving," he said, turning towards where Donnie was already working on the control panel. "Gifuto, what have you got?"

 

"Good news," said Donnie said, pointing to a port on the mutagen pipe. "It looks like we have access to their mutagen supply through this fuel tube. "Not only do they use mutagen to terra-form, they use it to power the ship." He turned and beamed at the rest of them. "We've got a massive supply! Like-like this much!" he said brightly, holding his arms as far apart as they could go to demonstrate the size.

 

Mikey, meanwhile, had been making himself busy pressing buttons on the other controls, carefully monitored by Miwa and Metalhead.

 

"What are you doing?" his sister asked.

 

"If we wanna cure those people, we need to be closer," said Mikey simply as he pressed two buttons with his hands and one with his foot at the same time. With a buzz, a steering wheel popped out of the controls in front of him, and a hologram appeared to act as a windshield.

 

Metalhead stepped towards the steering wheel, but Mikey gulped and blocked his way. "Uh, I got this, robo-dude. You, uh, you've driven enough for the day."

 

Despite not having expressions, the look Metalhead gave Mikey was anything but amused, and he buzzed to show his annoyance.

 

Mikey shrugged apologetically, and started up the Technodrome, making it fly closer to the islands with the people. "Let's save New York!" he cheered.

 

For a giant ball of death, the Technodrome was surprisingly slow as it flew through the void. Fortunately, no Kraang managed to get in and stop them, but from the banging sounds outside the door, that may not last for very long.

 

Anticipating another attack, Miwa and Raph moved to stand on the walkway between the door and the control panel to act as guards, while Leo, Donnie, and Metalhead hovered by Mikey in case he needed help.

 

Finally, the Technodrome was close enough to target the first of the islands, and the holo-windshield zoomed in upon it once it was locked onto.

 

"We have a visual on the human-hybrids, Gifuto," said Leo, unable to resist slipping into a more  _Space Heroes_  manner of speaking. "We need that portal ready to go."

 

"Give me two seconds," Donnie said as he made his own adjustments to the mutagen pipe. "I gotta add the retro-mutagen."

 

He then plugged the container of super-mutagen into the port, and added it to the mutagen powering the ship.

 

The entire Technodrome buzzed as he did so. Lights flashed, electricity crackled, and the whole death ball screeched to a halt before it all went dark, with only the glow of the mutagen to illuminate the room.

 

The teens braced themselves to keep from falling over (Raph and Miwa especially, since all they were on was a narrow walkway).

 

"Something's wrong," said Leo looking around in confusion in the dim light. "What's going on, Gifuto? Report?"

 

"I  _told_ you, the Technodrome runs on mutagen," said Donnie, pressing buttons frantically to try and get them powered up again. But the panel he was working on only fizzed and blew smoke in his face for his efforts. Coughing on it, he continued in a slightly panicked tone, "The engines just can't take retro-mutagen, Captain!"

 

"Not necessarily," said Mikey as he moved over next to Donnie, and began mashing buttons. "I just need to alter the ship's fuel converters, tweak the quantum difiblitrons, and…" he then pressed one last button, and they all stared in surprise as the mutagen pipe instantly turned from green to orange, bathing them all in a warm glow.

 

"Vuala," said Mikey with a flourish to his gaping siblings as the Technodrome returned to life, all its usually pink lights now a friendly orange.

 

Raph recovered first, "Mikey, you're-"

 

"A genius, I know," said Mikey proudly, very much enjoying the sensation.

 

"Why do I get the feeling Genius-Mikey is going to get old real fast?" asked Miwa dryly.

 

"You mean it hasn't already," Donnie grumbled to her softly, not enjoying being upstaged by his little brother.

 

"Get this thing moving, Mikey," ordered Leo. "We've left the others waiting long enough."

 

Just then a loud buzzing sound caught their attention, and they turned to see a pink saw begin to cut through the door separating them from the rest of the Technodrome.

 

The saw pulled out, and a green and yellow eye appeared in the hole it created. "Heeere's Kraangy!" shouted Kraang Subprime on the other side with a sinister grin.

 

The teens all tensed at the sight, but Metalhead simply hurried forwards, and pointed his flamethrower at the hole.

 

Seeing it, Subprime only had time to mutter, "Oh Kraang," and duck as the short robot sent a blast of fire at him.

 

Seeing that they didn't have much time left, Leo said, "Okay, Gifuto, we need that portal open! Call the Mutanimals!"

 

Donnie nodded, and hit the speed dial on his cell phone. "Come in April," he said, holding it to his ear. His face then fell as he heard no response. "April, you there? Anybody?  _April?_ " he asked worriedly.

 

"Great," said Raph as he and Miwa stood behind Metalhead to back their bot up. "If the Mutanimals can't transport us back, cancel the entire rescue mission."

 

"And us going home," added Leo grimly.

 

"Not to mention, I don't even want to know what these alien freaks would do with this much retro-mutagen," said Miwa, jerking her head at the pipe. "They cause enough trouble with the regular stuff."

 

Wincing at the possibilities that had, Donnie turned back to his phone and tried another number. "Rockwell, come in! Rockwell!"

 

____________________________

 

With a roar of, "FREEDOM!" Leatherhead led the charge against the surprised Kraang, and the rest followed after, pummeling all in their path.

 

But Rockwell made a beeline for the portal controls. "We still need to reactivate that portal!" he called to the others.

 

Slash used his mace to take out a couple of advancing Irma-Bots, and shouted, "Just do it already!"

 

Pete and Malachi both swooped down to each grab one of Rockwell's arms, and flew him back up towards the controls. April and Casey followed to cover them from the Kraang fire, and Jason and Leatherhead did their best to divert attention away from the rest of them.

 

Dropping Rockwell where he needed to go, the two birds took over April and Jason's job of watching his back while he worked.

 

The monkey paid no mind to this as he began frantically pressing buttons on the portal controls. "Now," he muttered more to himself then his feathered bodyguards. "If we can transform the portal into a three-dimensional coordinate-locked beam-"

 

Just then Pete let out a startled squawk and, was thrown from his post by Mrs. Campbell. Before either Rockwell or Malachi could react, she pointed her rocket-launching elbow in their direction, and it glowed ready to fire.

 

But before she could shoot, Slash's mace flew through the air, and crashed into the robotic woman, slamming her into the wall, and falling to the ground where her body sparked but was otherwise motionless.

 

"Great throw!" crowed Casey from where he was smacking the head off an Irma-Bot, and using the said head as a hokey puck.

 

"Thanks, Chief!" called Malachi to Slash.

 

Rockwell, meanwhile, hit the final button on the controls, and allowed himself to grin. "Yes!" he announced to the others. "The portal is a go!"

 

Just like that, the portal fired up again, sending the swirling pink beam into the sky.

 

As the rest of the team finished off the last of their Kraang opponents, they cheered at the sight.

 

"We did it!" shouted Slash, punching his fist in the air.

 

"Now it's all on the others," said Leatherhead as he smacked a high five with Jason.

 

"Please, those dudes can handle it," said Jason confidentially. "I bet their waiting for us right now."

 

"One way to find out," said April as she pulled out a cell phone to contact Donnie, and moved to stand by Rockwell.

 

____________________________

 

In the Technodrome, Donnie was even more ecstatic than usual to see his girlfriend's face appear on his phone screen.

 

"Come in, Gifuto," she said through the speakers. "We're back online, and ready to teleport some New Yorkers."

 

"April O'Neil, you are  _beautiful!_ " Donnie said gleefully upon hearing that.

 

April blushed at his words. "I bet you say that to all the girls," she said.

 

"Just the one," Donnie flirted back, but a look from Leo had him kept him from going on, and had him getting down to business. Turning back to the controls in front of him, he began imputing the necessary information. "Sending coordinates now. Adjusting for fifth-dimensional space…"

 

Mikey, meanwhile, was locking the Technodrome's mutation ray (or in this case, de-mutation ray) on the first island. "There they are," he said as the holo-windshield zoomed in on them to show it was on target. "The hybrids. Aw man, look at 'em. They're forced to work like Kroverian Ant-People."

 

Miwa rolled her eyes at her baby brother's back. "You read  _way_  too many comic books."

 

"Well they won't be for much longer," said Leo as he moved to stand next to Mikey. As he did so, a pair of levers to let him aim and fire the retro-mutagen popped out for him to grab. "Retro-mutagen locked and loaded," he said. "FIRE!"

 

The massive eye shaped screen on the front of the Technodrome lit up and sent an orange beam to spread across the island, turning all the people there human again.

 

The humans had a moment to look around in confusion before the lack of oxygen occurred to them, and they began gasping for air.

 

"Sweet skills, Raion," said Mikey appreciatively.

 

"Don't get cocky!" Raph called from where he was still guarding the door. "We're not out of this mess yet!"

 

As if to prove his point, Kraang Subprime had resumed sawing through the door to get to them, and not even Metalhead's sending flames at him would detour him.

 

"I'm just getting warmed up, kiddos!" Subprime called sadistically over the sound of Metalhead's firepower. "I'm coming for your stinkin' hides, and sweet shells."

 

Miwa made a disgusted face. "Well that's a lovely mental image," she said sarcastically, making Metalhead nod in agreement.

 

Kraang Subprime ignored her quip and went back to sawing.

 

But Leo's attention remained on the task at hand. "Gifuto, we need those humans teleported out  _now!"_

 

"I'm on it!" Donnie said with a nod, and turned to his control panel and imputing the last of the coordinates.

 

On the other side, April quickly relayed them to Rockwell, and soon the people on the island were disappearing in a shower of sparkles and reappearing in the streets of New York.

 

Seeing this, Donnie let out a whoop. "We did it! We turned a multi-dimensional transmat device into a mass-displacement teleporter!" he cheered as he geeked out.

 

"I have no idea what you just said, but Hooray," said Raph with a grin, momentarily turning his attention away from Subprime.

 

Mikey snickered and said, "That's how we're goin' home, Iyasa. Teleportation, ya'll."

 

Leo also beamed and added cheerfully, "Just like  _Space Heroes!"_

 

The grin slowly fell off Raph's face when he heard that. "No way, forget it! You're not beaming my particles!"

 

"Would you rather stick around and have a playdate with this freak?" asked Miwa, jerking her thumb at the door.

 

Only for it to explode inwards on cue, and Subprime stepped through it in all his massive Irma-Android glory.

 

"Sa- _prise!"_  he said as he gave them all a wicked grin.

 

Metalhead responded by pointing his flamethrowers at him once again.

 

Kraang Subprime only had enough time to grumble out, "Oh for the love a'-" before he had to duck to avoid another blast of flames.

 

But it was quickly clear that the flames weren't going to be enough, as more Kraang came flooding in through the hole Subprime had made, quickly outnumbering the group.

 

Seeing how much trouble they were now in, Raph called rapidly, "Okay, let's start beaming particles, Gifuto!"

 

He, Miwa, and Metalhead then rushed forwards to try and hold off the Kraang as the rest of their brothers locked on to the next island.

 

"Eliminate the ones called 'the kids'," said one of the Kraang, before Miwa took its head off.

 

"Oh shut up already!" she growled, getting very sick of hearing Kraang speak, only to find herself face to face with Subprime.

 

"That's what I said," Subprime said with a smirk as he swung one of his saw hands at her, but Miwa managed to duck out of the way.

 

"You've gotta hold them off, guys," Mikey called to the fighting three. "I've gotta pilot this thing!"

 

"Hold them off?" asked Leo, observing how many Kraang his brother and sister were up against. "How are they supposed to do that?"

 

"Yeah, that's a real good question, Greeny," said Subprime sarcastically. He then sent an explosive blast at the teens, and they all had to duck to avoid it (though, Metalhead didn't need to duck, as it flew right over his head).

 

The blast hit the far wall, and exploded, causing the whole Technodrome to shake around them.

 

With a growl, Raph shot forwards once again, and took out two Kraang flanking Subprime, before crouching down. Miwa ran right up behind him, and used Raph's shell as a stepping stool to launch herself into the air, and fly at subprime with her sword raised.

 

Subprime brought up one of his massive arms to block her blow, only to realize the two teens were just a distraction for Metalhead to fly in and blast the Kraang spy from the side.

 

Yelling in fury at being hit, Kraang Subprime aimed his blaster at the short robot flying overhead, and fired at him. Metalhead managed to fly out of the way, and the blast hit one of the spinning fan blades. The blade fell and landed right in front of the door, effectively blocking off any more Kraang from entering.

 

Seeing as he was now cut off from reinforcements, Kraang Subprime turned to take his rage out on the teenagers who were the cause of his ire and slashed at them with his saw blades.

 

"There's one last island, Raion," said Mikey as he locked onto it. He then glanced over at Donnie. "We got enough retro-mutagen?"

 

"Down to ten percent!" Donnie called back.

 

Leo nodded, knowing he had to make this shot count. He quickly fired on the last island, tuning all the mutants there back into people, which were quickly teleported to safety.

 

"That's it," Leo called. "That's all the humans."

 

"Sending the last set of coordinates," said Donnie through his phone to April. "Ours. Get us out of here, Beautiful."

 

"You got it," said April, and in the background, they heard Rockwell also call, "Confirmed."

 

Just then Kraang Subprime managed to swat Metalhead out of the air and send him crashing into Miwa and Raph, causing the three to land in a heap on the walkway.

 

"Guys!" shouted Leo as he, Mikey, and Donnie hurried over to make sure they were okay.

 

"You're  _finished_ , stupid kids!" shouted Kraang Subprime with relish. " _FINISHED!"_

 

With that, he launched himself at all of them with his saw blades ready to cut them to ribbons.

 

Only for the teens and their robot to vanish in a shower of sparkles just before he could reach them, and his saws slammed into the floor instead.

 

Seeing the now empty room, Subprime yelled in outrage. " _NO!_ It can't be! NOOO! I was  _so_   _CLOSE_  this time! SOOO  _CLOSE!_ "

 

It was only then that Subprime noticed the alarms going off in the Technodrome, and saw that Mikey had set up one last surprise before he'd left.

 

He'd sent the Technodrome on a direct collision course with a massive nearby island, and locked the controls so that it couldn't change direction.

 

Realizing this, Subprime's expression turned flat as he realized just how screwed he was. "Oh  _Kraang!_ " was all he managed to grumbled before the Technodrome crashed into the metal surface of the island and exploded on impact.

 

____________________________

 

In New York, the Kraang patrolling the streets were in for a surprise as one after another, people were appearing there, looking confused, but otherwise unharmed and (most importantly) completely human.

 

The Kraang tried to charge up their blasters to attack, only to find themselves teleporting off the Earth's surface, back to their home dimension.

 

Slowly, the people stared in amazement as the once dead looking city seemed to come back to life around them.

 

Having received the all-clear from the Mutanimals, the people in the Shelter cautiously climbed back to the surface, emerging from the sewers to stare in wonder at the world around them and the people filling the streets.

 

On a roof top, five ninjas and a robot appeared in a shower of sparks, landing hard of the surface just in time to hear a rousing cheer come up from the streets that spread throughout the city like wildfire as the people rushed to meet their loved ones, embracing those they had not seen in months.

 

Seeing this, and knowing they were the cause of it, the siblings shared a wide grin, and Metalhead offered them all a thumbs-up.

 

"We did it!" said Leo in disbelief. "Somehow we did it!"

 

"WE'RE THE BEST!" crowed Mikey as he did a victory dance next to him. "GO NINJA! GO NINJA! GO!"

 

"Finally," said Donnie with a sigh of relief. "Everything is gonna go back to normal. Well, as normal as this city can get."

 

"Speaking of," said Miwa, glancing at the three turtles. "You guys can finally go back to normal too."

 

Leo, Raph, and Mikey exchanged glances like they still couldn't fully believe that.

 

"Yeah, normal" said Raph wistfully. But then something occurred to him. "But what about the Mighty Mutanimals? And Casey?"

 

Next to him, Donnie paled, "And  _April!"_  he shouted, reaching for his phone to call her.

 

"What about us?" came the deep voice of Leatherhead behind them before Donnie could dial.

 

They all turned, to see the subjects of their concern walking across the rooftops towards them.

 

April rushed ahead of them all to throw her arms around Donnie's neck, and kiss him in front of everyone (prompting Leatherhead to reach over and cover Mikey, Malachi, and Jason's eyes under the guise of a group hug).

 

She pulled back to see Donnie giving her a dazed, but blissful grin. "That was too close for awhile there," April said, still keeping her arms wrapped around him. "Let's avoid doing anything like that anytime soon."

 

Donnie hummed in agreement, and leaned down to give her another quick kiss. "You should go find your father," he said as he pulled back. "He's down there somewhere waiting for you."

 

April gave her boyfriend a grateful smile, and with one last hug she let him go and hurried towards a fire escape to do just that.

 

Casey, who had been giving high fives and fist bumps to the other Hamato siblings, said, "I should go too. Dad and Shadow are probably worried, and it's gonna be  _weird_  now that they know what I do. And I can go tell Malachi's folks he's okay too."

 

"I much appreciate that, Sir Casey," said Malachi gratefully, knowing that the last thing the de-mutated humans would want to see is another nonhuman entity after their ordeal.

 

With a nod, Casey hurried after April down the fire escape.

 

As they left, Leatherhead beamed at all of them. "We made it, my friends," he said.

 

"Looks like out plan worked, Doctor," said Donnie, moving over to congratulate Rockwell.

 

"Yes. And teleporting the Kraang back to Dimension X was a stroke of genius," said Rockwell, and Donnie glowed at the offhand comment.

 

Raph sent his older brother a grin. "You gotta admit, Leo. We couldn't have done this without everyone."

 

Leo nodded in agreement, sending a smile a Slash. "You did great, Slash," he said as he held out a hand for the larger turtle to shake. "I'm sorry I doubted you. Everyone deserves a second chance."

 

Slash beamed, and took Leo's hand. "I just tried to model myself after the best leader I ever knew. You."

 

Leo turned and grinned at the group. "Hamatos Clan, Mutanimals, it's time to  _celebrate!"_  he announced.

 

At that, they all gave a cheer of rousing cheer of, " _BOOYAKASHA!"_ which could be heard even over the din in the streets below.

 

Finally, things seemed to be going right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so the invasion was stopped, and the Kraang were kicked back to Dimension X... Or were they? This was fun to write. I considered trying to add the Utroms into this, but wasn't able to fit them in. Still this came out pretty good in my opinion, what do you think?


	56. The Price of Humanity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New York is safe from the Kraang, and they now have more than enough retro-mutagen to turn themselves back, but the question is, is it better to fight the Foot as humans or as mutants.

"So why are we going all the way back home to use the retro-mutagen?" asked Mikey eagerly as he, his siblings, and his father made their way through the sewer tunnels back to their dojo home. "We coulda just used it in the Lair. I wanna be me again now!"

 

"Well, for one reason, I want to run a few tests on it in my lab first before you or Raph use it," said Donnie. "The retro-mutagen worked on the people of New York just fine, but you two have been mutated for a lot longer, and I worry there might be side effects."

 

"And for another reason, you guys might want to have a change of clothes handy once you're human again," Miwa teased. "And I think you'd rather not show your birthday suits to the Mutanimals."

 

At that, the three turtles turned red at reminder they'd been pretty much running around nude for the last few months.

 

"I can't wait to be human again," said Leo, trying to shake off the embarrassment. "I know I haven't been like this as long as you guys, but those first few weeks…"

 

The others shot him understanding glances, knowing he was referring to the pain and weakness of his partial mutation.

 

"I know what you mean," agreed Raph, looking like the idea of being human again still hadn't fully sunken in. "I just- I thought for sure Mother would be human again before me…"

 

That made everyone wince. Shen had made herself a hideaway in a remote part of the sewers, far enough that she would not be a danger to anyone, but close enough for her family to go to her any time they wished. She mostly remained hidden there, and Yoshi would usually stay with her in an attempt to give her comfort (only leaving now to accompany his children in reclaiming their home and seeing his sons restored). Even so, it was clear to all of them she was becoming more feral by the day.

 

"Another reason to get back home," said Donnie firmly. "Once we get you guys taken care of, I can work on modifying the retro-mutagen so that it can cure her too. And with the Kraang no longer being something we need to worry about, I can finally focus all my time and energy on it"

 

Yoshi nodded gratefully towards his genius son, but said, "As grateful as I am that you will do such, my son, remember that we still have enemies here in the city. Even without his Kraang allies, Shredder will not cease his pursuit of us… or of Shen."

 

The five teenagers winced at his words. With all the insanity involved with stopping the Kraang invasion over the last few days, they had almost forgotten about the Foot Clan and their relentless leader.

 

Almost.

 

"That's another thing we can focus more on now," said Raph punching his fist into his palm. "Beating back the Foot, and giving ol' Shred Head what's coming to him."

 

"No arguments here," said Miwa darkly, having not forgotten the Foot's actions during the start of the invasion, and the consequences it had had on her family.

 

Leo's near-fatal stabbing and following mutation…

 

Raph's now cracked and scared plastron and trauma over the events…

 

Their parents being thrown down a drain like garbage, leaving their children unknowing if they were alive or not…

 

And the lingering nightmares all five of the teens still had over the events they had witnessed, to say nothing of all the terrible things the Foot had done to them even before the invasion.

 

Yes, Shredder would pay dearly for all he had done, Miwa would see to that personally.

 

Seeing the expression on his daughter's face, Yoshi reached over to place a comforting hand on Miwa's shoulder. "And pay he will," Yoshi said. "But it will be for justice, not for revenge."

 

Miwa scowled at his words but said nothing.

 

Leo, however, couldn't help but ask, "What's the difference, Father?"

 

"Intention," Yoshi said sagely, looking at all his children in turn. "I have no doubt we will be facing the Shredder soon in the near future. When the time comes, will you go into battle intending to gain retribution for the wrongs of the past, or seeking an end to the fighting and bring peace at last."

 

The rest of their walk was silent as Yoshi left his children to ponder his words. He only hoped they would heed them when the time comes.

 

Upon reaching the hidden doorway to the dojo, they opened it and went through.

 

"You sure that guard-bot thing that was here last time is gone now?" Leo asked as they entered the basement of the dojo.

 

"One hundred percent," said Donnie. "It and everything else the Kraang built was beamed back to Dimension X after we stopped the invasion."

 

"Still, be on alert," said Yoshi softly as he used his walking stick to maneuver through the hall to the stairs. "We do not know if the Kraang shared the location of our home with the Shredder before their defeat. Once we have gotten what we've come for here, we will move to a safe house I had prepared long ago in a different part of the city. I have already sent Metalhead to the address to prepare for our arrival."

 

Mikey looked aghast. "We're not staying?" he asked in dismay.

 

Yoshi shook his head. "There is too little we know, and I do not wish to take the risk."

 

Leo nodded, seeing the logic in his father's words. "We can keep watch on the dojo for a few days," he said to Mikey in an attempt to cheer him up. "If we don't see any Foot activity here, we may be able to move back in."

 

Mikey nodded, but still looked glum, and the rest of their siblings didn't look any happier.

 

"I guess I'll go start packing some clothes and stuff then," said Raph heading towards his room in the basement.

 

"Same here," agreed Miwa following his example.

 

"And I'll get started in my lab, since we're short on time, and grab what I'll need too," said Donnie, glancing over to Leo and Mikey. "Could one of you (preferably Leo) grab me some necessities from my room while you're up there?"

 

Mikey pouted at his words, but Leo nodded. "Sure thing, Donnie," he said. "I'll handle it."

 

Breaking off from the three staying in the basement, Yoshi motioned for his two remaining sons to be alert and silent as they ascended the stairs to the main floor of the dojo.

 

Pressing his ear to the basement door before opening it, and hearing nothing, Yoshi silently turned the handle, and let the door swing outwards.

 

Inside the dojo looked just as empty and deserted as the basement had. It was just as when the teens had visited a few days ago. The damage of the Kraang's ransacking was still present, but otherwise, the place seemed untouched.

 

Despite this, Yoshi remained on high alert. "Be on your guard," he warned to his sons as they continued onwards up the second flight of stairs to the kitchen and their living area.

 

Leo and Mikey both followed him silently through the house only breaking off once they reached the upper floor to make a beeline for their bedrooms.

 

Yoshi, in turn, headed for the room he'd shared with Shen. One which he didn't remember sleeping in since the day of his wife's mutation.

 

The room was even more wrecked than the rest of the dojo. He remembered his children's report of the guard robot having fired upon it to kill a rat while they were there the previous time, but it still hurt to see what had once been his and his wife's safe haven so utterly damaged.

 

But this was no time for pondering regrets, and Yoshi squared his shoulders, and entered the room, intending to gather the necessities he needed and then go rejoin his children as quickly as possible.

 

As he grabbed a travel bag and began picking through the remains of his wardrobe for clothing that was still usable, he suddenly tensed as a cold chill ran down his spine.

 

_He was not alone!_

 

Yoshi dove to the side the instant that realization registered, and just barely managed to avoid a stab in the back by a very familiar bladed gauntlet.

 

"Welcome home, Hamato Yoshi," said the dark chilling voice that had haunted his nightmares for years.

 

"Saki!" Yoshi gasped as he took in the horrifying sight of his most hated enemy standing in the middle of his and his wife's room.

 

Just like he had fifteen years ago on that fateful night…

 

But before that thought could fully process, Foot-Bots came flooding out of the woodwork to surround the two of them, and from the yelps coming from down the hall, he could guess the same was being done in his sons' rooms.

 

Behind his facemask, Yoshi could tell the Shredder was smirking as he raised his gauntlets again, intending to murder his rival within his own home and steal his children away in the same instant, just as he had tried to do in Japan.

 

And it was thought that made Yoshi see red.

 

With a cry of rage, Yoshi struck back at the Shredder, punching him hard enough to knock him back a few feet.

 

But the blow barely phased the madman, and his eyes narrowed beneath his helmet.

 

Yoshi already knew the reason for it. He has still not recovered the strength he had lost in the coma he had been in for the last three months. He was in no shape to go toe to toe with the Shredder, and they both knew it.

 

The thought had the Shredder laughing maniacally. "So this is how it ends, Yoshi," he said. "You, slain for your weakness by my hand."

 

Yoshi sent him an absolutely poisonous glare. "Not today," he declared as he took a leaf out of his children's book, and threw a smoke bomb at his feet.

 

In the ensuing smoke screen, Yoshi dove past the Foot-Bots and darted out the door to his room just in time to see his sons do the same, battling off more of the robots as they did so.

 

"We must leave,  _Now!"_  Yoshi commanded as he gestured towards the stairs.

 

Mikey and Leo both nodded and bolted down the hall, their father at their heels.

 

But the way there was far from easy. It seemed the entire Foot's supply of Foot-Bots had been stuffed like sardines inside their house, making movement cramped and dangerous.

 

At one point, the Foot managed to surround the three Hamatos once again, set to kill Leo and Yoshi, and incapacitate Mikey for their master.

 

With that goal in mind, one Foot-Bot slashed its sword at Leo's head, making him have to pull his head inside his shell to avoid the blade.

 

Another swung at Yoshi with a mace while he was preoccupied with another, and Mikey had to dive in front of his father to take the blow on the back of his shell.

 

"Michelangelo! Leonardo!" shouted Yoshi in alarm at seeing his sons in danger, and knowing the need to keep their names secret was long gone. If the Foot had found their home, there was no doubt their identities had been compromised.

 

Even in his weakened state, Yoshi was still a formidable fighter, which the Foot-Bots quickly found out as he decimated them for attacking his sons.

 

Free from the ambush, the three Hamatos rushed for the stairs and practically leaped down them back to the basement, taking out any more Foot-Bots who got in their way. Shredder's bellow or rage echoing through the house after them.

 

There were even more Foot-Bots crowded in the dojo, no doubt expecting the Hamatos to try to leave through the front or back door. If the robots were capable of such a feeling, they were then surprised as the three of them ran for the basement instead of the exit. But the robots recovered from it quickly and made chase.

 

Yoshi slammed the basement door behind him and locked it. Since escape through the basement had not been anticipated there were no Foot-Bots there yet, but with how the door was already splintering under their attacks, that wouldn't be the case for long.

 

Drawn by the noise, Raph, Donnie, and Miwa emerged from their rooms with travel bags strapped over their shoulders, and their eyes wide as they took in the state of their family members.

 

"We have been discovered," said Yoshi, hurrying for the exit. "We must leave!"

 

Paling at the news, Donnie hurried to join Leo and Mikey in following him to the exit, but Miwa and Raph stood their ground.

 

"Are you kidding?" demanded Raph. "This is our  _home!_ We should stand and fight! Finish this once and for all!"

 

Miwa's expression was one of dark agreement as she drew her tantō and glared at the basement door challengingly.

 

" _Raphael!"_ snapped Yoshi, knowing his son was wasting precious time with his stubbornness. "We will fight, but not as we are now."

 

And then as if to prove his point, Yoshi stumbled and had to lean heavily on his walking stick as his overtaxed muscles chose that moment to revolt against all the abuse they had undergone while trying to flee.

 

Seeing this, both Miwa and Raph relented and hurried to follow the rest, bringing up the rear.

 

But all too soon, the sound of the basement door splintering hit their ears, and Foot Bots began pouring down the stairs after them, the Shredder at the head.

 

Seeing this, Miwa tossed her bag to Leo and shouted. "Get Father to safety! I'll buy some time!"

 

Leo looked like he wanted to protest, but could think of no better solution. "You better be right behind us," he commanded as he and the others hurried through the passage into the sewers. Only Raph (having passed his bag over to Mikey as he left) remained at the door to make sure his sister didn't need back up.

 

The Shredder paused and regarded Miwa with a calculating look in his eye. "Stand aside, Karai," he demanded. "Or suffer the consequences."

 

Miwa glowered at him hatefully and pulled out a handful of already activated Boom Stars. "Suffer this!" she shouted as she threw them at the ceiling, and bolted for the exit.

 

Seeing how little time was left on the stars, Raph's eyes widened, and he dove for his sister. "MI!" he shouted grabbing her and diving both of them out the exit.

 

In the sewer, Yoshi and his three sons froze as an explosion rocked the ground they stood on, and smoke and rubble began pouring from the passage.

 

"MIWA! RAPH!" shouted Leo as he and his brothers rushed for the passage, and began frantically digging through the rubble.

 

After shifting several layers of rock and dirt, they managed to unearth Raph's shell, and soon the rest of him followed, along with Miwa, who had been pinned protectively beneath him. Miraculously, neither one was hurt, though Miwa did complain about being forced to smell Raph's breath while they were buried ("Yours doesn't smell much better, Sis.").

 

Seeing this, Mikey let out an appreciative whistle. "Snap, that was all too close. Good thing we got shells, bros."

 

He meant to say it as a light-hearted statement, but his remark made both Leo and Raph freeze, and share a contemplative look.

 

But before either could share their thought, Yoshi said, "Come, my children. It is no longer safe here, and the Shredder will have his forces searching the sewers for us soon enough. We must get as far from here as we possibly can."

 

"Not much hope Shredder got buried in  _that,_  is there?" Donnie asked sardonically.

 

"With our luck, no chance," said Miwa, glaring at what had once been a door to their home.

 

With that, the six ninjas took off through the sewers and vanished into the darkness.

 

____________________________

 

To say the Mutanimals were surprised to see the Hamatos darken their doorstep again so soon was an understatement.

 

To say they were alarmed to see the new injuries they all sported was an even bigger one.

 

"What happened?!" Slash practically shouted as he helped Yoshi to the couch, the man's strength depleted from the excursion.

 

"Are you alright, my friends?" asked Leatherhead as he hurried towards them as well.

 

Jason, Pete, and Malachi also clamored to know what happened, and Rockwell hurried to get the first aid kit, but it was clear he was keeping his ears open to hear the story as well.

 

"The Foot ambushed us at our house," said Leo, wincing as a concerned Malachi poked at one of his newly forming bruises. "Someone call April, Casey, and Kurtzman. They might not be safe in their homes either."

 

Donnie paled at that thought, and quickly pulled out his own cell phone and hit speed dial. It was no mystery who he was calling.

 

"You got it, Boss," said Jason as he pulled out a cell phone and dialed Casey's number. Next to him, Malachi did the same for Kurtzman.

 

Fortunately, all three reported they hadn't seen any Foot activity, but to be safe, they would sleep down in the (now empty) Shelter for a few extra days.

 

Slash seethed as Rockwell returned with the medical supplies, and they started getting distributed among the Hamato family. "That lousy, no good, Shredder!" the turtle growled. "When I get my hands on him, I'm gonna-!" he broke off, unable to think of a punishment severe enough.

 

Miwa snorted as she accepted some bandages and disinfectant for her scrapes. "Get in line, Big Guy," she said darkly. "You can do whatever you like with what's left after  _I'm_  done with him."

 

Slash glanced at her, knowing just how vicious the kunoichi could be, and smirked. "Just so long as you let me enjoy the show when you do. I'll even hold him down for you."

 

"Done," Miwa agreed.

 

Despite being happy his sister and former pet seemed to be getting on better terms, Raph had to suppress a shudder at their words. "Hate to be in his spikey metal shoes when that happens," he said sarcastically as he pressed an ice pack to his head.

 

"You said it," agreed Mikey, looking slightly terrified.

 

Slash and Miwa shared a sadistic grin.

 

Donnie, meanwhile, had been taking stalk of the few supplies they'd managed to get before fleeing. "The good news is I was able to grab all the equipment I needed from my lab," he said. "Plus I had a few changes of clothes stashed there just in case, so I'm good on that. Leo and Mikey weren't able to grab anything, but they can probably borrow Raph's clothes until we get them new ones."

 

The genius teen then turned to flash a grin at the rest of them. "So despite that, er, setback, we're still set for you three to be human again once I run my tests."

 

Far from being cheered by Donnie's words, Leo's face fell, and he reached up to rub the back of his neck. "Uh, about that…" he said slowly, drawing all their attention. "I-I really hate to say it, but maybe… Maybe we should hold off on changing back just yet…"

 

Everyone stared in shock at Leo. He had been the most eager of all of them to turn back. For him to suddenly suggest otherwise…

 

Miwa made her way over to him and began examining his head. "Did you get knocked on the skull, and not tell us about it?" she asked.

 

Leo sighed and pushed her hands away. "No, I didn't, I just…" He frowned as he tried to explain himself.

 

Sensing the sudden change in the atmosphere, Malachi glanced over at Slash and said, "Sir Slash, is it not it time for our patrol this eve?"

 

Catching his meaning (even though it was much earlier than the Mutanimals usually patrolled), Slash said, "Oh, uh, yeah. We better get on that. Mutanimals, move out."

 

"But it's not even sundown yet!" squawked Pete.

 

But the pigeon was shoved towards the door by Rockwell. "We really must teach you about social cues, my feathered friend," the monkey abolished as the Mutanimals made their exit, leaving the Hamatos alone.

 

Once only their family members occupied the room, Yoshi turned his attention to his oldest son, and said calmly, "Please explain yourself, Leonardo."

 

Leo hesitated but plowed on. "It's just… The Kraang may be gone, but the Foot are still a huge threat, and they just proved today that they have us outnumbered and outgunned in a lot of ways."

 

"But they don't use guns?" said Mikey looking confused, only for Raph to elbow him, and hiss, "Shh."

 

"They have the advantage," Leo continued, ignoring Mikey's question. "And they'll use every advantage they have to get us. And if that's the case, should we really be giving up any advantage  _we_  have against them?"

 

"Advantage?" asked Miwa incredulously.

 

But Raph was nodding in agreement with Leo. "I was kinda thinking the same thing," he admitted to the rest. "Mi and I would have both been crushed today if I didn't have a shell to protect us. Not to mention, I'm stronger like this. I couldn't lift half as much as a human. Heal faster too."

 

"Yup, rock-solid abs," Mikey said cheerfully, knocking a fist against his shell. "Plus, it does this." he pulled his limbs and head inside his shell to show off the additional protection it gave.

 

"Exactly!" said Leo, gesturing towards where Mikey was now trying to pull himself back out. "If it hadn't been for that trick, I'd have lost my head earlier. Don't get me wrong, I  _want_  to be human again, but… with the Shredder still around, is it really safe? Either way, we're going to be hiding."

 

Miwa and Donnie exchanged flummoxed glances, and Yoshi closed his eyes thoughtfully.

 

"The choice is up to you, my sons," their father said sagely. "Whether you return to your human forms today, or you choose to follow Dr. Rockwell and Sir Malachi's examples and remain as you are now. I suggest you meditate on your decision. There is no need for haste at the moment."

 

The three turtles exchanged glances, before nodding, and going off to separate parts of the Lair to think.

 

"What do you think they'll do, Father?" Donnie asked, sending concerned looks after his brothers.

 

"I do not know, Donatello," said Yoshi sagely. "But whatever their choice, we will support them."

 

His two remaining human children nodded in agreement. Supporting their family was always a given.

 

____________________________

 

By the time they'd left the Lair, the three turtles had still not made up their minds. Not wanting to overstay their welcome, the Hamatos left for the safehouse Yoshi had procured for them. He assured them that all the paperwork was under a false name, and the Shredder was not likely to find them again quickly.

 

After assuring a concerned Metalhead that they were alright, they took in the sight of their current, and hopefully temporary home.

 

The safehouse turned out to be a small worn-looking two-bedroom basement apartment with a kitchen/living room, workroom (which was really more of a closet), and a small bathroom that was a few miles away from their dojo. Most of the teens were not thrilled by the size of it, but for Mikey, there was one saving grace.

 

"Bunk beds!" he squealed after he'd placed Ice Cream Kitty in the freezer, and he took in the sight of the beds set into the larger of the two bedrooms. In it were two sets of bunk beds for the boys and a single bed with a curtain (for privacy) for Miwa.

 

Running towards the closest one to him, Mikey shouted, "I call top bunk!" and he practically leaped to the top of it to flop on the covers.

 

Seeing his other four children eyeing their cramped new living arrangements dubiously, Yoshi gave them an apologetic look. "I am sorry, my children. But I'm afraid it'll have to do for now."

 

The three boys exchanged glances, and Miwa let out a snort. "Yeah right, we'll all wanna kill each other by the end of the week."

 

"If even that," said Raph, knowing Mikey could easily drive him up the wall much faster than that, especially at such close quarters.

 

Donnie sighed and figured he'd make the best of it. "Should I use the workroom as my lab?" he asked Yoshi.

 

"You may," Yoshi said with a nod, and the genius hurried away to start working on the retro-mutagen, casting a pointed look at the turtles as he did so.

 

Miwa, meanwhile, turned and headed back out the door. "I'm going to go check on Mother," she said over her shoulder. "Let me know when they make a decision."

 

With her gone, it was just the turtles and their father.

 

"You should rest, Father," said Leo, hoping to dispel the awkward atmosphere that fell over the apartment.

 

Yoshi nodded. "Yes," he said. "That may be best."

 

"Father, I gotta ask," said Raph before the man could leave. "Why hide here?"

 

Yoshi paused in the doorway of his bedroom and glanced around the apartment with wistful eyes. "This was the only apartment Shen and I could afford when we fled Japan to this city. It is where we and Miwa lived until Shen gave birth to you four, and we started construction on the dojo."

 

That made Leo, Raph, and Mikey all blink at him in surprise, and even Donnie leaned out of his new lab to stare as their father shut his bedroom door behind him.

 

" _Weird_ ," said Mikey. "It's like we went in a big circle."

 

"Or backwards," Donnie muttered.

 

"Well, what we need now is to figure out how to go forwards again," said Leo. "Starting with figuring out what we're gonna do about all… this," he said gesturing to himself.

 

His brothers all frowned thoughtfully at his words.

 

Then Mikey groaned and clutched his head. "I hate all this thinking," he bemoaned. "It's making my brain hurt!"

 

"I'd say 'What brain?' but I think I already made that joke," said Raph dryly.

 

Donnie sighed. "Honestly, I'd rather you guys go back to being yourselves, but logically I can understand why you're hesitating too," he said thoughtfully. "Maybe if we listed the pros and cons of both options we can come up with a solution. Metalhead?"

 

At his name, Metalhead began shining his holographic projector in the shape of a large chalkboard with a line down the middle and the words ' _Pro'_ and  _'Con'_  at the top of each column.

 

"Okay, pro, the shells give better protection," said Leo, and his words were listed under the pro column.

 

"Con, we can't show our faces in public without people screaming," Raph grumbled, and those words appeared in their proper column as well.

 

And so the brothers continued on like this.

 

"Pro, we're way stronger than we are as humans."

 

"We get all hibernate-y in winter, that's a con right?"

 

"Well, duh."

 

"I suppose one pro is accelerated healing. You guys recover faster after you mutated."

 

"Con, all these stupid instincts."

 

"Pro, Mother is more protective of us like this, and with how she's going…"

 

"Con, Leo's new voice."

 

" _Hey!_ "

 

"Oh! Pro! Awesome catchphrases! Like a turtle do!"

 

"Con, we can't go to school."

 

"That's a con?"

 

"Plus, Shredder  _knows_ who we all are now. So I think there's no school for any of us for a while either way. Anyway, pro, your limbs-inside-shell-thing comes in handy."

 

"Con, it's annoying when it's an instinctive response to something stupid."

 

"Oh man, pro, guys, pro! Mutating totally save Leo from dying, remember? What if un-mutating opens that up again? Or does something freaky to Raph's crack-scar?"

 

"…"

"…"

"… I'm sure that won't happen, Mikey (I hope). Con, from what I've studied about turtles, shedding season should be happening soon."

 

" _WHAT!"_

 

The three turtles stared at Donnie incredulously, and he shrugged. "It was in a book of turtle care, and we all saw Spike do it before, well, Slash."

 

The other three shared an uncomfortable glance, before turning to look at Metalhead's holographic chart.

 

"Well, this was no help," Raph griped. "It's dead even."

 

Leo grimaced as well. "So much for coming up with an easy solution," he said.

 

Suddenly, Mikey's eyes lit up. "Ooh! Ooh! Donnie! What if you, like, invent some kinda transformer thing that lets us switch back and forth between being turtles and normal dudes! You know, kinda like what Mother can do. That'd solve  _both_  problems."

 

His older brothers exchanged glances, and Donnie shook his head. "That would be great, but I have no idea what the Kraang or Buzzkill did to that mutagen to give mother that ability. Plus, for all we know it could also be what's making her go feral, which is the last thing we want for you guys."

 

"Aww," groaned Mikey in disappointment.

 

"Let's try a different approach," said Leo thoughtfully. "Since we're only considering it to fight the Foot, what are the advantages this gives us against  _them."_

 

"Well, all the stuff we said about fighting," said Raph, ticking them off on the fingers of both hands. "Armor, strength, healing, and retractable limbs."

 

"But it does put us at a disadvantage for stealthier missions," said Donnie. "One of the best places to hide is in plain sight. Giant turtles stick out like a sore thumb, so you're limited to shadows and smoke bombs."

 

"But when we get kidnapped, Shredder doesn't recognize us like this," said Mikey in a helpful tone.

 

"Mikey, we've already established that Shredder knows who we are now. Meaning he's probably gotten ahold of everything from our school pictures to our birthdays," said Leo. He then added offhandedly, "Besides, we should really aim to  _not_  get kidnapped, so that's not an issue."

 

"Why do I get the feeling you just jinxed us," Raph grumbled.

 

"Murphy's law," said Donnie in agreement.

 

Leo glared at them all. "Let's stay focused on the task at hand," he said pointedly. "Does being turtles give us the advantage or not?"

 

"Well, we have to take into consideration that all of Shredder's top henchmen are all mutants too (and Buzzkill, but he doesn't count), so most of the advantages you have as mutants, they also share."

 

"So turning human again will make us weaker against them?" asked Raph with a frown, not liking the idea.

 

"Not necessarily," said Leo. "Remember, we were fighting mutants as humans way before we mutated too, and we always came out on top. But we would have to take an adjustment period to get used to our limits again."

 

"Oh yeah, like when Renet turned us back in the past," said Mikey, looking wistful at the thought of the pretty Apprentice Time Master.

 

"Shoulda asked her more about the future when we had the chance," said Raph crossly. "Some extra info woulda been really useful right now."

 

"What about some positives about turning human again?" asked Leo. "Sure, we'd lose the extra strength, but there have to be some good things."

 

"Well, in the place of better healing, we could actually take you to the hospital if you get hurt again," said Donnie. "Instead of relying solely on me and Raph's limited first aid skills."

 

"Or maybe we could, like, call some science lab to come and cart Shredder's hench-mutants away," said Raph with a vicious grin. "Not being turtles means he couldn't turn it back on us."

 

"But what if Shredder tells them about the Mutanimals?" said Mikey fearfully, wiping the grin off Raph's face.

 

"Good point," he agreed.

 

Leo let out a frustrated sigh. "We're just going around in circles like this," he said.

 

His brothers nodded reluctantly, none of them being any closer to a plan of action than when they'd started. Metalhead nodded too, the list he had been making now very long in both pros and cons, and very confusing to look at.

 

"Maybe we should do what Father suggested, and meditate on this," said Leo, moving to sit on the bottom bunk under Mikey's bed, and pulled himself into a lotus position.

 

"Aww," Mikey groaned, disliking meditating, but he and Raph reluctantly followed Leo's lead on their own beds.

 

Seeing this, Donnie decided to bow out, knowing this was their decision, not his. "I'll just leave you too it. C'mon, Metalhead."

 

With that the genius and his robot made their way into their lab space, leaving the turtles to their thoughts.

 

____________________________

 

To be fair, Mikey did make a valiant effort to meditate, he really did.

 

But ten minutes later (a new record) he was flopping back on his bed with a groan. "Why is this so hard?" he asked.

 

Raph cracked open one eye and said, "Meditating or coming to a decision?"

 

"Both," Mikey moaned.

 

Raph sighed in agreement, and shifted out of his meditative position as well, and nodded to Mikey from across the other top bunk. "Honestly, I never thought I'd be debating it like this," he admitted, looking at his green hands. "When I first mutated, all I wanted was to be normal again. But… then Mother… I didn't think I'd get the chance to even try until after she was better. It's not that I  _want_  to stay this way forever. But I  _do_  want to do what's best to protect our family, ya know."

 

Mikey gave his normally hotheaded brother a wide grin. "Aw, Raph," he cooed.

 

The red-wearing turtle gave his brother a burning glare. "Shut  _up!"_  he growled warningly.

 

Sensing an impending beat down if he continued, Mikey quickly switched gears. "I did kinda wanna be a turtle like you," he confessed, making Raph stare at him in surprise. "Before it happened, it seemed cool. Like you'd become a superhero overnight, and getting to ditch school seemed awesome."

 

"But then you actually did mutate," said Raph, and Mikey's face fell as he nodded.

 

"It was kinda cool at first," said Mikey. "Ya know, aside from the extra training, and Dr. Donnie's tests. And I do think some things about being a turtle are pretty sa- _weet_ , but… I miss a lot of things too. I miss going outside when its daytime, and riding my skateboard in the street, and hangin' with the real Irma at school, and sitting outside Antonio's eating pizza, and-and lots a stuff."

 

"Yeah," said Raph with a downcast nod. "I miss stuff too. And I seriously never thought I'd actually miss school."

 

"Tell me about it," said Mikey glumly.

 

"But if there's so much you miss, why are you hesitating?" came a voice from the bunk below Mikey.

 

"Well look who decided to stop channeling the universe to join us," said Raph, seeing Leo finally come out of his meditative trance to enter the conversation.

 

"I'm serious, guys," said Leo with a frown. "You've both had to put up with being a mutant way longer than I have. Why not take the chance to be normal again?"

 

Raph and Mikey exchanged glances. "'Cause we don't wanna be selfish, dude," said Mikey simply. "One must put the good of the clan over the good of one's self," he added in his best 'old wise man' impression.

 

"Face it, we kick more butt this way," said Raph with a nod. "I couldn't punch a Kraang head right off its shoulders as a human."

 

"Didn't stop us from taking them down anyway," said Leo. "And it still hasn't stopped Donnie or Mi. Or Casey, April, or even Jason."

 

Mikey and Raph exchanged glances as they chewed on that for a moment.

 

"We are pretty awesome humans, aren't we," said Mikey with a grin.

 

"Understatement," said Raph with a smirk.

 

"We saved the world, and took down a Technodrome before any of these crazy mutations happened, I think that goes to show how good we are," said Leo, looking more confident now.

 

The three brothers exchanged glances, finally coming to a decision.

 

As one they got off the beds and made their way for the door to Donnie's workspace.

 

"Yo, D," Mikey called as they knocked on the door. "How are those tests going?"

 

Donnie opening the door and beaming was answer enough.

 

____________________________

 

"Tadaima," Miwa called as she returned hours later after spending time with Shen, she had to pause at the sight that met her eyes within the new apartment.

 

Sitting in their new cramped living space was her father, robot, and four brothers sitting around the TV watching  _Crognard the Barbarian_. At first, she had to wonder why the room seemed slightly bigger than before.

 

Then it registered in her brain that it seemed bigger because three of her brothers had shed their bulky shells, allowing all three to sit on the couch.

 

Three human faces she hadn't seen since their trip with Renet smiled back at her as her face broke into a wide grin at the sight of them.

 

"Okaeri, Sis," said Leo, tugging at the ill-fitting clothes he'd borrowed from Raph, looking a little sheepish under her scrutiny.

 

Miwa's only response was to run over and tackle the three of them in a hug, which caused their couch to be knocked over backwards, taking the teenagers with it, and making Yoshi, Donnie, and Metalhead laugh at the sight.

 

Things were still a mess, and likely would be for some time, but for now, things seemed just a little bit better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be honest, a lot of their debating is based on my own internal debates on whether or not to keep them turtles, or change them back. Sorry if anyone's disappointed by this, but we all knew this would happen eventually. This, of course, doesn't mean no one else will get mutated, so who knows what the future will bring. Also, this is why I moved up Turtles in Time. It was really for the simple reason that I wanted them to be turtles when they went back.


	57. Is This a Date?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Casey and Miwa team up to stop the Foot from getting their hands on some chemicals, but that's not the only chemistry happening that night.

Just when things seemed to be going alright, there was always some new problem that would come up and kick you in the teeth.

 

At least that's what Casey thought about the situation his friends were currently in.

 

Things had been looking up lately. He'd reunited with his family in the Shelter, and they were cool (if more than a little worried) with his secret life as a vigilante. He and all his friends had taken back New York City from the Kraang and sent the slimy aliens back to the freaky dimension where they belonged. Even his three turtle friends had managed to turn back into humans, allowing him and his best friend to hang out in daylight hours once again.

 

Things should be going  _great!_

 

But they weren't, and it was all thanks to a bunch of robo pajama-wearing freaks, some nasty hench-mutants, and their pointy metal jerk of a boss.

 

After having both his and April's homes checked thoroughly for any sign of the Foot there to attempt another ambush, it was quickly discovered that Casey's apartment was clear. Neither the Foot nor the Kraang had paid the vigilante any mind in the first place, and it seemed possible they still didn't know who he was (Casey wasn't sure if he felt relieved or indignant about that fact). Still, it didn't stop Donnie from rigging a cobbled together (but still more advanced than anything on the market) security system, and the ninjas and Mighty Mutanimals often patrolled the area at night.

 

April, however, was a different story. The Foot  _knew_  who she was. Fortunately, when they first went after her, she had been living with her Aunt, and it was there at her that the Foot ambush was discovered lying in wait. Since reuniting with her father, she and he had moved back into their usual apartment, which the Foot did not know about, so she, her father, and her aunt were moderately safe. Still, their apartment was outfitted with its own security system, patrols swung by that neighborhood as well, and April didn't go out in daylight hours without some sort of disguise.

 

But that didn't change the fact that the Hamatos still couldn't go home to their awesome dojo, and instead had to hide like rats in a crummy, too small apartment instead.

 

And the knowledge of that left Casey pissed. After all, they'd gone through, even braving Dimension X to get the city back for them, and they still couldn't go home and rest in their own beds with the Shredder and his flunkies still on the loose.

 

Well, Casey Jones wasn't going to stand for it!

 

But hotheaded as he may be, he knew full well that storming into Foot Clan Headquarters half-cocked and alone would only lead to him getting brutally murdered, and his bloody corpse thrown at his friend's feet to crush their already bruised moral.

 

No, if Casey wanted to take down the big kahuna, he'd have to start with the small fries first and work his way up.

 

And they didn't get much smaller than the Purple Dragons.

 

Didn't fry much better either.

 

So here he was, Casey Jones in his full vigilante gear patrolling the city looking for scumbags.

 

As he hopped from rooftop to rooftop (something totally awesome he'd never even considered doing before he'd found out Raph's ninja secret), he took in the sight of the city recovering and repairing itself from the damaged of the invasion.

 

Workers were patching up buildings, and carefully taking down the crystalline trees that had sprung up from the mutagen spills. The police were directing traffic in areas where the stoplights were damaged and keeping a sharp eye out for wrongdoers.

 

As he passed a nearby a jewelry store, he paused to glance down at April (who was hiding her red hair under a black wig) and her father handing out soup to people who's homes were destroyed in the invasion. Several other volunteers were nearby as well, providing clothing and blankets to those who needed it.

 

He had to admit, it was really cool how almost getting annihilated could bring the city together. People liked to say how in New York, everyone was out for themselves, and no one cared about the less fortunate around them. But now, with the Kraang gone, it was a new start, and it seemed like the city was putting their best foot forward.

 

Well,  _most_  of the city.

 

Then there were others. Thieves, lowlifes and thugs, and of course, the Purple Dragons. All of whom were taking advantage of the cities disarray and looting everything of value they could find.

 

' _BOOM!'_

 

Speaking of which…

 

Hearing an explosion a few blocks over had Casey smirking under his mask. Looks like he finally found his fish, now he just had to go catch them.

 

Hurrying towards the source of the noise, he saw that it was coming from a bank. Once inside he was met with the sight of the three usual Purple Dragons coming out of a vault with sacks of money in their hands.

 

"Who knew withdrawin' money from a bank could be so easy," said the shortest of the gangsters (Casey had never bothered to learn their names) over the wail of the alarms.

 

His two pals chortled at his comment before all three stopped dead at the sight of Casey standing before them and glaring.

 

"Nobody steals in my town," Casey said gruffly, holding a bat in one hand and a hockey stick in another ready to give the Dragons a beatdown.

 

"It's that vigilante nut!" shouted the biggest of the thugs.

 

"Let's crack him open then," said the shortest, pulling out a crowbar and rushing forward to attempt to do just that, his friends following after.

 

 _Attempt_  being the key word as Casey managed to take all three down without breaking a sweat. Looks like all the training with Master Yoshi before the invasion, and his friends at the farm had paid off.

 

But as the last lowlife fell to the floor in a heap, Casey caught sight of a fourth silhouette stepping out the destroyed vault.

 

"Hohoo, a new recruit," said Casey cockily. Knowing the Purple Dragons' standards, he wasn't expecting much. "Ready to taste some asphalt, scum?"

 

The figure stepped forward into view, trodding carelessly on top of the downed Dragons as he went. He looked a lot like Bruce Lee, but with large aviator shades, and tattoos of dragons covering his arms and chest.

 

"Not a recruit, I'm the new leader," said the Bruce Lee wannabe in a smug sounding voice as he struck a fighting pose, showing off the spiked brass knuckles he had strapped to his hands. "Hun!" he declared his name as if it was something impressive.

 

But impressed Casey was not. "Nah, I think I prefer  _Scum!"_  he said, using a wad of fallen money as a hockey puck, and smacked it at the new thug.

 

But Hun just leaned a little to the right, and let the projectile fly past his ear without flinching.

 

Assuming it was some kind of fluke, Casey smacked another in his direction, only for Hun to block it with his hand.

 

Getting irritated now, Casey pulled out an actual hockey puck and sent it flying at the gangster as hard as he could, determined to do some damage.

 

But the man simply caught it out of the air between two fingers and looked stoically at the vigilante.

 

Okay, maybe Casey was starting to get a little, itty-bitty,  _teensy_  bit impressed, but it wasn't going to save this scum from a beat down.

 

Leaping into the air, Casey swung at the man with his bat and hockey stick, only for Hun to grab two of his unconscious teammates and hold them in front of him as a pair of human shields.

 

The two of them took the blows, then, before Casey could land, Hun let out a high pitched battle cry, and slammed his spiked fists into Casey's gut in a series of rapid punches.

 

Fortunately, Casey's sports padding kept the spikes from stabbing him. Unfortunately, they did little to cushion the force behind Hun's blows, and the vigilante was soon sent flying across the bank and slamming into the far wall before sliding to a heap on the ground.

 

Hun then threw Casey's puck back at him like a throwing star, and it shot through the air before hitting Casey right where it would hurt the most, making the vigilante yelp in a much higher pitch than normal.

 

Hun glared at the boy with disinterest, before holding up his hand in a thumbs-down motion, before turning back to his three flunkies who were just now getting back to their feet.

 

Casey glowered at him, but was currently in too much pain to move, and could only glare angrily at the sight of the Purple Dragons making their getaway, though, thankfully without the bags of cash.

 

Just then the wail of police sirens sounded outside the bank, and Casey forced himself to his feet in order to escape before the cops tried to pin the robbery on him.

 

He hurried after the Dragons through the wall they'd blown up in their heist, just barely getting out as the police swarmed into the building.

 

But he didn't get out completely unseen as the newly transferred Officer Howard Laird froze in the bank doorway, staring at the hole he'd seen a figure in a familiar hockey mask run out of.

Was that-?

 

It couldn't be…

 

… Could it?

 

Mistaking the reason for his confusion, another officer walked over and patted Howard comfortingly on the shoulder. "Welcome to New York City, Laird. When they say the freaks come out at night, they really mean it," he said.

 

Howard just groaned and massaged his forehead. "I should have stayed in Northampton," he muttered to himself.

 

To think, he'd left to get  _away_  from those crazy kids.

 

____________________________

 

As reluctantly okay his dad and sister were with his vigilante work, Casey didn't think it would stay that way if he went home looking like he'd lost a fight. So instead he headed for the Hamatos' place for some ice, and maybe a little backup.

 

But when he got there, he was surprised to see them lounging in the living room, rather than getting ready for patrol like they usually would at this hour. Only Master Yoshi was absent, but Casey could guess he was down in the sewers with Tang Shen once again. Even Metalhead was looking unproductive as he stood next to Donnie to watch  _Crognard the Barbarian_ on the TV.

 

"Well, look what the cat dragged in," Raph remarked dryly as Casey stormed into the apartment with a scowl on his war-painted face. "Where ya been, Jones?"

 

"Doin' what you should be," Casey said pointedly. "Helpin' the city. Stopping  _crime!_ "

 

"Whoa, hold up," said Leo, holding his hands in a placating gesture. "In case you hadn't noticed, the three of us only just turned back."

 

"So?" asked Casey. "You can kick as much butt human as you did turtles."

 

"It's not that simple, Casey," said Donnie. "All three of them are on an adjustment period right now in order to relearn their limits, especially in strength and durability."

 

Metalhead nodded in agreement and pulled up a hologram that no doubt gave scientific examples of what Donnie was saying, but it all looked like Greek to Casey.

 

"Yeah, dude," said Mikey, who was stuffing his face with Chee-Z Balls. "Goin' from Ninja Turtles to just Ninjas got us thrown off our game. Donnie says it'll take a few days to get used to it again, even with Father's training."

 

"Until then, they fight clumsier than they usually do," said Miwa flippantly.

 

"Hey, what do you mean ' _usually'?!"_  shouted Raph, Leo, and Mikey in unison as they looked at their sister indignantly.

 

"Anyway," said Miwa, ignoring them. "Leader-boy here doesn't want us out on patrol until we're all at full strength. Especially since the Foot will be on high alert looking for us since they missed getting us at the dojo."

 

Leo nodded. "We can still fight, but the last thing we need is to get caught when we all can't be at our A-game. Especially now."

 

Though, as he said this Raph had a disgruntled expression that clearly said he didn't want to be taking it easy any more than he wanted to kiss the Shredder.

 

Casey scowled at the excuse. "But can't Donnie, Metalhead, or Babe at least patrol if you three can't? I'd ask the Mutanimals, but they have their own patrol schedule on the other side of town."

 

Donnie frowned apologetically. "Sorry, but I want to use this time to modify the retro-mutagen to help Mother. And I need Metalhead's help to do that. The sooner we de-mutate her the better."

 

But Miwa hopped off the couch and headed to her room to grab her equipment. "Well, I could use some exercise. Count me in."

 

Casey was glad for his face paint hid his blush at the idea of patrolling alone with Miwa. Still, it may have shown through somewhat, as Donnie shot him a knowing look.

 

"So, anything happening topside?" asked Raph, unaware of what was going on in his best friend's head.

 

"Oh, right," said Casey, coming back to Earth. "The Purple Dragons have got a new recruit."

 

"Oh?" asked Raph, mildly interested. "So how bad'd you beat 'em?"

 

Casey glanced away, and said, "Well, at least I stopped 'em from getting away with the cash."

 

There was utter silence in the room as the four brothers processed the implications of that statement.

 

The second it sank in that Casey Jones had  _lost_  to the  _Purple Dragons,_ they all roared in laughter. Even Metalhead joined in by playing a laugh track over his speakers.

 

Casey scowled at the five of them, and promptly turned around and stormed back out the door, slamming it as he did so, forgetting all about his partner in crime fighting for the night.

 

Said partner chose that moment to step out of her room in full ninja garb and blinked at the sight of her brothers rolling on the floor laughing, and Casey nowhere in sight.

 

"What'd I miss?" Miwa asked in confusion.

 

In response, Metalhead simply played his laugh track again.

 

____________________________

 

It didn't hit Casey that he'd forgotten Miwa until he was on a roof several blocks away.

 

When he realized he had just ditched his kunoichi crush, he immediately smacked himself on the forehead and swore vehemently. He was starting to think this night couldn't get any worse.

 

"Babe is so gonna kill me," he groaned.

 

There was only one way for him to salvage that night in his mind. Track down the Purple Dragons, and pound their new leader in his lame head.

 

Just then, the sound of motorcycles caught his attention, and Casey looked down to see several Foot-Bots, as well as Tiger Claw, Fishface, and the Shredder himself drive by on motorbikes.

 

"The Foot?" Casey said out loud in surprise. "What are they up to? Guess it's up to me to find out."

 

"Don't you mean up to  _us_  to find out?" a voice asked pointedly.

 

Casey let out a high-pitched yelp and wheeled around to see Miwa standing there, her eyes glaring at him behind her scarf and hood. "Babe?" he squeaked in surprise.

 

"You ditched me," she said bluntly in reply.

 

As Casey floundered to make an apology, her eyes turned downwards to watch the Foot get farther away. "Come on," she said, cutting him off. "Before we lose them."

 

With that, she took off after the squad of motorcycles, and Casey smacked himself on the forehead once again.

 

"It's really,  _really_  not my night," he groaned, before hurrying after her.

 

They followed the Foot to an Italian Restaurant called Dell' Abate and ducked into an alley to watch them go inside.

 

"Why does no one ever notice them?" Miwa grumbled under her breath as none of the people on the street seemed to even see the evil ninjas and mutants. "We  _just_  had an alien invasion. People should be on high alert for anything weird, and roaring in on motorcycles isn't exactly subtle."

 

Casey could only give her a clueless shrug. "I dunno, but things just got interesting."

 

He then moved to follow after the Foot, but Miwa snagged his hood and yanked him back into the alley.

 

"Are you off your nut?" she hissed. "We can't just go in there! Shredder  _knows_  my face."

 

"But he doesn't know mine," said Casey tugging himself free, and hurrying across the street before she could stop him. "I got this, Babe."

 

"We don't know that! Get back here, Hockey Boy!" she whisper-yelled after him. " _Casey!"_

 

But Casey had already hurried into the alley next to the restaurant and ducked into the kitchen door.

 

Miwa smacked her forehead at his impulsiveness and unsheathed her tantō to rush in and rescue him if things went south.

 

____________________________

 

The sight that met Casey's eyes within the restaurant was like something out of a gangster movie. Well, if gangster movies had ninjas and mutants, that is.

 

Sitting at the main table in the establishment was an incredibly fat man eating a large plate of spaghetti and meatballs in the loudest, most disgusting manner possible. He had two bodyguards standing like secret service agents behind him, armed to the teeth with weapons in case things got ugly (or in this case, uglier).

 

The Shredder didn't appear to be the least bit bothered by the display, as he stalked into the room like he owned the place, and sat at the table across from the fat man and glowered at him, Tiger Claw and Fishface flanking him at either side.

 

"Crazy thing, that alien invasion," said the fat man almost conversationally. "But such moments in history can prove, uh, fortuitous for businessmen like us, eh?"

 

No emotion could be seen past the Shredder's metallic facemask, but there was no mistaking how the temperature in the room dropped dramatically as he asked pointedly, " _Us?_ You were just a gangster, Don Vizioso. You seem unaware that the power in this city has shifted… to me."

 

Not seeming to realize the danger he was now treading, the fat man responded, "What are you trying to say, Shredder?"

 

"Must I spell it out?" asked the Shredder dangerously.

 

Immediately, Vizioso's guards pulled out knives, which prompted Tiger Claw and Fishface to pull out their own weapons. The four glowered at each other, each side daring the other to make the first move.

 

"Yeah, I don't read so good," said Vizioso smugly, still not seeming to be aware of how dangerous such words were.

 

A small signal from Shredder had his hench-mutants stand down, and the bodyguards reluctantly followed their example.

 

Feeling that he needed to get closer to hear properly, Casey quickly ditched his mask and makeup, tied on a spare apron from the kitchen, and stepped out of the kitchen carrying the most expensive bottle of wine he could find, and started pouring drinks at the table as he listened in.

 

"I already control the Russian mob through Steranko, the Asian gangs fear Hun, and the South American's through Xever," the Shedder continued as he tried to glare Vizioso into submission. "So either declare your allegiance to me or…"

 

There was the sharp sound of a blade being drawn, and Vizioso froze with a meatball halfway to his mouth. Before his eyes, the meatball split in half from a blow he hadn't even seen and fell back down onto his plate. The candles on either side of the table soon followed after, and the bodyguards had to stamp on them to keep the restaurant from catching fire. He looked up with a dumbstruck expression to see the Shredder retract his blade back into his gauntlet, all while giving the fat man a look that clearly said the next cut would be through his neck.

 

From where he was standing, Casey gave a wince and for the first time  _really_  understood why his friends were so afraid of this guy.

 

Finally, Vizioso seemed to realize just how dangerous the man in front of him was, and, for the first time since the ninjas had arrived, he placed his silverware down and stopped eating to give the Shredder his full attention.

 

"So how might I be of service," he said in a much more polite tone than he had used initially.

 

Casey moved carefully over to Shredder's side to pour wine into his glass. Being careful not to draw attention to himself as he listened carefully to what Shredder would say next. He knew any Intel he could get on Shredder's plans would be a gold to his friends.

 

"Access to certain chemicals," the Shredder said vaguely. "For a project I am working on."

 

"Well I already told you about the shipment at the docks," said Vizioso with a confused expression. "What more do you-"

 

But before he could finish, the Shredder suddenly rose from his chair, grabbed Casey by the throat, and slammed the back of his head into Vizioso's plate of spaghetti. The blade snapped back out of the ninja master's gauntlet and pressed against the teenager's throat.

 

"Who sent you,  _spy!"_  the Shredder roared angrily, giving the boy in his grip a look of utter poison.

 

Casey struggled under his hand and stared at the blade with wide eyes. "I'm-I'm just the busboy!" he protested, trying to look as innocent as he could and wondering what had given him away.

 

Belatedly, he remembered his and Miwa's encounter with the Shredder before while in disguise on the night Tang Shen had gotten mutated. He'd thought the Foot had been too focused on Miwa to pay attention to his face.

 

Now he wasn't so sure…

 

Behind the Shredder, Vizioso and his bodyguards sent questioning looks at Tiger Claw and Fishface, and the two hench-mutants only shuddered in response, almost pitying the boy.

 

The Shredder studied Casey's face with a harsh glare, his blade not moving from the boy's neck. Beneath him, Casey started to see his life flash before his eyes.

 

After what felt like an eternity, the ninja master said, "Very well. But do  _not_  let me see your face ever again."

 

With that, the Shredder lifted Casey off the spaghetti and threw him in the direction of the kitchen doors.

 

Casey slammed into the wall with a crash that shook the whole building but was on his feet again and through the kitchen door before he even registered the pain of the blow, desperate to get as far away from the madman as possible.

 

He had to retract his previous thought.  _Now_  he really understood why his friends feared the Shredder. That had to be the single most terrifying moment of his entire life.

 

Behind him, he heard the Shredder return to his meeting as if the interruption with Casey had never happened, but he was too freaked out to try and listen anymore. He raced through the kitchen and burst back out into the alley, nearly crashing into the wall on the other side in his haste.

 

Bracing himself against it, Casey struggled to control his breathing, and steady his racing heart.

 

"What happened?"

 

With a startled yelp, Casey leaped a foot in the air and wheeled around at the question, before realizing it had been Miwa that had asked it. He's been so freaked out he had almost forgotten she was there. But there she stood, pulling her scarf down as she looked at him in concern.

 

"Nearly got busted," Casey said breathlessly, trying to recover from his second scare of the night. "That was too close." His face then broke into a wide grin as what he'd just done sank into him. "Oh man, that was so  _COOL!_  Wait 'til Raph hears about this!" He quickly fished out his cell phone to text his friend about just that.

 

Miwa raised an eyebrow at his excitement. "I'll bet," she said dryly, reaching over to pluck a noodle out of his hair. "Did you get in a food fight while you were in there?"

 

Casey reached up and realized his hair was still full of spaghetti and pasta sauce from when the Shredder had slammed his head into the plate. With a grimace of disgust, he began trying to wipe as much of it off his head as he could. "I wish," he said. "That would have been even more awesome."

 

Miwa rolled her eyes. "Okay, I get it, you're an adrenaline junkie. But did you at least learn anything new?"

 

That broke through Casey's giddiness, and he nodded. "Sure did, looks like Shredder's in the market for some chemicals." He then gave Miwa his best flirty grin. "Care for a moonlit stroll on the docks, Babe?" he asked in an equally flirtatious tone.

 

Miwa blinked at him in surprise, and Casey froze as what he just said registered in his mind.

 

Later, Casey would blame those words on the adrenaline high he was currently on because there was no way he would have had the nerve to say them otherwise.

 

But then Miwa gave him a smirk, and said, "It's a date, Hockey Boy. Last one to the docks pays for pizza later."

 

With that she secured her scarf back in place and scaled the alley wall to take off across the rooftops, leaving Casey gaping in the alleyway as he tried to process her response.

 

Once it sank in he let out a loud whoop, before taking off after the kunoichi towards the harbor.

 

This night was already looking up.

 

____________________________

 

When they arrived they saw that Rahzar was already there, snarling in the face of a terrified dockworker. He then flung the man away, and the dockworker immediately fled the scene.

 

"Xever!" shouted Rahzar. "Let's get those robot legs moving!"

 

"Back off, man. We talked about this," Fishface snapped back as he dug through the back of a truck for the chemicals they'd come for. "You are not the boss of me." Finding it, he grabbed the handle of the heavy case and began straining to lift it out of the truck.

 

"Technically  _I'm_  field commander when Tiger Claw's not around," said Rahzar smugly, leaning against the truck as Fishface dragged his heavy load towards him. "Which means I  _am_  your boss."

 

Fishface just rolled his bulbous yellow eyes. "Yeah, whatever," he scoffed.

 

"Aw, aren't you two cute," said a voice, making both mutants wheel around in surprise.

 

Looking up, they saw a familiar hooded figure standing atop a tall stack of crates, the ends of her scarf flowing in the wind like a cape. "You two argue like an old married couple," she taunted down at them. "So when's the wedding?"

 

Thrown off by her words, both mutants jerked as far away from each other as possible, sharing a disgusted look at the sheer idea of what she was suggesting with the other mutant. Fishface even dropped the case in his haste to put some distance between him and the canine mutant.

 

The disgust quickly turned to rage, as both mutants turned to glower up at the girl and ready themselves for an attack.

 

Only to be taken completely by surprise as Casey shot out from the crates behind them, and hit Fishface hard enough with his baseball bat that the mutant was sent flying.

 

Rahzar wheeled around to look at Casey in surprise, but Miwa took advantage of his distraction to leap off the stack of crates and land on his head, before bouncing back off and flipping over to stand by Casey.

 

Standing between the two mutants and the chemical case, Casey hefted his bat over his shoulder, and said, "The class is Pain 101. Your instructors are Nightwatcher and Armonia. Any questions before we begin?"

 

Next to him, Miwa rolled her eyes but said nothing as she drew her tantō.

 

Rahzar rubbed his head from where the kunoichi had used it as a springboard and glared at the teenagers. "Did you  _really_  just say that, kid?" he growled, as he held up his long boney claws menacingly.

 

Without waiting for an answer, the canine shot forwards, driving the two teens apart as he slashed at Casey.

 

Both dodged, and Casey quickly dropped one of his exploding pucks onto the ground and smacked it in Rahzar's direction. "Doggie, FETCH!"

 

Instinctively, Rahzar snatched the puck out of the air with his jaws, before suddenly realizing that it was alit with a small firework. He dropped it just fast enough to keep his mouth from being blown off, but the blast still knocked him back into a shipping create.

 

With him down, Casey turned over to look at Miwa, who was battling a recovered Fishface.

 

The girl was being kept on the defense as Fishface was kicking at her with his metal legs with more ferocity than normal. Apparently, he was still ticked about the 'married couple' comment she'd made.

 

Knowing that if he interfered with her fight, she'd likely kick his but into the Hudson, Casey stood to the side to watch them go at each other, close enough to help if necessary, but far enough to not get in the way.

 

"Quite the romantic setting," said Fishface with a nasty smirk as he kicked at Miwa's head. "Are the two of you on a date?"

 

Miwa sneered at him as she blocked his kick with her hands, then leaped a good distance away.

 

Fishface landed back on his feet, before noticing a loud beeping sound coming from the foot he'd tried to kick her with. Looking down, he caught sight of a Boom Star wedged in between some of the joints of his metallic feet, and he only had time to widen his eyes in surprise before it exploded, sending him flying into the bay.

 

"Fights are so much better when the bad guys explode, don't you agree?" asked Miwa coyly as she and Casey watched the splash Fishface made.

 

' _If I wasn't crushing on this girl before, I totally would be now,'_  thought Casey to himself. But all he said out loud was, "Yeah, totally. Way better."

 

The sound of growling behind them made both teens turn to see Rahzar getting back to his feet, and racing towards them with an outraged expression.

 

The two of them readied their weapons for round two, but before Rahzar could reach them, a large crate was cut loose from overhead and flattened the canine beneath it.

 

Casey and Miwa looked up to see the silhouette of Raph looking down at him before the ninja jumped down to join them.

 

"What are you doing here, Ra-er-Iyasa?" asked Casey, not looking too pleased that his best friend was butting in on his maybe-date.

 

"Questions later," said Miwa as she struggled to lift the heavy chemical case. "First we need to get out of here."

 

Casey hurried over to help her, and the three teens fled the docks to an alleyway a few blocks over.

 

"So why are you here, Raph?" Casey asked again once they were in the clear.

 

"You texted me saying something about the Shredder, and coming to the docks," said Raph looking confused. "I thought you wanted me to come help."

 

"Ah, no," said Casey, feeling disgruntled.

 

"Besides, little brother, aren't you supposed to be taking it easy?" asked Miwa pointedly with a disapproving expression.

 

It was clear Raph was completely lost as he looked between Casey and his sister in confusion. Then a flash of realization spread across his face, before quickly shifting to suspicion. "Wait! Is this-? Are you two on a  _date?_ "

 

"Uhhh," Casey said dumbly, as he was unsure of how to label it himself.

 

But Miwa said, "Look, Hockey Boy and I don't need a third wheel. So here." She then dropped the chemical case into Raph's arms, making him struggle to hold it under its weight. "These are probably some dangerous chemicals, so take them to Donnie and find out what they are. We have our own night ahead of us."

 

She then grabbed Casey by the arm and dragged him out of the alley.

 

Raph was left struggling in the alley, unwilling to run after them with the chemicals in case they were explosive and unwilling to drop them in the alley for fear of them being stolen while his back was turned.

 

"Wait!" he yelled after them. "Guys, that wasn't an answer! Mi! Casey!  _Casey!"_

 

____________________________

 

At Foot HQ, the Shredder stood in Stockman's lab examining photograph he'd stolen when his clan had invaded the Renaissance Dojo.

 

The picture featured Shen smiling up at the camera with her five children at a toddler-age cuddled around her in sleep. Shredder knew it was likely Yoshi had held the camera to capture the happy scene, and it only made him despise the man more.

 

This should have been  _his_  happy moment to preserve. Not Yoshi's.

 

But soon it would be…

 

"Fear not, my love," he said to Shen's image. "Soon you will be cured of your vile mutation." He then turned to glare across the lab to where the fly mutant was hard at work. "Isn't that right, Stockman?"

 

Buzzkill flinched at his master's words, but quickly replied, "Of course, ssssir."

 

"You had better arrive at a solution soon," said the Shredder, putting the photograph away in his pocket. He then turned his attention to Tiger Claw as he approached.

 

"Master Shredder," said the tiger mutant with a small bow. "The Purple Dragons have arrived."

 

The Shredder nodded silently and made his way up to his throne room. Once he was seated in his chair, he signaled for the gangsters to be allowed in.

 

Immediately Hun strode through the door with a confident expression under his sunglasses. Behind him, two of the other Dragons followed after him, straining to carry the weight of a chemical case between them.

 

"Lord Shredder," said Hun, giving a respectful bow that his underlings quickly mimicked.

 

The Shredder regarded them silently, and Hun took that as an indication to continue. With a snap of his fingers, the two Dragons behind Hun hurried around him and set the chemical case on the floor at his feet, opening it to let the Shredder see the contents inside.

 

"We have found more of the chemical components you've been seeking," said Hun in a confident voice.

 

The Shredder leaned forward in interest at the sight. "Excellent," said the Shredder in a chillingly pleased tone. "I am impressed, Hun."

 

Hun merely smirked and tipped his glasses at the Shredder's words.

 

Little did the villains know, two figures were crouched in the shadows by the window, one of whom had a homemade stethoscope pressed to the window to listen in on the conversation, and the other leaned against him to hear as well.

 

Below, Buzzkill flew over to take a closer look at the case. Taking one of the containers of chemicals out of the case, he said, "Masssster, given your SSSShen issssue, we have no equipment for ssssuch work,"

 

"Then  _find_  me the equipment, you imbecile!" snapped the Shredder, slamming his fist against the armrest of his thrown and surging to his feet.

 

Buzzkill yelped at the sight and quickly shot over to the other side of the room to cower in a corner, knowing full well the Shredder had no qualms with taking his anger out on the fly in very painful fashions. "Yessss, Masssster SSSShredder," he said meekly, before darting out of the room with the chemical as fast as his wings could take him.

 

Hun smirked at the sight, before turning his attention back to the Shredder, and held up his finger to make a point. "You could take over the factory where we found the chemicals," he suggested. "It's on our turf. It would be an honor to show it to you personally, Master Shredder."

 

Hun finished his pitch with another bow, and on the roof, Casey couldn't resist a snort at the display. "Suck up," he said only just loud enough for Miwa to hear.

 

The kunoichi elbowed him to be quiet but silently agreed with his sentiment.

 

"Very well," said the Shredder to Hun below them. "Proceed."

 

Hun smirked, and he and his flunkies turned to leave, with the Foot following after them.

 

On the roof, Miwa and Casey exchanged a silent glance, before taking off after them as well.

 

One thing was for sure in their minds, no matter what Shredder wanted those chemicals for, they couldn't let him have his way.

 

____________________________

 

Leo, Donnie, and Mikey all jumped in surprise when their front door was practically kicked in, thinking they might once again be under attack. Metalhead even brought out his weapons and pointed them at the doorway to be ready if that was the case.

 

They almost immediately calmed down when Raph entered through the door, struggling to carry a heavy looking case in his arms to explain why he hadn't opened the door like a normal person.

 

Only to immediately become alarmed again as Raph set the case gently down on the coffee table in front of Donnie and announced loudly, "I think Mi and Casey are dating!"

 

Their reactions were instantaneous.

 

Mikey's jaw dropped and looked like his brain had just fried.

 

Leo immediately reached for his swords and bellowed, "WHAT!"

 

Metalhead glanced around at their reactions, no doubt confused at the overblown emotions the teenagers were exhibiting.

 

And Donnie just rolled his eyes. ' _It's about time they figured that out,'_  he thought to himself, before turning his attention to the case as Raph filled them in on all that he had seen.

 

"I can't  _believe_  he didn't tell me!" Raph seethed as he finished his tale. "I'm his best friend, and he couldn't be bothered to let me know he has the hots for my  _sister!_ "

 

Leo, meanwhile, was looking thunderous. "And you just  _let_ them go off together?" he demanded. " _Alone?_  Are you  _crazy?_ "

 

"Casey… and Sis… together…" Mikey muttered to himself, still in disbelief. It was clear his brain just could not compute the idea of the two of them together in  _that_  kind of way.

 

"Let them?" Raph snapped back at Leo, still steamed. "What was I supposed to do, Mi'd shoved some maybe-explosives in my hands! I coulda blew us all sky high if I tried going after them!" He then scowled again at the memory. "I can't believe he didn't  _tell_   _me!"_ he shouted, slamming his fist down on the coffee table.

 

Donnie yelped as the blow shook the table, and he and Metalhead both grabbed the case to steady it, the genius shooting Raph a glare as he did so. "Fer  _real!"_  he snapped at his arguing older brothers.

 

Both immediately winced and muttered quick apologies.

 

Donnie huffed a sigh, and grabbed one of the canisters to take to the workroom to study, his robot following after with the rest of the case. "I don't get what you two's problem with this is," he said as he went. "Miwa can more than take care of herself, plus Casey's crush on her seems genuine."

 

That made all three of his brothers snap their attention to him.

 

"YOU  _KNEW!"_  shouted Leo in shock.

 

"He told  _you_  but not me?" Raph bellowed in outrage.

 

"Yes, I did," said Donnie bluntly as he began examining the chemical under a microscope. "I suspected since the farmhouse, but only knew for sure during the whole Speed Demon fiasco. But, really, he calls her  _Babe._  It was kinda obvious from the start."

 

Metalhead nodded in agreement with his creator's words and flashed the others a thumbs-up.

 

"… Teenagers alone in the woods…" Mikey muttered in realization, half remembering a conversation he and Donnie had had before running into the Creep.

 

Hearing that, Leo realized what he meant and looked furious. "Why that little…" he growled.

 

"Miwa trusts him," Donnie said bluntly, drawing all of their attention to him once again in surprise. "He's the one who she opened up to when she was stressed and over training. She let herself  _cry_  in front of him, and he helped her when none of us could."

 

There was a shocked silence as Donnie's words sunk in.

 

They all knew their sister, and they also knew that out of all of them, she was the best at keeping her emotions in check. No one saw what she was really feeling unless she wanted them too.

 

The fact that between the four of them, they could only count on one hand the number of times they'd really seen her cry since becoming teenagers really hit home the magnitude of Donnie's words.

 

Still…

 

"… They could be  _kissing_  right now…" whimpered Mikey with a revolted expression.

 

"If he lays one hand on her, he's  _dead_ ," Leo grumbled protectively, moving to go sharpen his swords.

 

"He still coulda told me," Raph huffed as he crossed his arms across his chest.

 

Once again, Metalhead wondered if he would ever understand humans.

 

Throughout it all, Donnie just rolled his eyes at their antics and turned his focus on identifying the mystery chemical Raph had brought home.

 

Sometimes the genius wondered if he was the only sane person in this family.

 

____________________________

 

Miwa and Casey ended up following the villains to a large factory called  _Auman Chemicals_ , which Miwa recognized as the place to make Mikey's favorite CheeZ Balls snack.

 

Soundlessly, the two teenagers slipped inside through one of the upper windows and made their way across the catwalks to observe the villains below them.

 

"Everything you need, Master Shredder," said Hun as he gave a grand tour of the place. "From mixing vats, extortion machines, kilns, bottling facilities, you name it."

 

The Shredder actually looked impressed as he stared at the glowing of molten cheese vats around them. "You've done well to bring this factory to my attention, Hun," he said in rare praise. "It will be… adequate for my plans."

 

Hun smirked at the praise and came to a stop. "I have one request," he asked. "Since this factory is on Dragon territory, perhaps  _I_ should be in charge."

 

Tiger Claw and Rahzar both growled at the gangster for his boldness, but the Shredder regarded Hun stoically. "So be it," he said dangerously. "Success is to be rewarded. As failure is to be  _punished_." He glanced back at his own lackeys as he said that, and the mutants all winced, and rubbed the numerous scars they had received for such 'failures'.

 

For the first time that night, Hun's cocky smirk faded at the sight of the fearsome mutants cowering before the ninja master, and his unease grew as Tiger Claw ran his paw over his eye patch at the mention of punishment.

 

Knowing they couldn't let the Shredder go through with whatever he was planning, Casey moved to drop down on the villains and start busting some heads, but Miwa reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him.

 

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

 

"Uh, stopping the Foot?" Casey whispered back, thinking it should have been obvious. "It's kinda what we came here to do, Babe."

 

"Not like that, idiot," she snapped back, before freezing as she noticed Rahzar starting to sniff around below them as if he was starting to smell them.

 

She silently gestured for Casey to follow her and added in a glare when he looked like he might jump down and pick a fight anyway.

 

Gulping at the sight of her glare, Casey wisely chose to follow after her instead.

 

The two teens made their way to the roof, where Miwa said, "I know your preferred strategy is to beat things until they can't move anymore, but that's not going to work on the Shredder."

 

Casey rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Aw, come on, Babe. We can take him."

 

Miwa's face set into a hardened frown, and she grabbed Casey by the front of his hoodie and yanked him forward so he was looking her dead in the eye.

 

"No. We.  _Can't!"_  she said as coldly, slowly, and simply as she could to show him she was dead serious.

 

Casey froze in surprise at her tone.

 

Taking that as a sign he was listening, Miwa released Casey and continued, "If we go down there guns blazing, it'll only end with us getting killed and/or captured, neither of which is an option I really care for. Right now, we're outnumbered  _and_ outgunned."

 

"But we handled the mutants just fine at the docks earlier," said Casey with a frown.

 

"Yeah, and if it was  _just_  the mutants I wouldn't be against kicking their asses here and now," Miwa said bluntly. "But Shredder's there with them, and…" Her face pinched in loathing as she admitted the next part. "And we can't win against him. Not on our own, anyway."

 

Casey's frown deepened. "That dude's really that tough?" he asked. "I mean, he's  _just_  one guy."

 

Miwa heaved a heavy sigh. "One guy who happens to be one of the  _best_  Ninjutsu masters in over a century with  _decades_  of training under his belt," she said bluntly. "The only one in the entire  _world_  who could possibly rival him in that is my Father, and even though they've fought three times since Shredder came to New York, Father  _still_  hasn't been able to beat him. Compared to that, we're a teen kunoichi and a vigilante who's only just begun training. We don't stand a chance."

 

Casey gaped as it finally started to sink into him just how dangerous the Shredder truly was. To him, the Shredder had always been some bullying freak in charge of a bunch of other freaks who were determined to ruin his friends' lives. And like any bully, he could be taken down if you just hit him hard enough.

 

It never really occurred to him that it might take more than just a hockey stick to take these bullies down.

 

But still…

 

"We still can't just let them get away," Casey protested. "We gotta do  _something."_

 

"I know," Miwa agreed with a nod. "If Shredder wants this factory, then there's no way we can let him get it. But we'll have to be smart about it. We need a plan."

 

There was a beat of silence as the two teens mulled over what they could do. An all out fight was out, so was reporting the Foot's activities to the police if the Purple Dragons were running the show in this area. No doubt the people who owned and worked for the factory would soon be blackmailed into silence as well and forced to allow Shredder to do as he pleased.

 

Suddenly, an idea blossomed in Casey's mind, and his face split into a wicked grin.

 

"Yo, Babe," he said nonchalantly, making Miwa glance over at him curiously.

 

"You said earlier fights are better when the bad guys explode, right?" Casey continued, rubbing his hands together gleefully.

 

Beneath her scarf, Miwa's face broke into her own malicious grin as she caught on to Casey's idea. "Now  _that's_  what I'm talking about," she said.

 

She quickly reached for her cell phone and hit speed dial. "We're gonna have to call the others in for this. We're so going to need bigger Boom Stars."

 

____________________________

 

"So if they asked us to come, does this mean it's  _not_  a date?" Mikey mused aloud as he and his brothers pulled up to the factory in the newly repaired Shellraiser.

 

Leo and Raph only scowled in reply.

 

Donnie rolled his eyes as he hopped out of the vehicle, and helped Metalhead start unloading the explosives. "You guys seriously need to let it go."

 

"Let what go?" asked a voice behind them.

 

They all turned to see Casey approaching them.

 

The vigilante immediately halted as four very different looks turned to greet him. Leo was glaring at him like he was trying to set the hockey nut on fire with his mind, Raph was scowling at him with a peeved expression, Mikey was looking at him with wide eyes like he was some sort of alien creature, and Donnie was shooting him an apologetic glance.

 

"Okaaaay, what's with the freaky looks?" Casey asked slowly, wondering if he should turn tail and run.

 

Donnie patted Casey on the shoulder sympathetically as he passed with explosives in hand. "Well, Raph came back declaring you were on a date with Sis, what did you think was going to happen."

 

Casey paled beneath his face paint, and briefly considered busting back into the factory to pick a fight with the Shredder. It would no doubt be less painful for what was in store for him now.

 

And he still wasn't sure if this even  _was_  a real date.

 

But it was too late for that, as Leo bore down on him with his own explosives in his hand. "And just where is our sister?" he demanded venomously, looking like he wouldn't mind using the bombs on Casey instead of the factory.

 

"K-keeping an eye on the door to see if Shredder leaves," Casey practically whimpered under the force of Leo's glare.

 

Leo nodded sharply, made an 'I'm watching you' gesture with his free hand, and marched past Casey, no doubt to go see if this was true.

 

Mikey followed after their leader, skirting a wide birth around Casey like a frightened animal.

 

Raph marched over, and shoved a box of explosives into Casey's gut, making the vigilante grab it quickly to keep it from falling to the ground. Raph then scowled at him while holding his own box under his arm. "For the record, I'm pretty sure hitting on your best friend's sister is in violation of the best friend code.  _Especially_  when you don't bother to give your best friend the heads up first," he snapped, before storming off after his brothers.

 

Casey winced as he stood with the explosives in hand. "I am so  _doomed_ , aren't I?" he grumbled aloud.

 

Metalhead, who was walking by with the last of the bombs, made a whistle of agreement.

 

Casey sighed and turned to follow after the robot. "Great," he groused. "And here I was worried that it would be  _Babe_  that killed me."

 

By the time the two of them reached the rest, the brothers had reconvened around Miwa, and Donnie had pulled out a blueprint of the lab to show them all.

 

"We're going to need to plant explosives around the parameter, and on the roof if we want to take the whole place down," said Donnie, gesturing to said places on his blueprint. "Ideally, we'd plant a bomb inside too, but Armonia says Shredder's still in there, and that might be too risky."

 

"I vote Nightwatcher plants that one," Leo grumbled.

 

"Seconded," Raph said dryly.

 

Casey sent them both dirty looks, but Miwa piped up before he could reply.

 

"I'll do it," she said, making them all snap their attention to her.

 

Seeing their looks, she shrugged. "What? I'm best at stealth out of all of us. I drop one of the bombs in a vat, and we can blow this place to Kingdom Come."

 

" _No_  one's planting one inside," said Donnie pointedly, cutting off the argument before it could go any further. "I said  _ideally_ , we don't actually need to risk it. The outside and the roof will be sufficient to destroy the factory and keep Shredder from using it."

 

"At least until we find a more permanent way to take him down," said Leo, finally focusing more on the mission than his protective brotherly instincts. "We can't keep blowing up labs in the city just to keep him from using them."

 

"Aww," groaned all the explosion-happy members of the group (which were more than just Casey and Miwa).

 

Donnie rolled his eyes at this response, and continued, "I've set the explosives with enough power to level the building, but we'd still better be clear of it when they go off. So we plant them, and then call in an all-clear for me to detonate them." He then rattled off the locations where the bombs needed to be placed, and each of them was assigned spots to plant them and broke off to do just that.

 

Which is how Casey found himself planting bombs by the dumpsters, which his dear fearless leader, Leonardo, had insisted be his job. Considering that the factory was pretty much creating toxic waste and marketing it as cheesy snacks, his job was as utterly disgusting as one could imagine it would be.

 

"Lousy stupid- I don't even know if I can consider this a date, and they're still- grrrr!" Casey grumbled to himself as he planted one bomb after another until he was down to the last one.

 

Looking at the explosive with a scowl, Casey moved to plant it in the last place Donnie had indicated before an idea hit him.

 

With a smirk, Casey shoved the bomb into his golf bag and began scaling the wall of the factory once again to sneak back through the window.

 

If planting a bomb  _inside_  would be so much better than outside, then he'd do just that. That'd show the lousy jerks he called friends. No one messes with Casey Jones.

 

At least that was the plan until he climbed inside and bumped into Miwa, who apparently had the same idea.

 

Needless to say, neither were pleased to see each other.

 

"What are you doing here?" Miwa hissed. "You're supposed to be planting bombs outside."

 

"Could say the same for you, Babe," Casey shot back defensively. "You're supposed to be handling the north end."

 

The two glared at each other, silently trying to get the other to turn around and leave so they could continue on their personal mission.

 

When neither of them backed down, Miwa heaved a heavy sigh. "Alright, fine. We'll  _both_  plant the bombs." She then shot him a sharp glare. "But if you screw this up, so help me Hockey Boy."

 

Casey snorted. "Give me some credit, Babe. We drop these bad boys at Shredder's feet and beat it. Then we can go get that pizza you were talking about earlier."

 

Miwa blinked at him in surprise, before letting out a quiet laugh, and moving on ahead. "Just don't get killed, Hockey Boy."

 

"Is it so hard to call me Nightwatcher," Casey grumbled as he followed after her. "That is my code name. Or better yet, call me by my real name once and a while. Or even Hockey  _Man_  would be better."

 

"I'll stop calling you that when you stop calling me 'Babe'," Miwa shot back.

 

" _So_  not gonna happen," said Casey bluntly.

 

"Then we're at an impasse," said Miwa with a snort, before signaling him to be quiet as they drew near the room with the cheese vats they'd seen earlier.

 

Not much had changed. Hun was still giving the nickel tour of the lab, boasting heavily on how well equipped it was for all of the Shredder's needs, and assuring him that the Purple Dragons would be happy to steal anything else the ninja master could possibly want.

 

The Shredder continued to listen to the Dragons' leader, but it was clear from his posture that he was growing impatient with the gangster's attempts to suck up to him, and would snap soon if Hun did not shut up.

 

But fortunately for Hun, he was saved from being skewered by the Shredder when Tiger Claw's ear twitched, and he suddenly looked more alert.

 

"Master Shredder," he said, drawing everyone's attention to him.

 

There was a beat of silence as Tiger Claw pricked his ears to hear any sort of sound, before turning to his comrades and saying firmly, "We are not alone."

 

The Shredder's eyes darkened at those words. "Find them, and bring them to me," he snapped to his hench-mutants.

 

Fishface, Rahzar, and Tiger Claw all gave stiff nods, before taking off to search for the intruders.

 

Following the sound Tiger Claw heard, the three hench-mutants hurried towards an office on the upper floor of the factory.

 

They shoved the door open with a loud thud and stormed inside to find their intruder.

 

The office was silent, most likely due to their quarry hiding somewhere in a futile attempt to avoid them.

 

But then, a soft noise was heard behind the desk, and all three mutants snapped their attention towards it.

 

With a silent signal from Tiger Claw, they slowly moved to approach the desk at all sides, making it impossible for the one hiding to escape.

 

Then as one, all three dove around the desk to attack their intruder, only to stop in surprise at what they saw.

 

A small wind-up toy shaped like a hockey player was marching slowly across the floor behind the desk, making the soft sounds they'd heard.

 

The mutants only had time to exchange surprised glances at this discovery, before the office door slammed shut behind them, and was locked in place.

 

Immediately the hench-mutants wheeled around and leaped to the door to try and force it back open, only for Fishface to notice some small things being shoved under the crack at the bottom.

 

He immediately paled beneath his scales as a familiar beeping sound reached his ears, and he jumped away from the door like it had burned him.

 

"BOMBS!" he shouted in alarm, making Tiger Claw and Rahzar jump back as well.

 

But it was too late. The Boom Stars exploded, sending the hench-mutants flying back and crashing against the opposite wall with a painful ' _Thud!'_

 

Back in the vat room, Hun and Shredder's heads both snapped up as the sound of an explosion rocked the building.

 

"WHAT!" shouted the Shredder.

 

Hun, getting the feeling his being in the good graces of Shredder may come to an abrupt end soon, said quickly, "I'll go see what is going on."

 

But before he could get far, a pair of hockey pucks with mini dynamite strapped to them landed at his feet, and Hun leaped off the catwalk to avoid being blown up.

 

The Shredder scowled at the smoke screen, and when it faded he caught sight of a figure in a black hoodie and hockey mask standing on the other side of the catwalk.

 

"Looking for me?" the figure said cockily in a young sounding voice.

 

Shredder recognized him as an unnamed ally of the Hamatos and unsheathed the blades of his gauntlets. "I will make your end swift, boy," he said darkly.

 

Casey swung a pair of wooden bats in his hands and shifted into a fighting position. "I ain't afraid of you!" he shouted.

 

The Shredder then sliced through both bats like they were made of butter, and for the second time that night grabbed Casey by the front of his shirt.

 

"Ah-he, okay. I might be a little afraid of you," he amended nervously as the Shredder yanked him off his feet to study him closely.

 

But as the ninja master reached for Casey's mask, the vigilante panicked a little. He knew full well that his anonymity was the only thing keeping the Foot Clan off his doorstep, and protecting his father and sister from their wrath. If Shredder found out who he was, there would be nothing stopping him from plowing through his family to get to the Hamato Clan, and that was something Casey couldn't allow.

 

So he did what he does best. He improvised.

 

As the Shredder laid a hand on Casey's mask, the vigilante jabbed him with the homemade taser hidden in his goalie glove and shocked the man for all he was worth.

 

Now Casey may not pay as much attention in Science class as he should, but he knew as well as anyone that metal plus electricity was a painful combination, and lucky for the vigilante the Shredder was covered in it.

 

The Shredder roared in pain as the electricity crackled across his body through the many conductors his armor made. In his agony, he dropped Casey, and the vigilante wasted no time scrambling away from the madman.

 

Finally, the electricity faded, and the Shredder turned to glare at the boy before him with a look of utter poison.

 

Before Casey could get away, the Shredder stomped forward and kicked Casey in the gut, sending him flying down the catwalk, and thumping his back against the door at the end of it.

 

"You have spirit, boy," the Shredder snarled as he stormed towards him again with his blades out. "But I tire of this  _game!"_

 

But before he could swing his blades once again, Miwa swung up from under the catwalk and kicked the Shredder clean off the walkway and towards the vats below.

 

Miwa then dropped down onto the catwalk and held out a hand to help Casey up. "I planted it," she said shortly as she pulled him to his feet. "Let's go."

 

Casey grinned as they both hurried towards the exit as fast as they could. "I make a good distraction, don't I?" he asked smugly as they ran.

 

Miwa let out a bark of a laugh in agreement. "I'll say. I  _want_  one of those tasers, by the way."

 

They reached the ladder to get out of the factory and began climbing up it, but as Casey went, he felt someone grab his foot, and yank him back down and sprawling on the catwalk once again.

 

Looking up, he saw Hun sneering down at him.

 

"Oh yeah," Casey grunted as he tried to sit back up. "Forgot about you."

 

But Hun stepped down hard on Casey's gut, keeping him pinned to the floor. "My opportunity to impress Shredder, to carve a position for myself, and you  _ruined_  it!" he snarled down at the vigilante. "I will  _end_ you, Hockey Boy!"

 

"Hey!" snapped Miwa as she vaulted off the ladder and kicked Hun square in the face. " _I'm_ the one who calls him that!"

 

Hun went flying from the kick, and Miwa threw a series of shuriken after him to keep him from following them, before turning back to Casey.

 

Casey stared at her as he slowly got back to his feet. "I think I'm in love," he said, only to flinch as he realized he was speaking out loud.

 

"Good to know," said Miwa. "Now let's blow this place."

 

The two teens resumed their escape of the factory, this time without any obstacles, and Miwa signaled Donnie on her phone once they were clear.

 

Instantly the entire factory erupted into flames behind them as  _Auman Chemicals_  was blown sky high, lighting up the night with a burning glow. Cheese from their CheeZ Balls concoctions erupted like lava from the smokestacks of the smoldering factory, making the whole area look like a burning orange volcano.

 

Taking in the sight of one of Shredder's plans literally going up in smoke, the two teens shared a wide grin.

 

"So, about that pizza," Miwa said leadingly.

 

"Say no more, Babe," said Casey with a wide smile on his painted face. "I know a place open twenty-four/seven."

 

"Great," said Miwa as she turned to start walking away while texting her brothers their plan as she went. "Remember, I won the race, so you're buying."

 

Casey rolled his eyes good-naturedly and hurried after her. "Yeah, yeah," he said. "Let's just go before your brothers decide to kill me."

 

On the other side of the inferno, the Shredder and his lackeys had barely escaped the blast and stared up at the blaze in disdain.

 

" _This_  is the factory you promised!" snarled the Shredder at Hun, who only scowled and vowed pain on the hockey-masked vigilante for this.

 

Not liking being ignored, the Shredder grabbed Hun by the front of his shirt and threw him bodily towards the flames.

 

Hun landed on his shoulder in a smoldering pile of wreckage, and he yelled in pain as he scrambled away from it, rolling across the ground to smother the flames that had caught on his shirt.

 

Once the flames were out, Hun stared at his tattooed arm in shock, seeing a nasty burn now marring the image of a purple dragon upon it, before turning to look back at the Shredder in alarm.

 

"As I said," the madman said to the gangster in a voice colder than ice. "Failure is to be punished. Fail me again, Hun, and I will not be so merciful a second time."

 

Behind him, his hench-mutants winced, and despite the heat of the blaze behind them, Hun had never felt colder.

 

____________________________

 

A few hours later, Casey walked Miwa back to her apartment to call it a night.

 

When they reached the front door, Miwa glanced over at him and said, "You know, the second I open this door, they're going to kill you. Because  _that_  was definitely a date."

 

Casey shuddered slightly at the thought of what his friends had in store for him but tried to stand strong. "Totally worth it, Babe. Totally worth it."

 

Miwa's face quirked into a smirk at his answer, before she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek, causing the vigilante to freeze in disbelief. "Well, maybe that'll make it a little more worth it."

 

Casey's face split into a decidedly stupid grin. "Definitely," he said in a dreamy voice.

 

Miwa shook her head, before reaching over to open the door.

 

Immediately, the good feeling of Miwa's kiss faded as Casey realized he was not being pierced by the glares of Miwa's brothers…

 

Not that they weren't there. Both Leo and Raph were standing next to each other giving the vigilante looks with enough heat to melt steel. Mikey was there too, crouched behind the couch to stare at the scene before him with wide eyes. Donnie was nowhere in sight, and Casey knew he couldn't expect help from the genius.

 

But the most terrifying sight within the apartment was not coming from Miwa's three brothers… it was coming from her  _father._

 

"Mister Jones," said Yoshi in a voice that was more terrifying than Shredder could ever hope to be, and with a glare to match. "May I ask what your intentions towards my daughter might be?"

 

"Meep," was all Casey could muster as he shrank under the gaze of his sensei.

 

But salvation for Casey came in the form of Donnie bursting from his lab at that moment with a terrified look on his face, Metalhead trailing after radiating tension from his short metal frame despite having no facial expressions.

 

"Guys! This is even  _worse_  than I thought!" Donnie said, holding up a test tube of the chemical Casey and Miwa had managed to steal earlier that night. "Shredder's mixture, it's not an explosive!"

 

"So what is it?" asked Leo, completely forgetting about his anger in lieu of Donnie's expression.

 

Donnie sent a freaked out glance at the test tube in his hand. "I think he's working on a mind control formula. If it works, he could use it on Mother, or  _us_ , or every single person in New York City."

 

" _NO!_ " shouted everyone in the apartment, looking horrified at the very idea of such a thing.

 

But none were more so than Miwa, whose face turned ashen, and she looked like she might faint on the spot.

 

If Donnie was right, her worst nightmare just might come true…

 

"He won't get you, Mi," said Leo, spotting the look on her face. "He won't get any of you without going through me first, I promise."

 

"Me too," said Casey. "And I'll even make you a taser to keep him away yourself."

 

The others all echoed Leo's claim, but the kunoichi knew she would not be getting any sleep that night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay. I've been really busy lately. And there's Casey Jones Vs. The Underworld. They finally went on a date just in time for things to go from bad to worse.


	58. Beyond Control

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Despite the Hamatos' best efforts, the Shredder finishes his mind control formula. Now the only question is who he will use it on first.

A few days later the three ex-turtle ninjas were cleared for field work, things began getting interesting… Well,  _more_  interesting.

 

Case and point being when the Teens first caught sight of Rocksteady and Bebop's new looks when the two thugs turned mutants began raiding some of the Kraang's old labs for chemicals.

 

The two new mutants turned out to be tougher than they looked, and the tight space of the lab proved to their advantage as teen ninjas' barely managed to avoid getting crushed by their new strength.

 

After a close encounter with a canister of mutagen nearly falling on a garbage man had Miwa not grabbed it in time (said garbage man had immediately fled the scene screaming that they were even freakier than the giant squirrels), Rocksteady and Bebop managed to escape with some chemical called Reagent X.

 

This worried Donnie greatly, as he informed them that Reagent X was another chemical needed for the mind control serum that Shredder seemed like he was planning to make.

 

This only made the teens work harder on stopping the Foot from gathering supplies and even recruited the Mighty Mutanimals into the task.

 

Which nearly backfired, when the team of heroic mutants ended up on the five o'clock news when newswoman, Joan Grody, managed to catch sight of them.

 

Fortunately for them all, several of the refugees from the Shelter were grateful for the mutants help during the invasion, and the mighty mutants were quickly hailed as the city's local superheroes. Something the Mutanimals themselves had mixed feelings about.

 

On one hand, it was great that the people of New York appreciated what they had done for them, and Kurtzman had seemed to become their impromptu publicist to make sure the six of them continued to get good press.

 

On the other hand, it made stealth much harder to maintain now that people were actively looking for them. There were times when Malachi had to cast his illusions just so they could go unnoticed.

 

Fortunately, throughout it all, the Hamato ninjas never were brought up and continued to maintain their vigil in the shadows (though Mikey did pout a bit that his friends were getting all the spotlight).

 

But despite their best efforts, the members of the Foot still managed to get more of the chemicals needed to create the mind control serum. Something that made the teenagers grow more anxious by the day.

 

Miwa was especially stressed out over the possibility of her worst fear being realized, and her becoming Karai might be imminent.

 

Seeing the stress his daughter was under, Yoshi increased their meditation practices in their training, both to attempt to help Miwa gain some peace of mind, and in hopes of strengthening all their minds so that even if Shredder did create his formula, they might be able to fight back against it.

 

They could only hope that it would be enough.

 

It didn't stop him from checking on his children nightly while they slept.

 

____________________________

 

Another night, another crime going down at the docks.

 

But not if the Mighty Mutanimals had anything to say about it.

 

Silhouetted in the headlights of a still running car stood two men who looked completely identical to each other down to their matching overpriced suits, and large guns clutched in their hands. The only difference between them was that the one on the right clutched a metal briefcase in his other hand.

 

Nearby the Mutanimals lay in wait, watching the two from the shadows. They could easily take the two by surprise, but the men weren't their target.

 

No, they were the bait.

 

"The Fulci twins," said an accented voice as Tiger Claw stepped out of the shadows to meet them. "Punctual as ever."

 

"Tiger Claw," said the twin on the left in a disdainful greeting.

 

"I believe that belongs to me," said the mutant tiger, nodding to the briefcase.

 

"You ain't takin' the merchandise without forkin' over the loot," snapped the twin with the briefcase, holding up his gun threateningly.

 

Tiger Claw dropped his own briefcase and kicked it across the dock towards the twins. The two men glanced down at it briefly, before throwing their briefcase over to the tiger.

 

The feline caught it out of the air and glared at the men threateningly. "This had better be worth the price," he growled. "You don't want to disappoint  _him_."

 

The twins flinched, knowing exactly who  _him_  was.

 

Just then, a loud thump drew their attention, and they wheeled around to see a massive spiky shadow standing next to some crates.

 

The twins looked alarmed and quickly pointed their guns in the shadow's direction, but Tiger Claw's only response was to narrow his eyes.

 

"The infamous Slash," the feline remarked as the last Ninja Turtle of New York stepped into the light to glare at them all with his mutagen green eyes. "Not very stealthy for a ninja."

 

Slash smirked. "What I lack in stealth I make up for in friends," he said back. "Meet the Mighty Mutanimals."

 

Taking their cue, the rest of the Mutanimals burst out of their hiding place to attack.

 

"More freaks!" shouted one of the twins.

 

"Blast 'em!" shouted the other, and both men opened fire on the mutants.

 

Slash jumped forward, and blocked the bullets with his shell, allowing Leatherhead to dart around and smack the guns from the men's hands with a vicious growl, Jason then shot by with his skateboard to snatch up the guns and toss them into the water before the men could recover. The twins then ran for their car and bolted, an angry Leatherhead giving chase.

 

The rest of the Mutanimals focused their attention on Tiger Claw, determined to get the briefcase from him. Whatever the Shredder wanted it for, it couldn't be good.

 

Tiger Claw growled as he smacked both Pigeon Pete and Dr. Rockwell aside with said briefcase, and drew his sword with his free hand to rush towards Slash with a snarl.

 

Only to blink in surprise as Slash seemed to multiply before his eye until he was surrounded on all sides by the large turtle.

 

Narrowing eye, Tiger Claw snarled and brought up his sword to block a strike from one of the turtles, and knock him into one of his doubles, before turning to stare around the dock, using his enhanced sense of smell to sniff out his target.

 

Finding it, he threw his sword through the air, and it embedded itself into the metal container next to where Sir Malachi was perched to conjure the Slash clones.

 

The sparrow let out a startled squawk at nearly being impaled by the sword, and at his distraction, the clones vanished.

 

"I was fooled by a mystic using that trick once," Tiger Claw declared, glowering at the younger bird mutant. "I will not be fooled again."

 

Malachi gulped audibly at the look of sheer poison the tiger was giving him and was extremely relieved when Slash attacked him again, drawing Tiger Claw's attention away.

 

He was so caught up in his relief, that he didn't realize someone was sneaking up behind him until an arm wrapped around his throat, and a hand clamped around his beak. He tried to conjure an illusion, only to see that his captor was a Foot-Bot, which without a brain were immune to his illusions.

 

Below, Tiger Claw was holding his own against the other Mutanimals, and they were locked in a stalemate of skills.

 

At least until a Foot van pulled up, and caused Tiger Claw to smirk.

 

Foot-Bots then jumped out of the van, and opened the back doors wide, making the Mutanimals freeze at the sight within.

 

Stuck inside a too small cage within the van was Malachi, who was looking out at his teammate with a terrified expression. The reason why was abundantly clear, as next to the sat what was quite clearly a bomb.

 

"One more step, beasts," snarled Tiger Claw, pulling out a remote to show the repercussions of one false move. "And we will see if all birdies go to heaven."

 

All of the Mutanimals growled at the Tiger for that remark. Even the ones who weren't of a species who growled.

 

Seeing as he had them with their hands tied. Tiger Claw arrogantly made his way to the front seat of the van and climbed inside, the Foot-Bots slamming the back shut and following suit.

 

The van then tore away from the docks, leaving the Mutanimals helpless to watch as it took their teammate with it.

 

With another snarl, Slash slammed his mace into the side of a shipping container, before taking off after the van.

 

"Call the Hamato Clan, and tell them to meet us at Foot HQ!" he ordered to Jason, who quickly fumbled to grab his phone. "We have a friend to save!"

 

____________________________

 

Malachi tried not to show it, but he was terrified. Locked in a cage in the back of a truck wired with explosives, being driven by deadly robotic members of an evil ninja clan, and no one organic near enough for him to use his powers on without possibly causing a crash that could set of the previously mentioned explosives.

 

Yeah, who wouldn't be scared out of their feathers?

 

It certainly was enough to freak out a boy barely in his teens, mutant or not.

 

Despite his wings and awesome mind powers, he was still the youngest of the Mutanimals (with the exception of maybe Pete, but who knows what pigeon years account for), and even months with them had yet to shake the lingering feelings of inadequacy from when he was a human.

 

In the dim light of the truck, Malachi glanced down at his wooden peg leg.

 

His life as Martin Milton hadn't been unhappy per say, but it certainly hadn't been sunshine and rainbows either.

 

He'd never fit in with the other kids. Not really. He'd always been too different, too weird, too wrapped up in fantasy worlds to honestly connect with anybody in the real one.

 

Still, there had been some kids he could talk too. Some who had at least a passing interest in his games and stories. Never anyone he could call a best friend, but still people he could hang out with.

 

But then the accident happened, and he'd lost his leg…

 

Suddenly the few kids he thought he could call friends avoided him like the plague. Suddenly he wasn't just the weird fantasy geek, but he was a freak too. He'd heard what they called him behind his back. Handicapped… crippled… disfigured…

 

Broken…

 

No one wanted to be friends with the one-legged kid, and suddenly Martin had found himself to be all alone.

 

He'd tried to ignore the ensuing loneliness. Tried to bury himself even deeper into his fantasy games, to create incredible worlds and adventures to help himself forget the fact he had no one to share them with.

 

But even his fantasies couldn't cover up the fact that he had become a burden to everyone around him. That his false leg was like a ball and chain weighing down not only himself but the people closest to him.

 

His parents had always insisted this was not the case, but he knew it was true.

 

They tried to hide it, but he saw the bills for the expensive prosthetic they had gotten him to let him walk again. One they all knew would have to be replaced every few years as he continued to grow.

 

He knew the reason his family had moved from their old apartment building to a more expensive one that had an elevator because prosthetics and stairs did not mix well.

 

He heard the annoyed whispers of his classmates when he was allowed in late because his leg wouldn't let him move as fast as the other kids.

 

He was a burden and he knew it, and it had seemed that he would continue to be a burden for the rest of his life.

 

And then, one night the ooze fell out of the sky, and everything changed.

 

Becoming a mutant had been the most horrifying and liberating moment of his entire life.

 

Horrifying because he knew he would have to leave. Even if he hadn't been a freak before, he sure was one now. He couldn't face people like this. He couldn't face his  _parents_  like  _this!_  He was now more alone than ever _._

 

But it was also liberating because he knew he wouldn't be a burden anymore. No one would miss him, he was sure of it. No more Martin Milton meant no more strain on his parents to take care of him. No more taunts and jeers from his classmates, as he'd never have to see them again. He could fly! He could create wonders! He was  _free!_

 

He'd only stayed long enough to grab some of his Mazes and Mutants games, LARPING gear, and a peg leg he'd been planning to wear for a cosplay, and vanished into the sewers to start his new life as Malachi the Sparrow Wizard.

 

Then, after the first few weeks of crippling loneliness, he'd spotted a strange group wandering the sewer tunnels. Ninjas and mutants, all about his age (save for the alligator), working together as friends despite their vast differences.

 

He wondered if maybe he could be a part of them.

 

So he left them his Mazes and Mutants game, and it turned out to be the best decision he'd ever made, and one he had never regretted.

 

Not even now.

 

Still, as the truck pulled to a stop, and he heard Tiger Claw growling orders as he made his way towards his cage, he couldn't help but quake in his wizard robes at what would be in store for him.

 

Even so, he knew his friends would save him. It was only a matter of time…

 

____________________________

 

The Shredder stared coldly down at the sparrow mutant, appropriately locked in a birdcage, that his hench-mutants had brought in.

 

"So this is the mystic of the so-called 'Mighty Mutanimals'," said the madman slowly, studying the bird dressed in medieval clothing.

 

Said sparrow's feathers ruffled indignantly, and he glared defiantly out of the cage at the Shredder.

 

The Shredder's eyes narrowed at his gall, and with a swift kick, he sent the cage flying until it crashed into a wall, making its occupant yelp as he was tossed around within it.

 

The ninja master then strode over and placed his boot on top of the bars of the cage, and peered down at the mutated boy with an icy glare. "This is your one chance, mutant," he said in an equally frigid voice. "Tell me where Tang Shen and her children are or suffer the consequences."

 

The sparrow looked much more fearful of him now, but his beak remained stubbornly shut.

 

From the corner of his eye, the Shredder caught a hint of movement. Turning to look, he saw the serpentine form of Shen flitting through the shadows of one of the upper walkways of Buzzkill's lab. As if noticing his gaze, she slithered fully into view and glared down at the Shredder balefully.

\

Following their master's gaze, his hench-mutants looked up and saw Shen too. Cries of surprise sounded among them, and both Bebop and Rocksteady started racing for the stairs to try and capture the snake woman.

 

But the Shredder merely turned back to the sparrow and kicked his cage again, making the boy cry out in pain as he was slammed against the bars, and the image of Shen above them vanished (causing Bebop and Rocksteady to crash into each other, as they had been attempting to tackle Shen an instant before).

 

"Foolish welp!" the Shredder snarled at the bird boy. "You think I cannot discern the truth from your illusions? Did you think I could be fooled so easily?"

 

The sparrow just lets out a fearful whimper.

 

The Shredder unsheathed his gauntlets and stalked over to the upturned cage. "Where is Shen?" he demanded as he approached. "I will not ask again!"

 

The mutant cowered in his cage, but made no sound, refusing to look in Shredder's direction.

 

"Then it seems we will have to  _make_  you talk," said the Shredder, and he turned to give his fly scientist the order. At the sight, Buzzkill started to flutter over with an odd jar clutched in his malformed hands.

 

Just then, a loud crash sounded from above their heads, making the occupants of Buzzkill's lab look upwards in surprise. More crashes soon followed after, followed by the sounds of animalistic roars, and the screech of metal androids being ripped limb from limb.

 

The Shredder stepped back from the cage and turned to his men. "Intruders," he said. "Bring them to me."

 

The hench-mutants bowed and took off out of the lab to follow his command.

 

"Perhaps your 'friends' will be more forthcoming with information," said the Shredder as he stalked after them. "If not, your screams will loosen their tongues."

 

Malachi winced as the man left, before cautiously dropping the illusion he'd been maintaining since the second kick.

 

The air around the door of his cage shimmered, and the lock changed from perfectly in tack to dented and broken from the Shredder's brutal kicks. It didn't take much for Malachi to pry it the rest of the way off and slip free from the cage.

 

He then quickly took to the air despite his bruises and flew in the direction of the racket his rescuers were causing.

 

He needed to find his friends before it was too late.

 

____________________________

 

Slash and Rockwell made their way through the headquarters of the Foot Clan, keeping as silent and covert as possible. Leatherhead, Jason, and Pete were doing their best to be as loud and distracting as possible in a different part of the building, allowing the stealthier two members of their group (aside from Malachi, who could literally make himself unseeable or hearable) to sneak in and find their captured teammate.

 

Rockwell kept himself floating above eye level to both avoid making footsteps, and to avoid detection unless someone happened to look upwards. He also made sure to project a telepathic field of ignorance to ensure that no one bothered to do so, keeping him firmly out of sight, and leaving Slash to keep hidden the hard way on the ground.

 

Despite what Tiger Claw had said before, Slash could be surprisingly stealthy when he wanted to be despite his large size. It was a skill he was proud to have honed himself, mostly free of his observations of the Hamato ninjas before his mutation.

 

The Hamatos had been trained in stealth, yes, but the teenagers had never had to do so with Slash's massive size, and in a pinch (before some of their mutations) they could blend in with the crowd if the situation demanded it.

 

Slash, on the other hand, did not have that luxury, and necessity of being a massive ninja turtle in a city full of people who would run screaming at the mere sight of him had him learning the hard way how to be invisible in the shadows. The recent invasion had only led to Slash perfecting his stealth skills and had been instrumental in allowing him and his team to keep the Kraang and the Foot from finding both the Lair and the Shelter during those three months.

 

He may be big and bulky, but Slash was proud to say he was a ninja and a damn good one at that.

 

As the building shook with the echoing crashes and roars of their teammates up above, Slash risked a moment to whisper, "How much farther do you think he is, Doc?"

 

Rockwell closed his eyes, and focused on his powers, searching for Malachi's mind in the cold stone walls of the church turned headquarters of evil. "Below us," he said softly. "I sense his mind down where Stockman's lab is supposed to be." Rockwell's face then pinched in a frown. "He's scared…"

 

Slash had to bite the inside of his cheek to repress the protective instinct to growl and hiss at those words. If he found out the Shredder or his band of freaks had hurt even one feather on Malachi, he was gonna-

 

His internal monologue was cut off when Rockwell's eyes snapped back open, and he shot Slash a look. "They're coming this way," he hissed and quickly floated himself up into the rafters to hide.

 

Slash followed suit, finding a nearby broom closet that he could barely squeeze into to conceal himself as the footsteps of the hench-mutants drew closer.

 

Outside, he could hear the odd assortment of footsteps as Bebop and Rocksteady raced past to get to the noisy invaders above. They were soon followed by Fishface and Rahzar, with Tiger Claw bringing up the rear.

 

Both Mutanimals held their breath as Tiger Claw paused outside their hiding places, his nose twitching like he could smell something, but an exceptionally loud crash above prompted the tiger to hurry onwards and catch up with the rest.

 

Slash let out a sigh of relief when the Shredder's lieutenant was gone and climbed back out of the closet.

 

Only to hear a monkey screech of alarm, and turned to see the Shredder himself standing down the hall from him, glowering at the turtle hatefully.

 

Knowing their cover was blown, Slash glowered back at him. "Where is Malachi?" he snarled.

 

The Shredder was impassive and silent at the question, and merely unsheathed the blades of his gauntlets.

 

The silence enraged Slash even more, and he charged at the man with a roar, Rockwell following close behind him.

 

Despite being in a hallway that was mostly taken up by Slash's girth, the Shredder still managed to dodge both of their attacks, grab a floating Rockwell by his ankle, and swing the screeching monkey around to throw him into the turtle with enough force to send both Mutanimals flying down the hall.

 

The two were back on their feet in an instant, and Slash threw some Boom Stars he had gotten from Raph in the ninja master's direction.

 

The Shredder deflected the exploding shuriken away with his gauntlets, sending them flying down another hallway, where they exploded too far to do any damage.

 

Slash tried to charge the man a second time while the explosion distracted him, only for the Shredder's hands to fly out in a series of lightning fast jabs, hitting every possible pressure point to make the turtle's joints lock up, and he fell crashing to the floor.

 

Rockwell stared in horror at his fallen comrade, before screeching at Shredder, and sending a brain blast in his direction.

 

Despite the blast being strong enough to scramble even the sharpest of minds, the Shredder didn't seem phased at all by it. Instead, he walked purposely towards the monkey mutant until he was towering over him with a baleful glare.

 

Rockwell stopped his blast to stare up at the man with horror. "It didn't work?" he gasped, looking lost on how such a thing could happen. "But-but, it only doesn't work on those already insane!"

 

The Shredder's only response was to raise his fist above his head so that the blades upon it gleamed in the hallway's dim light.

 

"Oh," said Rockwell weakly, knowing there was no way he could dodge in time. "For a second I forgot who I was talking about."

 

A second later, the Shredder brought down his fist, and Rockwell crumpled to the floor unconscious.

 

Drawn back by the racket the fight had made, the Shredder's hench-mutants flooded into the hallway and stared down at the downed Mutanimals.

 

"Master Shredder, are you alright?" Tiger Claw asked merely as a formality.

 

"Yes," said the Shredder, still glaring at the Mutanimals disdainfully. "Take them to Stockman's lab and give them and the bird the serum. They will deliver Shen and her children to me."

 

"Of course, Master Shredder," said Tiger Claw as he and the other mutants bowed, and moved to follow his orders.

 

As they did so, Bebop glanced down the hallway Shredder had deflected the Boom Stars down, and his jaw dropped in shock. "Wh-wh-wh- _what!?_  Dawg, what happened to my  _room!?"_

 

____________________________

 

Malachi followed the sounds of destruction to the upper floors of the building, taking a different route to avoid the Shredder and his hench-mutants, and soon came upon the sight of Leatherhead, Pete, and Jason wreaking havoc on the ground floor.

 

"Comrades! I haveth returned!" he called happily as he flew over to them.

 

Jason looked up from where he was bashing a Foot-Bot's head in with a sledgehammer and promptly dropped the hammer onto the robot in favor of rushing over to meet the sparrow mutant. "Dude! You're okay!" he shouted joyfully.

 

Pete let out a cry of delight as well and tackled Malachi out of the air in a hug.

 

Leatherhead spared him a pleased glance, before looking back the way Malachi had come in concern. "Slash and Rockwell aren't with you?" he asked.

 

"Should they be?" asked Malachi with a frown.

 

Just then, an explosion below them rocked the ground, and they all exchanged worried glances. Then as one, they began fighting even harder to get farther into the building to find out what was happening.

 

The problem was since they had deliberately attracted the attention of the entire building, fighting their way over to even the first door took several minutes, and by the time they reached it, Slash and Rockwell came bursting out it, looking far worse for the ware.

 

"We gotta get out of here,  _now!"_  Slash ordered, and the rest of the Mutanimals were more than happy to comply.

 

Surprisingly, fighting their way out was far easier than fighting their way in, and soon the Mutanimals were rushing out the ruined front door just in time for the (recently repaired) Shellraiser, Party Wagon, and Casey in his hot rod to pull up in front of them. In the sky above, Metalhead swooped down on his rockets and aimed his missile launchers at the Foot.

 

Seeing the state they were in, and the legions of Foot-Bots on their tail, Leo didn't hesitate to throw the Shellraiser's door open, and shout, "Get in!" and saw Raph do the same with the Party Wagon, and Jason hop into the shotgun of the hot rod.

 

The former two vehicles then tore off down the street away from the evil ninja robots, and Casey and Metalhead lingered behind just long enough to blast missiles at the mass of enemies before following close behind.

 

Within the Shellraiser, Mikey, April, Pete, and Leatherhead were fussing over Sir Malachi in concern.

 

"Seriously, Malachi, you sure you're not hurtin' anywhere?" Mikey asked, poking at the sparrow's feathers like they were concealing some sort of injury.

 

"A mite shaken, but otherwise I am well my good sir," Malachi said, waving away Mikey's concerned prods.

 

"What happened to you?" asked Leo from the driver's seat. "Did the Shredder try anything?"

 

"Nay," said Malachi. "They were about to, but mine comrades' distraction came in the nick of time. After which I was fortunate enough to escapeth my confines, and rejoineth the others."

 

"Well that's good news," said Mikey, sharing a wide grin with Leatherhead.

 

But the alligator did not return his smile. "Unfortunately, the bad news is that Tiger Claw was able to retrieve the chemical he needed for the Shredder's mind control serum. No doubt he will attempt to create it soon."

 

Pete let out a fearful squeak at those words, and the mood within the Shellraiser immediately turned downcast.

 

"If he hasn't already," muttered Leo darkly as he kept his eyes on the road.

 

Meanwhile, within the Party Wagon, Raph sat crouched in the back with Rockwell and Slash and noticed that the latter two weren't looking so hot.

 

"Slash, are you okay?" he asked his former pet with a worried frown.

 

Hearing his question from the front seat, Donnie and Miwa peered through the small window to see for themselves (though Miwa had to quickly face front again, as she was driving).

 

Slash looked at Raph with a bleary expression on his face. "Raphael," he groaned softly, before slumping forward and passing out, nearly crushing the teenager beneath him.

 

Rockwell weakly pulled Raph out of the way of the fallen turtle but looked like he would join Slash in dreamland any second.

 

"They don't look so good, we gotta get them back to the Lair," said Donnie as Raph began looking both over for injuries that might have caused their distress. "I can run some tests in mine and Rockwell's lab, maybe they got poisoned or something."

 

"Where do you think I'm going, Genius," said Miwa dryly as she pushed the Party Wagon to go faster.

 

____________________________

 

Once they got to the Lair, Donnie grabbed the medical kit and began trying to find what was wrong with Slash and Rockwell. Metalhead hung off to the side, scanning the two mutants to see if he could find what was wrong. The rest of the Mutanimals and teenagers stood off to the side with worried expressions as he did his examination.

 

"Are you sure none of the Foot threw any type of dust in your face?" Donnie asked as he shined a light in Rockwell's eyes to check his pupil dilation. "No pinpricks of any kind? I don't want to take the chance the Foot hit you guys with some kind of poison."

 

"No," said Rockwell in a much quieter tone than usual, and lacking any of the rivalries he and Donatello usually had. "But… I honestly don't remember much before meeting with the rest of you again…"

 

"Me neither," said Slash, looking slightly pained.

 

Malachi looked crestfallen. "This is all my fault," he said, feeling too guilty to use his usual accent.

 

Leatherhead quickly reached over and patted the small sparrow on the shoulder to comfort him, Metalhead gave him a thumbs-up, and Pete even offered the smaller bird a piece of his bread to cheer him up.

 

"They'll be alright, won't they?" asked Jason worriedly.

 

"I dunno, guys," said Mikey, as he squinted at the two sickly mutants with a slightly suspicious expression. "Something seems off about you two."

 

The rest of the Hamato siblings exchanged glances, wondering if they could take Mikey's suspicion seriously or not. The youngest did tend to have good instincts about such things (such as his suspicions of Momster), but then this wasn't a Kraang thing.

 

Donnie didn't know how to respond to the questions posed and looked at Rockwell for answers.

 

The scientist turned monkey mutant gazed down at his hands with a pained expression. "They did do something to us," he muttered as he tried to remember. "Yes… it's all coming back now… We were being experimented on by Shredder!"

 

Donnie jerked back in alarm at that, and the others' worry grew exponentially.

 

"Experimented on?" asked the teen genius, gesturing for the two mutants to continue.

 

Slash grimaced and rubbed his head. "He had these… strange little worm creatures… and then…" he let out a pained moan and clutched at his head. "And… then…"

 

"Dude, don't leave us hangin'!" said Mikey, leaning forward with interest.

 

Raph scowled and smacked Mikey on the back of the head. "Can't you see it's hurting him," the red wearing teen snapped, moving to stand between his little brother and his former pet. "He'll tell us as soon as he can."

 

Suddenly, Slash's eyes snapped open, looking more blank and white than they usually did when he was angry.

 

Then, before anyone could react, the mutant turtle surged to his feet with a bellow, swung his mace to send Metalhead flying into the water pit where he short-circuited with one hand, and grabbed Raph by the hood of his ninja uniform with the other, and threw the teenager clear across the Lair, and crashing painfully into a wall on the far side.

 

"Metalhead!" Donnie yelped at the sight.

 

"RAPH!" shouted everyone else but Slash and Rockwell.

 

Slash let out a vicious roar, gripping his mace and looking like he was ready to attack any of them at any moment.

 

Next to him, Rockwell didn't even seem to realize what had happened and was clutching his head like he had a migraine.

 

Slash jerked forward and raised his mace to attack again, only for the blow to be blocked by Leo's swords and Miwa's tantō, but the turtle continued to press down on their blades as if trying to crush them under his superior weight and strength.

 

"This can't be happening!" shouted Leatherhead as he rushed forwards to try and subdue the large turtle.

 

"How could you, Slash?" shouted Jason who also hurried over and tried to pull Slash's arms away from trying to crush Leo and Miwa. "Raph's your best friend, dude!"

 

"To… keep him… out… of the way…" Slash grunted out in a monotone voice, before zeroing in on just who was in front of him. "Leonardo… must… be… destroyed…"

 

He then jerked away from the others, and swung around and tried to brain Leo again, but the teen blocked the blow once again.

 

"Go ahead and try," snarled Leo back, and he shoved the mace away, allowing Miwa to dart in front of him and slash her tantō at Slash, which the turtle barely parried.

 

Mikey then jumped onto Slash's back, and clapped his hands over his eyes, keeping the large turtle distracted by trying to throw him off. Jason and Malachi both tried to help by clinging to Slash's arms like limpets to further weigh him down.

 

Raph, meanwhile, groaned as he rubbed his now very sore head, and Casey helped him to his feet.

 

Donnie was immediately on him, checking for a concussion, and only backed off when Raph threatened to make him eat his flashlight if he kept shining it in his eyes.

 

"Yeah, he's fine," said the genius once he'd heard that.

 

April, who had been hovering nearby to see if she could help, suddenly clutched her head and wheeled around to look at Rockwell. "Uh oh," she breathed.

 

Amidst the chaos, Rockwell had been eerily quiet as he continued to pinch his brow in pain, but the second April's eye lay on him, his eyes snapped open, just as white and blank as Slash's were.

 

"Rockwell's gone crazy too," Donnie whispered in realization.

 

The three teenagers were promptly lifted into the air by his telepathic powers and thrown into Leatherhead and Pete before they could try to assist in detaining Slash again.

 

Meanwhile, Slash managed to dislodge the three clinging to him, and threw them into Leo and Miwa, causing the teenagers to collapse in a pile.

 

But before the large turtle could do anything more, Leatherhead surged back to his feet and tackled his leader.

 

"Don't make me hurt you, Slash," the alligator growled as he pinned his friend beneath his claws.

 

"Don't make me laugh, monster," said Slash scathingly, before chomping down on Leatherhead's hand, and kicking the alligator off him before grabbing his mace again and hitting his fellow reptile over the head with it.

 

Off to the side, Pete had swooped down on Rockwell and was pecking at the monkey's metal helmet for all he was worth. "I don't know what's come over you, Doc, but snap out of it!"

 

But Rockwell only brain blasted Pete away, without even bothering to respond.

 

"Rockwell, why are you doing this!" shouted Leo as he regained his feet, and threw some shuriken towards the monkey.

 

"It is the will of the master," said Rockwell blankly, before pelting Leo and the other teens with furniture.

 

"He's mind controlled!" shouted Donnie in realization before one of Rockwell's flying chairs managed to knock him flat.

 

"Nooo, you think?" shouted Miwa sarcastically, before a crate did the same to her. Soon, the tornado of furniture had all the Lair's occupants knocked to the ground and groaning in pain.

 

"Shredder desires one of the teenagers," said Slash, who stared around at the downed teens to pick which one to take.

 

"I volunteer to go kick his butt, right after I kick yours," said Raph, surging back to his feet, and running at Slash with his sais in hand.

 

But Slash was able to grab Raph's hand and threw him into the water pit after Metalhead.

 

"Soon, Raphael, but not today," said Slash tonelessly. "The master wishes you unharmed for now. We need someone more… disposable."

 

"You call  _that_  unharmed!" shouted Casey, whose legs were currently pinned under the couch.

 

Leo pushed himself to his feet and hurried towards the water to help his brother, but in doing so he drew the attention of the mind-controlled Mutanimals.

 

Slash pulled an egg filled with knock-out powder from his belt and pelted it at the lead ninja with extreme accuracy.

 

Leo yelped as it hit the side of his head, and gagged on the powder within before collapsing to the floor unconscious.

 

Raph resurfaced from the water just in time to see Slash reach over and grab his older brother, and shout, "Rockwell, fall back!"

 

Rockwell dove for the garage where the vehicles were stored and shoved the door open for Slash to rush through, and then locked it behind them.

 

"Leo!" shouted Raph as he shoved himself out of the water, and the rest of the team hurried towards the door.

 

Raph and Casey futilely yanked on the door despite it being locked, only to step aside as Leatherhead plowed into it with a roar, and began using his shoulder as a battering ram to break through.

 

But the doors to the lab/garage were built to withstand any explosion that may happen within there, so it was several agonizing seconds before Leatherhead finally managed to break it down.

 

The team all rushed in just in time to see Slash and Rockwell in the front seat of the Party Wagon as they peeled out of the garage and through the old subway tunnels a max speed with Leo no doubt unconscious in the back.

 

"They stole the Party Wagon!" Mikey shouted in dismay.

 

"The Shellraiser's fully operational," Donnie suggested, jerking his head at the modified subway car. "Let's go!"

 

With both leaders down for the count, Raph automatically assumed command and barked orders as an anchor to keep from freaking out. "April, Casey, you guys fish out Metalhead and get him running again," he shouted over his shoulder as he and the rest of the group ran for the Shellraiser. "I get the feeling we'll need the firepower. Catch up in the hot rod. Jason, get on your board and head to our apartment to warn Father about what's goin' on. I wouldn't put it past the Shredder to try and have him attacked while Slash and Rockwell are like this. The rest of us are getting Leo back."

 

Jason snapped a salute and ran for the turnstiles. "On it, dude."

 

But Casey looked surprised at his orders. "We can do that?" he asked.

 

"I can. I've seen Donnie do it enough times," said April grabbing the vigilante's arm to drag him towards the pit. "Come on, Jones."

 

With everyone else in the Shellraiser, Miwa (despite shaking like a leaf from fear) jumped into the driver's seat and floored it after the Party Wagon.

 

The Shellraiser sped through the sewers at speeds that were hardly safe, but at the moment, none of its occupants cared. All they were focused on was catching up to the Party Wagon and rescuing those inside.

 

But it quickly became clear that Donnie had been correct when they were building the Party Wagon at the Farm House. The ex-hippie van was far faster and way more maneuverable than the strong but bulky Shellraiser, and nothing Miwa did would allow her to catch up with them.

 

Knowing they were going to lose them like this, Raph ordered, "Malachi, get into Miwa's seat and take them down with the Garbage Canon."

 

Malachi jumped to follow the order, and soon the canon was rising out of the roof, and aiming at the van in front of them.

 

"Have at thee!" shouted Malachi as he fired two shots.

 

Unfortunately, Rocwell, who was driving the Party Wagon, saw the shots coming and swerved to avoid them.

 

Scowling as she saw this, Miwa activated the battering ram on the front of the Shellraiser. "Let's see you dodge this," she growled as she sped vehicle forward to ram their quarry.

 

Her hit jolted the Party Wagon and made Rockwell grumble to himself. "That's close enough, children."

 

He then reached down and pressed the button that sprayed oil onto the street behind the Party Wagon.

 

Seeing this, Donnie yelled, "Oil slick!  _Oil Slick!"_

 

Miwa tried to avoid it, but the large tires of the Shellraiser were soon skidding on the slick surface, and spinning out of control. The kunoichi fought to regain control of the vehicle, but it was no use. They swerved and clipped a streetlight before crashing into a graffiti-covered building.

 

As the Party Wagon shot off through the streets, Miwa tried to get the Shellraiser running again, but the engine sputtered and died as she turned the ignition. Outraged, she spat a curse and beat her fist against the steering wheel. This could  _not_  be happening.

 

In the back, Mikey groaned as he and Malachi had been pinned under Leatherhead in the crash, and Pete lay next to them with stars swirling around his head. "They got away with Leo!" Mikey said miserably.

 

Raph opened the hatch on the roof and helped Donnie climb out.

 

"At least we know where they're going," said Donnie, staring down the street in the direction the Party Wagon had gone.

 

"It's getting there fast enough, I'm worried about," said Raph with a growl. "How's the Stealth Bike. Is that working?"

 

Donnie shook his head miserably. "It's back at the garage," he said. "I hadn't gotten to fixing it yet, as I was mainly focused on the Shellraiser." He glanced mournfully down at the once again nonfunctioning battle vehicle. First Metalhead, then the Party Wagon, and now his Shellraiser. It seemed fate had it in his inventions this night.

 

Raph let out another growl of frustration as he scrambled to come up with some form of plan to get Leo, Slash, and Rockwell back. But the only idea he was coming up with was the one he'd been suggesting to his older brother from the start, only to be shot down every time.

 

Still, it was the only plan they had right now, so he might as well run with it.

 

"Then let's go!" Raph said, jumping down from the Shellraiser and taking off down the streets. "We're taking this fight to Shredder!"

 

His team exchanged quick glances before following his lead.

 

One way or another this plan was going to work.

 

It  _had_ to.

 

____________________________

 

Leo groaned as he slowly opened his eyes to see a fluorescent light buzzing above his head.

 

His thoughts were bleary as he tried to place where there were fluorescent lights like that. School maybe?

 

For a moment, he thought he might have fallen asleep in class again. It wasn't too uncommon an occurrence, what with them patrolling late into the night and getting very little sleep. It was more common for Mikey, Raph, and Miwa to doze off, however. Leo and Donnie prided themselves on being more studious (and relying more than a little on coffee) to keep themselves awake through the day.

 

But as Leo tried to raise his hands to stretch, and make sure the teacher hadn't noticed he had drifted off, he noticed something was very wrong.

 

He realized with a jolt that his hands were immovable at his sides, and he was definitely not hunched over a desk, but rather strapped down to an icy cold metal table, with large belts strapped across his torso and legs to keep him in place.

 

His sleepy mood was instantly replaced by panic, though he tried not to show it outwardly on his face.

 

What happened? Had he been captured by some science lab? Were they about to dissect him to see what made a mutant turtle tick?

 

Only… he'd taken the retro-mutagen a week ago. Why would a science lab want to dissect a normal human boy?

 

Finally, the memory of what happened before he was knocked out returned to him. From the panicked call from the Mighty Mutanimals that Sir Malachi had been captured. To the horrible realization that Slash and Dr. Rockwell had been infected by the Shredder's completed mind-control serum.

 

Then… that meant…

 

Leo looked around frantically and saw to his growing horror that he was exactly where he'd feared he'd be. Strapped to a table in Buzzkill's underground lab ready to be used as a science experiment.

 

On either side of his table was Slash and Rockwell, who were both standing stiffly like guards, the expressions on their faces completely blank.

 

"Wake up," Leo said desperately. "You two know you can't let the Shredder have his way.  _Fight it!"_

 

But the two mutants didn't even seem to hear him.

 

Leo gasped as the table he was strapped to slowly started tilting until it was in a vertical position, giving him a full view of the rest of the Buzzkill's lab, as well as revealing the fly himself, standing before the table with a jar in his warped hands. Tiger Claw stood behind him, cleaning his sword blade with an air of indifference as he watched the teenager struggle before him.

 

"It'ssss no ussse," Buzzkill said smugly. "With my mind-control sssserum courssssing their brainssss, ressssistancssse isss  _futile!"_

 

Tiger Claw sheathed his sword, and said, "A feeling you shall soon know quite well."

 

Buzzkill snickered in agreement as he pulled a worm from his jar and held it out for Leo to see.

 

If he could, Leo would have recoiled in disgust at the sight of the slimy creature. He had thought the Kraathatrogon would be the ugliest worms he would ever have the misfortune of seeing. But the giant mutagen-filled worms of Dimension X were practically beauty queens compared to the one in Buzzkill's hand.

 

"I thought Shredder gave up on me being one of his evil minion kids?" Leo snapped, trying to stall for time as he pressed himself as close to the table as he could in a vain attempt to avoid the hideous invertebrate. "Why is he all eager for me to join his team if that's the case?"

 

"He did," said Tiger Claw bluntly. "You, cub, are expendable."

 

"Which makessss you the perfect tesssst ssssubject for any sssside effectssss," said Buzzkill maliciously as he brought the worm closer to Leo's ear.

 

Leo tried to turn away, but Slash saw this and reached over and held his head still.

 

Snickering at Leo's struggles, Buzzkill carefully placed the head of the worm in Leo's ear and watched as the slimy creature crawled inside.

 

Leo screamed in pain and disgust at the feeling that filled his head. He thrashed violently against his restraints, trying desperately to get free! To escape! to get that  _thing_ out of him! To get… to get…

 

Leo slowly went still until he lay rigidly on the table. The pupils of his eyes shrank to pinpricks, and his expression went completely blank.

 

As Tiger Claw and Buzzkill watched this reaction, they heard the sound of the lab door opening, and the metallic clink of the Shredder's boots as he approached.

 

"Is it done?" asked the Shredder as he came into sight.

 

"Ssssee you yoursssself, Masssster," said Buzzkill stepping away from a now blank-faced Leonardo, and releasing his restraints.

 

At the sight of the Shredder, Leo didn't even hesitate to drop into a respectful bow. "I await your orders, Master," he droned in a monotone voice.

 

"You have only one order," the Shredder said darkly as he leaned down to make it perfectly clear.

 

"Bring me Tang Shen."

 

____________________________

 

If someone had told Yoshi months ago that he would become so accustomed to the putrid odor that filled New York's sewer system that he wouldn't even mind it anymore, he would have thought the person was crazy.

 

Now be barely even noticed the stink as he made his way to the tunnel that his mutated wife had come to call home.

 

As much as he  _hated_ the situation his family was in, from Shen's mutation to he and his family being driven from their home to his own lingering weakness from his three-month coma. Even so, he took comfort in the fact that at least he and his family were all still together, even if at times it seemed Shen was just out of reach.

 

Still, he was grateful for the fact that since the invasion, Shen no longer acted hostile towards him when her mind was lost in its feral haze. Whether she truly recognized him or not remained a mystery as she did not give him the constricting hugs she graced on their children, but she no longer perceived him as a threat and remained calm in his presence.

 

He stepped into the tunnel and saw Shen coiled up in sleep on a nest of blankets and cushions their family had given her to use as a bed.

 

He took care not to awaken her, as he knew from experience that the serpent in her did not take kindly to being disturbed.

 

He sat himself down on a mat he'd brought with him, and intended to meditate for the next few minutes before returning home to see if his children were back from patrol.

 

Just as he was about to close his eyes, the sound of footsteps reached his ears, and he turned to see his oldest son walking down the tunnel towards him.

 

"Leonardo," said Yoshi in greeting. "Come join me, my son. I would enjoy hearing how your patrol went this night."

 

But Leo continued forward and made no reply.

 

Yoshi frowned at this, sensing something was wrong. "Leonardo?"

 

But the teenager still made no reply, and Yoshi began growing unnerved.

 

"What troubles you, my-?" Yoshi started to ask, but before he could finish, Leo threw an egg at great speeds in his parents' direction.

 

The egg smashed to the ground and released a cloud of knockout powder that covered both Shen and Yoshi.

 

Taken by surprise, Yoshi coughed as he breathed in the powder, and slumped to the floor, trying desperately to stay awake and failing.

 

Shen had not awoken during all of this, and with the powder in the air for her to breath in, it was unlikely she would awaken any time soon.

 

The last thing Yoshi saw before he drifted off completely, was his eerily blank-faced son lifting his serpent mother into his arms and carrying her down the tunnel and out of sight.

 

After that, all Yoshi saw was black.

 

____________________________

 

In the throne room of Foot HQ, a pair of Foot-Bots stood guard in the silent night, their sensors alert for any form of intrusion.

 

At least they were until a boy dropped down from the ceiling and stabbed his sais straight through their heads, making them drop to the ground like stones.

 

With the guards out of the way, the rest of his team dropped into the room, the Mutanimals of the group far less stealthily than the ninjas.

 

The seven of them made their way through the rest of the building, systematically checking all the rooms for any sign of Leo, Slash or Rockwell.

 

Only to come up empty every time. They weren't in the throne room, the dungeon ("Dudes, why does an old church even  _have_ a dungeon?" Mikey whispered to the rest as they checked the cells, only to get shushed by the rest), nor were they down in Buzzkill's lab.

 

Finally, they found a room they hadn't seen before. It was a small room with a high ceiling. Standing in the four corners of the room were towering Japanese statues each depicting an angry god glaring down at the floor below, each with a massive stone skull placed at their feet.

 

"Forget the dungeon, why does a church have a place like  _this?_ " Miwa whispered. "No way Shredder brought all this from Japan, did he?"

 

The rest of the group could only shrug helplessly, having no reply.

 

Seeing another door on the other side of the room, Raph made a hand signal to head for it.

 

Seeing as the room appeared empty, the team made a break for the door.

 

Only to jerk to a stop when Slash suddenly dropped down from the ceiling above, blocking the door.

 

The teens and mutants jerked back in surprise, only to see Rockwell and Tiger Claw appear in the door they had just come through, and the rest of Shredder's hench-mutants appeared out from behind the statues, surrounding them on all sides.

 

"So you have finally decided to join us," said a booming voice above them.

 

They all looked up to see the Shredder standing on the shoulder of one of the statues, glaring down at them menacingly.

 

But Raphael was not one to be intimidated. "Where's Leo!" he demanded angrily, jabbing his sai in the ninja master's direction. "I swear if you hurt him-!"

 

"Leonardo," said Shredder, a sneer in his voice as he said the name. "Is out doing an errand. The rest of you will soon join him."

 

The group paled, taking that to mean that Leo had already been dosed with the mind-control serum.

 

But their horror quickly turned to rage, and fortunately, the hench-mutants were right there to take it out on.

 

Leatherhead plowed into Slash, Donnie launched himself at Fishface, Mikey squared off against Rahzar, Malachi began matching his powers against Rockwell, Pete and Buzzkill began circling each other in the air, Miwa decided to tackle both Bebop and Rocksteady at once, and Raph threw himself at Tiger Claw with no intention of mercy.

 

All while this brawl took place, the Shredder remained where he stood above them, watching them all with cruel interest.

 

The battle likely would have gone on for hours, had it not been for an arrival at Shredder's side, that made everyone freeze.

 

Standing stoically next to Shredder, Leo once again dropped into a bow, and said, "It is done, Master."

 

"Excellent," said the Shredder with a sneer. He then held out a pair of gauntlets like his own and waved his hand to the crowd below them. "Capture Shen's children," he ordered. "Kill the rest."

 

Leo didn't even flinch as he strapped on the gauntlets and dropped down to do just that.

 

"Leo," whispered Mikey, his eyes wide at the sight of his older brother ready to hand them over to the Shredder.

 

The hench-mutants snickered at the sight and resumed their attacks, only Tiger Claw pulled back to stand next to the Shredder, leaving Leo to be Raph's opponent.

 

"Leo, I never thought I'd say this, but I  _don't_ want to fight you," said Raph as he brought up his sais defensively.

 

"But  _I_ want to fight  _you,"_  said Leo blandly as he darted forwards to strike.

 

Raph had to bring up his sais to block the blades of the gauntlets, and it became a contest of strength between the two brothers.

 

And when it came to strength, not many were better than Raph.

 

The red-wearing teen yanked down on their locked blades and rammed his head into Leo's making the mind-controlled boy stubble back.

 

"SNAP OUT OF IT!" Raph roared. "The Leo I know would never let the Shredder use him as a puppet! So  _Wake UP!"_

 

Whether from the blow to his head, or from Raph's words, Leo looked dazed for a minute before shaking his head and attacking Raph again.

 

But that dazed look was enough for Raph to come up with a rough plan. If that mind control junk was in Leo's head, maybe they just needed to knock it back out.

 

But before Raph could implement his plan, Miwa's scuffle against Bebop and Rocksteady came in between them, and she and Raph were forced to switch opponents.

 

"Mi!" Raph shouted as he spring-boarded off Rocksteady to dodge one of Bebop's laser blasts (causing the rhino to be hit instead and knock him out). "Go for the head and talk to him! I think at least one of those did something!"

 

Miwa, who had been standing tantō to gauntlet against Leo, glanced at her hot-tempered brother in surprise but complied.

 

"Leo, you're the one who  _promised_  me you wouldn't let me become Shredder's daughter," she hissed to her immediate younger brother. "You've never broken a promise before, and I'll be damned if I let you start now."

 

At her words, Leo's entire body jolted, and his expression changed for an instant.

 

Using his distraction as an opportunity, Miwa knocked his blades out of the way and kneed him hard in the gut.

 

Leo fell to the floor gasping for breath, and Miwa stood over him waiting to continue. Only to have to dodge to the side as Rahzar decided to take the opportunity to snap at her with his long teeth.

 

Continuing to weave to avoid the canine mutant's claws, Miwa called to her youngest brother, "It's the talking! It's doing  _something!_  Keep trying!"

 

Mikey gulped loudly as he was left next to his rapidly recovering big brother, and began spinning his nunchucks nervously.

 

"Leo," he asked his still crouching older brother. "Are you okay?"

 

Leo gave no reply other than a snarl as he lunged at Mikey.

 

The youngest ninja jerked back to avoid the blow, and used his kusarigama chain to loop around Leo's leg, and send him sprawling back to the floor.

 

"Leo, don't do this, bro!" Mikey whimpered. "I know you don't want to hurt us! You'd rather kiss a  _Kraang_  than hurt us! Fight it!"

 

The mind-controlled boy stilled from where he'd been attempting to untangle himself from the chain, and for an instant his head jerked up to look Mikey in the eye with a shocked expression on his face.

 

But the moment was gone just as quickly, and he instead sliced through the chain, sending Mikey stumbling back as the chain went slack.

 

As the orange wearing ninja fell backward, Donnie was kicked past him after Fishface managed to land a lucky hit, causing them to switch partners once again.

 

Donnie was quick to get back on his feet and brought up his staff to block both gauntlets from cutting into his shoulders.

 

Donnie winced at the sight of his big brother's glower aimed in his direction. But he'd heard what his other siblings had said, and knew that he had to try too.

 

The genius quickly shoved both their arms upwards and leaned over to look his brother firmly in the eyes. "You've spent your whole life protecting us, Leo," said Donnie imploringly. "Whether we needed it or not, you were always there for us. And I'll bet the odds are you can't let that instinct go even now. Am I right?"

 

Instead of attacking again, Leo actually jerked away from Donnie at his words, and for a stood looking lost.

 

Above them, the Shredder's eyes narrowed dangerously.

 

Knowing they were close to snapping him free, Raph initiated one last round of opponent musical chairs and stood in front of Leo once again.

 

"You see that," Raph said, waving his hand in the direction of the ongoing fight. "Mind-controlled out of your gourd, and we're still not giving up on you." He looked Leo dead in the eye and snapped, "So then, Leonardo. Don't you  _dare_  give up either, or I'll smack so hard you turn green again."

 

Leo hesitantly shifted back into a fighting pose, but really didn't look like he actually wanted to fight, and his eyes twitching like crazy.

 

Seeing this Raph darted forwards, grabbed Leo by the front of his shirt and slammed him against one of the stone statues in the room. "WAKE UP!" he roared in his brothers face.

 

Leo jolted at the impact before he started gagging like he was going to be sick.

 

Raph jumped backward just in case Leo was about to throw up on him, leaving the latter to heave on the ground until something long and lumpy was spat out of his mouth.

 

Raph didn't know what that thing Leo spit up was, but the second he saw it moving, he stabbed it through with his sai before turning his attention to the blue wearing ninja.

 

Leo looked back up at him with a bleary expression. "Raph?" he said woozily.

 

"Yeah, bro," said Raph as his face broke into a wide grin, realizing they'd gotten their brother back.

 

Seeing this, Shredder snapped his eyes over to where Buzzkill was still in a slap fight with Pigeon Pete. "Stockman! What is going on!" he demanded.

 

Buzzkill broke away from the pigeon and stared in horror at Leonardo. "I-I don't know Ssssir!" he said, before getting kicked out of the air by a vengeful Pete.

 

Seeing as this might bring their plans crashing down, Tiger Claw rejoined the fray to attack Leo and Raph, making the two brothers work together against him.

 

Meanwhile, the Mutanimals had caught wind of the Hamatos' plan early on and had been trying to implement it to their mind-controlled comrades, providing reminders that also challenged the monkey and turtle to break free.

 

"My friends, thou art geniuses!" called Malachi to them as Pete flew over to join him against Rockwell with Buzzkill out of the way, only to be caught in his telekinetic hold as well. Turning his attention back to the monkey, the younger bird said, "And I feel, good Doctor, that I must remindeth you of why you ventured to this dismal domain tonight in the first place."

 

Rockwell scowled at the sparrow and used his telekinesis to make Malachi slap himself.

 

"He's right Doc, snap out of it!" Pete said shrilly. "We came here earlier to  _rescue_  Malachi! Remember? All for one and one for all!"

 

Rockwell's face pinched tighter and he clutched his head, but he still didn't snap free.

 

Seeing this, Donnie couldn't help but add his two cents from where he was holding off Bebop. "Well if Rockwell was half the genius he claimed to be and had a brain to go with his powers, he might actually be smarter than a gibbering baboon!"

 

That got a reaction as Rockwell wheeled around and snapped, "WHAT! How  _dare_  you! I have had far longer to attain knowledge than  _you_ , boy, and-!" He was promptly cut off as like Leo he began looking nauseous, and belched out another worm.

 

Pete and Malachi both recoiled in disgust at the sight, and scrambled away, leaving Donnie to dart forward and stomp on the worm with all his might.

 

As the invertebrate became a green smear on the ground, Malachi and Pete hurried over to check on their monkey friend.

 

"You okay, Doc?" asked Pete worriedly.

 

"I'm sure friend Donatello is sorry for such heinous insults," added Malachi, shooting a pointed look at Donnie.

 

Donnie gave a sheepish shrug, before having to dodge one of Bebop's mohawk blasts, and taking the opportunity to knock the mutant unconscious.

 

Rockwell scowled, but said, "No, they were necessary. Although complete fabrications."

 

"Agree to disagree," Donnie mumbled to himself as he hurried over to help his younger brother with Fishface. "Now blast that worm out of Slash!" he shouted over his shoulder.

 

Leatherhead's attempts to break the turtle free had had only marginal success. He could make the other reptile flinch at reminders of their past teamwork, which had only increased as Raph called over barbs from his fight with Tiger Claw, but it was still not enough to break the leader of the Mutanimals free, and with the way he kept wailing on Leatherhead with his mace, the sooner they woke him up the better.

 

Needing no further prompting, Rockwell sent one of his brain blasts at the turtle, causing him to immediately choke up a worm, which Leatherhead took great pleasure in smashing.

 

All around them, the Hamato teenagers finished off their own fights against the remaining hench-mutants, until only the Shredder remained glaring down at them from his perch.

 

With a great leap, the Shredder jumped down from the statue to the center of the room. "It is time I end this experiment," he said, unsheathing his gauntlets.

 

Seething in rage at what this madman had put their teammates through that night, the Hamato ninjas and Mighty Mutanimals all hurried to surround the Shredder at all sides, forming a ring of glares, weapons, and claws around him.

 

Despite the assortment of martial artists and mutants out for his blood, the Shredder did not seem at all phased by their murderous intent, and instead stood ready for anything.

 

"Ninjas, Mutanimals,  _Get HIM!"_  shouted Leo, and they all dove forward to follow that order.

 

But despite the ten of them all attacking at once, the Shredder was still able to dodge and deflect their every attack.

 

Slash went at him with his mace at the same time Donnie did with his bō staff, but the Shredder snatched the staff and used it to knock both of them back, and sending the genius crashing into Raph in the process.

 

He then easily punched Pete to the side, before grabbing Leatherhead's arm and flipping him over his shoulder.

 

Mikey tried to rain shuriken down on the madman as he flipped over his head, but Shredder's metal gauntlets deflected the attack.

 

Malachi tried to dive-bomb him, but the evil ninja grabbed him by his peg-leg and flung him aside.

 

Miwa and Donnie tried to work together and send more shuriken at him from two different sides and deflecting those distracted Shredder long enough for Rockwell to brain-blast him.

 

While the blasts were not as effective on him as they were to normal people, it was still enough to make the Shredder lose focus for a second, which Leo tried to take advantage of to strike, but he recovered quickly enough to kick him away.

 

The Shredder then had to spin around fast enough to catch Rockwell, who came flying at him and kneed the monkey in the gut before tossing him aside as well. Donnie and Mikey tried to tag team him but were given the same treatment.

 

Slash and Leatherhead both tried to dive at Shredder, hoping to overpower him with their combined girth and strength, but the Shredder quickly sent them flying into a wall as well.

 

Leo, Raph, and Miwa rushed forwards with their blades, and with their combined skills, they were at least avoiding being sent hurtling through the air, but who knew how long that would last.

 

Slash groaned as he watched the three teens fight from where he had landed, and knew they needed to come up with a better plan if they wanted to win. Looking up at the snarling face of one of the giant statues, he got an idea.

 

Meanwhile, Leo let out a yell as he swung his sword at Shredder's head with enough force that even though his enemy blocked it, it still forced him to slide back a few inches.

 

As the two glared at each other, Raph took the opportunity to leap into the air and stab at him with his sai, but the madman managed to shift so that he was blocking Raph with one hand, and holding Leo back with the other.

 

Seeing that he had his hands full, Miwa tried to swing at his back with her tantō, but the Shredder saw her coming, and hooked his leg around Leo's to knock him off balance, and kick him into his sister, before twisting so that he disarmed Raph, and punched him away as well.

 

Growling under his breath, the Shredder started for the fallen teens, intent to finish Leo off, when a loud roar caught his attention, and he noticed the ground start to shake.

 

He turned to see one of his statues falling towards him, and quickly hit a mechanism in the floor, to make a small circle in the center of the room sink downwards, giving him a shallow hole to crouch in and avoid getting crushed.

 

Not knowing about the hole, the teens and Mutanimals stood panting as they stared at the remains of the statue.

 

"Did we do it?" Mikey asked out loud.

 

As if in response, the statue shifted, showing that the Shredder was definitely still alive down there.

 

To make matters worse, the doors to the room burst open, and Foot-Bots began flooding in like cockroaches, and the downed hench-mutants began picking themselves back off the ground.

 

Just when it looked like they were surrounded for one hell of a round two, there was a crash above their heads, and they looked up to see a hole had been blasted through the wall just above their heads.

 

Outside, they could hear Casey whooping at being able to blow stuff up, and Metalhead came flying through the new opening and opened fire on the Foot-Bots below.

 

Seeing this as their opportunity to escape, Leo shouted, "Another time," and he and some of the other ninjas threw down smoke bombs, and fled.

 

With the heroes gone, the evil mutants quickly worked to push the statue off the Shredder.

 

Once free, the master of the Foot Clan made his way down into Buzzkill's lab and peered into one of the glass cages that lined the walls.

 

Behind his mask, he grinned.

 

"Stockman," he snapped, making the fly mutant snap to attention. "Find out what went wrong with the formula, and see to it it does  _not_  happen again. Continue your work on retro-mutagen as well."

 

Buzzkill nodded quickly and flew off to set to work.

 

Shredder reached out to place his hand on the glass. "Soon, my love."

 

Within the cage, the serpentine form of Tang Shen lay curled up in sleep, blissfully unaware of what she would find when she awoke.

 

____________________________

 

The Hamatos and Mutanimals fled Foot HQ to get back to the Lair and regroup, as well as figure out what to do next now that Shredder's formula had been completed.

 

But when they entered the underground home through the lab, they were met with a pale-faced Jason, who looked like he'd seen a ghost.

 

"Jay-Man, what's wrong?" asked Mikey in concern.

 

Jason opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, and shot a stricken glance in Leo's direction before waving them into the living room.

 

Sitting on the still upturned couch, looking ashen was Yoshi, who's gaze was locked firmly on the floor, even as they approached.

 

"Father?" asked Leo, wondering what could have happened to get these reactions from him and Jason.

 

"Jason has told me what transpired," Yoshi said gravely. "And from that, I can piece together what happened." He then glanced up to look Leo in the eyes, "You were a victim of the Shredder's mind control tonight, were you not, my son?"

 

Leo felt a cold weight form in his stomach, and his throat suddenly became too dry to answer, so instead he just nodded.

 

Seeing this, Yoshi closed his eyes and looked as though he had just been told the world was ending.

 

Slowly getting to his feet, and leaning heavily on his cane, Yoshi turned to address all of them. "I am afraid… I have the most grievous news, my children," he said softly, his voice heartbroken.

 

"The Shredder now has your mother."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there's the mind control episode. As you can see, I once again borrowed a bit from the IDW comics for it. I also took a look inside Malachi's head to give him some development. But that ending though...


	59. Poisoned Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Tang Shen taken by the Shredder, the Hamato clan is desperate to get her back. Even so, it might already be too late.

Neither Yoshi or any of his siblings blamed Leo for the loss of Shen. They knew it was out of his control and wasn't his fault…

That didn't stop Leo from blaming himself though…

And blame himself he did.

Guilt had practically consumed their leader from the moment Yoshi told them of what had happened while Leo had been under Shredder's control. Once his father was done, he'd fainted right in the middle of the Lair.

The second he'd woken up, he'd gone into a sort of frenzy to try and figure out how to break back into Shredder's lair, and rescue her, but after their last escapade there, the Foot was determined not to have it happen again, and the entire place was turned into an impenetrable fortress that would be suicide to try and breach, much less escape from afterward. Even Raph had to admit to that.

It still took all four of Leo's siblings to stop him from trying anyway, and they'd all walked away with bruises afterward.

Once it sank in that it was hopeless to try and rescue their mother anytime soon, Leo had fallen into a practically catatonic state and refused to leave his bed in despair no matter what anyone tried to do to bring him out of it. Not even Jason discovering that Fishface was running an underground skating rink of death (apparently called Mr. X's X-treme Skate to the Death Death-A-Thon 5000) could rouse their brother, and they had to take care of that situation without him (though it turned out that Jason, Mikey, and Casey did most of the work). Although, they had had to clear out quickly before the police arrived on the scene.

Officer Harold was still scratching his head about what happened.

That was two days ago, and his family was growing desperate. Their own worry and grief about the situation had been shoved into the backseat in response to Leo's condition, and they knew seeing them moping around would only make their leader worse.

If they wanted to rescue their mother, they needed Leo  _better._  But nothing they did seemed to bring him out of his funk.

Until finally something got a response out of him.

" _Rin, Pyō, Tō, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen,"_  came a soft voice, that slowly broke through the storm of depression that had settled in Leo's mind.  _"Rin, Pyō, Tō, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen."_

Ever so slowly, Leo rolled over on his bunk to see his father sitting next to him performing hand motions while whispering the incantation under his breath.

As he continued to chant, Yoshi's hands began glowing a soft white, and he gently reached over to lay his palm on Leo's chest.

Instantly, Leo felt more energized than he had ever since Slash and Rockwell had been mind-controlled into kidnapping him. His lingering misery was still there, but it no longer felt as overwhelming as before.

"Father, what did you just do?" Leo asked hoarsely, his parched throat reminding him that he had barely eaten or drunk anything in the last few days. Despite that, he tried to swallow the dryness and continued his question. "And how did you do that?"

For a moment, Yoshi looked so relieved that Leo had actually spoken that it took him some time to collect his thoughts and answer.

In that time, Leo heard some shushing from the doorway and turned to see the rest of his siblings peering in with their eyes wide with anticipation.

"It is an ancient technique known as the Healing Hands," said Yoshi, finding his voice at last and reaching for a glass of water to give to his oldest son.

As Leo sipped at the water, he heard Mikey's excited whisper, "Dudes, I totally saw that in an anime once!"

"SHHHHH!" hissed Miwa, Raph, and Donnie in unison, not wanting to interrupt the progress that was finally being made.

As Leo put the glass back down, he felt his lips twitch into an almost smile at his siblings' antics. He could always count on them to make things seem a bit brighter just by being themselves.

"Would you like to know its secrets?" Yoshi continued, ignoring his other more rambunctious children in order to focus on the son before him.

Interest peaked, Leo slowly sat up in bed and shifted into a kneeled position before his father and sensei.

"Together with me," said Yoshi, clasping his hands in the first position. " _Rin, Pyō, Tō-"_

" _Sha,"_ said Leo catching on, _"Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen."_

" _Rin, Pyō, Tō, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen,"_ they both chanted together, Leo doing his best to mimic Yoshi's hand movements, his father only pausing the chant to adjust the position of his fingers a few times before the lead teen got it correctly.

The two of them practiced at that for the rest of the afternoon until Leo's hands also began producing a soft glow similar to Yoshi's.

Once the lesson finally ended, a growl emanated from Leo's stomach that was loud enough for his siblings to hear it in the next room.

Placing a hand over the source of the noise, Leo looked up at his father sheepishly and asked, "Er, is it dinner time soon?"

Yoshi beamed.

­­­­­­_____________

Within Buzzkill's lab, Tang Shen was trapped in a nightmare she could not wake up from.

When her mind finally returned to her from her feral haze, she was horrified to find herself trapped inside the Shredder's lair with the entire place kept so tightly secure, she wouldn't be surprised if not even a gnat could get in. She did not know how she had gotten there (she refused to believe the lie Shredder tried to feed her of Leonardo handing her over of his own free will), and escaping had thus far proven to be impossible.

But she was a patient woman (she'd had to be to raise five rambunctious children). She would wait until the most opportune moment and escape. If rescue didn't come first, that is.

It was only a matter of time.

Or at least that what she told herself as she was strapped down to one of Buzzkill's lab tables.

Despite her decision to wait for an opportunity, Shen still struggled against her bindings to try and get free from the table.

Not far away, the mutant her children called Buzzkill was busying himself at another table, though what he was doing, she did not want to even imagine.

"Don't worry, Msss. Ssshen," said Buzzkill as he started fluttering over towards her with something clutched in his hand. "I'm going to help you, jussst like I finally turned you human again." His malformed mouths twisted into a nasty grin. "Though you may have to thank your ssson Leonardo for the sssamples of his blood from being a turtle and after he turned back. He wasss sssuch a good tessst sssubject."

Shen let out a snarling hiss at his words. While it was true the fly had managed to somehow return her sanity to her, he had by no means changed her back to her human form. She was still a mutant, she just had better control than before, and could shift herself back to her human shape.

But the serpent was still there, should she want to access it, but right now all shifting into her serpent form would do was make the bonds holding her down even tighter.

Buzzkill paid her no mind and fluttered closer.

Shen stopped hissing, and instead threatened, "Come any closer, you disgusting insect, and I will crush your pathetic body like the bug you are."

Buzzkill actually paused and stared at her with his bulbous eyes. It was nearly impossible to tell his emotions from his disfigured face, but Shen got the sense he was amused.

"Now I sssee where your ssssons and daughter get their sssharp tonguesss." Buzzkill commented as he began moving towards her again.

Shen would have made another biting remark, but she was distracted by the sight of what Buzzkill was holding in his hand.

Trapped between a pair of metal tongs was the most disgusting thing she had ever seen. It was a foot long, bulbous, and wiggling in Buzzkill's hold like some overgrown leach. As she watched it opened its mouth to reveal rows of teeth, and small eyeballs sticking out of its teal skin like bubbles of green slime.

Seeing the look of utter revolution on her face, Buzzkill snickered and held it up for her to see. "Thisss ssshould change your mind," he cackled, "about a  _lot_  of thingsss."

Shen's eyes grew impossibly wide as Buzzkill began bringing the tongs and the repulsive creature it held closer to her ear.

Realizing what he was about to do, her struggles became increasingly more frantic as she tried desperately to escape from the straps holding her to the table and get as far away from that thing as possible.

But it was all in vain as she felt the worm's slime touch her cheek before it began burrowing painfully down her ear canal. She writhed and let out a piercing scream that echoed throughout the lab and sent chills up the spines of all those within Foot HQ.

Then it silenced, and Tang Shen's world went completely black.

­­­­­­_____________

 

Even though April really hadn't felt like a movie night due to the way things were going in her secret double life, Irma had refused to take no for an answer and dragged her and Casey to the theater anyway.

But despite her initial reluctance, the redheaded kunoichi found herself enjoying the evening with friends and a cheesy movie with nonstop violence. Even if she still had to wear her hoodie to disguise herself, it was nice to relax and spend one night pretending that she was still a normal, human, teenaged girl who had not just helped save the world from an alien invasion as a member of a secret ninja clan in a violent rivalry with another clan, which had recently kidnapped the closest thing to a second mother April had ever known.

Just a little peace, quiet and normalcy-

"Why hasn't Mikey and the other Hamatos come back to school?" Irma asked out of the blue as the three of them exited the theater after the movie.

-Until that.

April and Casey both screeched to a halt and shared a panicked look, before turning slowly to face their bespectacled friend.

Irma quirked an eyebrow at their reactions, and continued, "I mean, they've been a no-show since the invasion, and their house looks like a tornado hit it. Despite all that, you guys were the ones who came to school with a note from their parents saying they were going to be missing school for a few weeks, and have been supposedly taking their make-up work to them. Indicating that they must be alright and still here in the city somewhere."

The petite goth then fixed them both with a hard glare and asked, "So where the heck are they?" she demanded.

Casey and April exchanged another panicked look, and Casey quickly stuttered out, "U-uh, w-who are these 'Hamatos' you speak of? I-I don't know any 'Hamatos', do you?"

April smacked her forehead at his terrible attempt at lying.

However, the glare Irma gave him was distinctly unamused. "Funny," she said dryly, storming over to glare up at the taller hockey jock. "But I was snatched even  _before_  the invasion by some freak with a screechy voice that looked  _just_  like me, and from what I gathered, they were taking me to act as  _bait_  for Mikey and the rest. I  _know_  something's going on here, so  _don't_  mess with me, Jones!" she snapped, looking far more threatening than anyone her size should be capable of.

April quickly cut in before the situation could turn ugly. "It's a long story, Irma, and we're really not the ones who should be telling you it," she said. " _Mikey_  should, but he and his family are going through some… issues right now, and they can't really go back to the dojo until they're solved."

Irma raised an eyebrow at her, and asked bluntly, "They're not still mutated, are they? Because that would suck."

That was a little too close for comfort, and both teens were quick to spout denials, which they weren't sure if Irma believed.

April took a deep breath, and said in a much more even voice, "I can honestly say not one of the Hamato siblings is a mutant." The 'anymore' and mentions of Shen were left unsaid. The redhead then cracked a small smile, and added, "Mikey does miss hanging out with you, though. I'll mention it to him, and maybe you can meet up sometime soon."

"Yeah," agreed Casey. "And you can totally interrogate  _him_  then. Ya know, instead of us."

Irma's mouth twitched into an almost grin, and she studied them for any signs of dishonesty for a moment longer. Finally, she sighed and turned to split off towards her apartment. "I'm holding you two to that," she called over her shoulder as she left. "See if I don't."

April and Casey's only response was to heave a huge sigh of relief, and both knew they had just dodged a bullet.

Sharing an uneasy glance, the two turned to head for April's house, where Casey had stashed his bike.

"That was  _way_  too close," Casey griped once he was sure Irma was out of earshot.

"Well, you sure were no help, Mr. 'Who-are-these-Hamatos'," said April in a sarcastic imitation of Casey's previous words, complete with finger quotes.

Casey sent her a playful scowl. "Aw come on, Red. You know I suck at lying."

"Yeah," said April airily. "Which is why I'm surprised you kept your crush on Miwa a secret for so long."

Casey winced at her tone. Despite the knowledge that Shredder had been making mind-control goo, April had been thrilled to hear about his and Miwa's first date and had been fishing for details about their relationship ever since.

And that would be fine… if Casey actually had anything to tell her.

Seeing his expression, April's gaze turned sympathetic. "Still no second date?" she asked.

Casey huffed. "Nah. It's really not been a good time for them. Not that I blame her, this whole brain-worm deal has really been freaking Babe out, and then with Mrs. H captured and stuff. It's all just-" He let out a frustrated growl and gave in to the urge to rant, "It's just things were supposed to be getting  _better!_  We beat the Kraang, we took back New York, we all had our  _families_ again. And even with all that…"

Casey gave a growl, and punched a nearby street light, making it flicker above his head. "We  _won._ So why does it seem like our friends keep losing?"

"Because the Shredder is awful," said April with a shrug. It was the only explanation she could give.

Casey let out a dry laugh. "Understatement, Red."

"So what are you gonna do?" asked April as they came up to her house, her father peering down at them from an upstairs window to make sure they were alright.

Casey shrugged as he unchained his bike. "Not much I can do aside for just being there for Babe, Raph, and the others. Well, and gutting Shredder with a hockey stick next time I see him."

April shook her head in amusement. "I'll be sure to help with both of those jobs," she said as she headed up to her door. "See you at practice tomorrow morning."

"See ya, Red," Casey called as he cycled away, heading home to spend time with his dad and sister.

Unknown to either of the teens, a pair of poison green eyes watched them as they left.

­­­­­­_____________

 

Kirby O'Neil sighed in relief as his daughter called a greeting as she entered the apartment, and headed to her room to get ready for bed.

Keeping an ear open as she went through her nightly routine, he settled himself on the couch in their living room. Despite having a newspaper in his lap, he couldn't focus on the print, his mind was still miles away.

Or rather, on his teenage daughter in the next room.

April had changed so much in what seemed like a short amount of time, and Kirby was ashamed to say that he had missed most of it due to being captured, mutated and captured again, or simply her being angry at him for not telling her about her mother sooner.

Because of these periods of time apart, Kirby was always staggered by just how  _different_  April had become when he saw her again.

Gone was the smart, sweet young girl whose biggest concern was passing trigonometry. In her place was a young woman who was still smart and sweet, but was also courageous, cunning, and seemed to have taken the weight of the world onto her shoulders.

A weight she seemed to be bearing rather well with the help of her many odd friends.

Despite the danger that seemed to simply follow the five Hamato teenagers like a plague, Kirby was eternally grateful for the friendship (and more in the case of Donatello, whom he'd come to like) they had extended to his daughter, and for having looked after her when he couldn't be there. Not to mention the lessons of fighting and self-defense they had bequeathed to her to help keep her safe. Without them, April would have been captured that first night along with him, and then the world would have likely fallen to the Kraang by now.

But instead of becoming the mutated slaves of the aliens, they had beaten them. A ragtag group of teens and mutants had faced down an alien threat the likes of which the world had never seen before and had impossibly  _won._

And his little April, who used to be afraid of the woods outside their farmhouse at night, and insisted there were monsters roaming inside it (though with the Kraang, that was entirely possible), was among them. His daughter was now a hero who had saved the world and may even do it again before things were through.

He couldn't be more proud of her. Nor could he be more scared.

But she was still his  _daughter_. She was still his little girl and the thought of what she had gone up against terrified him to his very core. The thought that he likely had come very close to losing her multiple times, and may even still lose her yet was enough to fuel the nightmares keeping him up at night. It sometimes felt like he hadn't gotten a good night's sleep since the day before his first kidnapping.

Not for the first time, he wondered what his dear wife, Beth, would have thought of all this. Would she be as proud of April as he was? Would she have been horrified of the danger their daughter was putting herself in? Kirby just knew if she had been there, she at the very least would have smacked him silly for letting himself get taken away from April so often.

But he was here now, and he knew more than anything he would do his best to be there for his daughter. Let the Kraang come again, this time they would not stop him from taking care of her.

Even if she was growing up so fast, and barely needed to be taken care of anymore. He would be there, and would not leave her again.

Kirby was pulled from his thoughts at the sound of a piercing scream coming from April's bedroom.

"April!" he shouted.

Instantly the man was on his feet and rushing for her door. Logically he knew it could just be another nightmare (April  _had_  been having them often since the craziness had come to their lives), he still rushed to her just in case it was something worse.

He yanked the door open and froze in horror at the sight before him.

April, his dear sweet April, was lying crumpled on the floor beside her bed. Her skin was an unhealthy pale in the dim light of the room, and he could tell from where he stood that her breath was ragged as well.

But the most alarming thing about the whole picture was the pale white snake that slithered past her with a hiss, before vanishing into the shadows of the room, and the two bloody holes that marred the skin of April's right arm, making it clear she had been bitten.

With a cry, Kirby surged to April's side without a care that the snake could come back and bite him too.

Scooping his daughter into his arms, he bolted out of the room, and straight out the front door.

His precious daughter needed help, and fast.

­­­­­­_____________

 

It seemed like it would be a quiet night in as the teens poured over possible plans to break into Foot HQ.

With Leo out of his funk enough to function, they were finally able to start brainstorming in a way that was more logical, and less of a panicked frenzy (even though there was still some occasional panicking due to stress, this was their  _mother_  they were talking about).

But their quiet night of planning came to a screeching halt at the sound of frantic banging on their apartment door.

"HELP!" a familiar voice shouted through the door as Mikey hurried over to open it. "HELP, PLEASE!"

The second the knob turned, Mr. O'Neil threw the door open so fast that it knocked the youngest into the wall. But the man paid no mind to the now moaning teenager as he rushed inside, April cradled in his arms.

"Kirby?" asked Leo in surprise.

Mr. O'Neil quickly moved to lay April onto the couch. "Snakebite," he said shortly. "Please, help me."

The teens all crowded around in concern, but Donnie quickly took charge. "Guys, quick, give her some space," he ordered, pushing his siblings back. "Metalhead, you're with me. Raph, grab our poison kit. We need to get her to the Lair as fast as we can, Rockwell and my lab there is better equipped to help her."

Mr. O'Neil nodded and hurried to pick April up again and rushed back out the door to where the teens' vehicle was hidden.

Donnie, Raph, and Metalhead hurried after him, but as he ran, Raph had his phone in hand and was frowning at it.

"What is it, Raph?" asked Leo.

Raph paused in the doorway and glanced back at his siblings. "Casey said he was gonna see a movie tonight with Irma and April, so I thought he might know something. But he's not answering his phone."

A second later, all their phones buzzed with an SOS channeled from Casey's bicycle, and the timing was too perfect to be a coincidence.

Miwa frowned at that before moving to grab her gear. "I'll go track him down. Something about this is way too fishy."

"I agree," said Leo. "Take Mikey with you in the Party Wagon. The rest of us will go with April to the Lair to get her fixed up."

They all nodded and hurried for the door.

Everyone, that is, including Yoshi.

"You're coming too, Father?" asked Mikey in surprise, still rubbing his now sore nose.

"As you know, my son, one of the ancient ninja arts is a profound knowledge of poisons," said Yoshi gravely as they piled into the Shellraiser. "If I can help in any way with that knowledge, then I will."

Kirby looked slightly frazzled at the casual mention of his daughter's mentor being an expert on poisons, but still nodded gratefully to Yoshi all the same as the doors of the vehicles slammed shut, and the teens shot off to their destinations.

­­­­­­_____________

 

After Casey left April at her house, he decided to patrol around his neighborhood on his bike for a bit before returning home.

Ever since the Foot decided to kick the Hamatos out of their home, Casey had been determined not to let that happen to his family too, so every night he would make sure the streets were clear of any Foot-Bots or hench-mutants before heading home to sleep.

Speaking of Foot-Bots…

Casey let out a yelp and skidded his bike to a stop as a patrol of said robots dropped onto the street in front of him.

"What the what?" he shouted in surprise.

As much as he was patrolling for them, he really hadn't expected to see them. As far as he knew, until he went after the Shredder personally on his and Miwa's first date, the entire Clan had barely given him any notice. And even with him giving the Shredder an electric shock with his Taser, the evil ninjas still barely gave the vigilante the time of day aside from trying to kill him whenever he was out with the Hamatos and not otherwise.

Heck, just the other day Fishface had referred to him as an obligatory civilian sidekick when he, Mikey, and Jason had been stuck in his killer roller rink. The Foot had always seemed to at least have an idea who he was but had never really considered him important enough to go after. Something that both irked him as not being seen as a threat, and was a relief to him because if he wasn't important, then that meant his family was more likely to be safe.

Until now, apparently, which just screamed suspicious to him. Something was up, and he did  _not_  like it.

Time to take out some trash.

Jerking his bike around, Casey took off in the opposite direction, making sure to kick one of the bots in his way in the process.

The Foot-Bots immediately gave chase after him, and being robots made it easy for them to keep up with his wheels.

Maybe from now on, he should start patrolling in his hotrod. No way they could keep up with him in that.

Shelving that thought for later quickly pressed an SOS button built into his bike to let the Hamatos know where he was in case he needed back up.

But in the time it took to do that, the Foot-Bots had managed to get ahead of him and were blocking his way.

Shoving his mask down over his head, Casey began firing off shock pellets from a paintball gun he'd attached to his bike.

The pellets immediately made the ninja robots short-circuit and explode.

Laughing like a maniac, Casey raced passed them and on down the street. Ahead he could see another Foot-Bot sprout extra arms and come at him with spinning drill-like appendages.

Gasping at the sight, Casey pulled a lever next to his bike handle, and a jagged piece of metal shifted into position on the front of his bike.

Casey and the Foot-Bot shot at each other like knights in a jousting contest and quickly shot past each other.

For a second, it wasn't clear who managed to hit whom, but a second later, the Foot-Bot fell over, having been cut in half through its midsection.

More Foot-Bots gathered by their fallen comrade, but this was just what Casey was hoping for.

Activating yet another of his bike's tricks, he sent a missile-shaped firework blasting off at the remaining robots, turning them to scrap metal in the resulting explosion.

You know what, scratch that previous thought. His bike was plenty awesome enough to handle patrols. He'd save his hotrod for big missions, or maybe just future dates with Miwa.

With those happy thoughts in mind, Casey peddled onwards intending to finish his patrol and call it a night.

Only to skid sideways a second later when suddenly someone appeared in front of his bike. Someone he could have sworn hadn't been there a second before.

Fuming, he turned to look at the pedestrian he'd nearly hit, fully intending to give them a piece of his mind for getting in his way.

But any angry words died in his throat the second he got a good look at who was standing there.

_Tang Shen!_

Only… she looked different… For once she didn't look like her creepy Medusa-like self but instead was standing before him almost completely human in appearance, save for the pale white glint of scales on her skin, and the green slits of her eyes.

She was also dressed differently. Her ragged blue gi and tangled snake hair were gone and replaced by a loose but ornate kimono decorated with purple flowers, and her hair was pinned up in a stylish but practical bun.

In short, she looked better than he'd seen her in a while.

"Mrs. H?" Casey asked in surprise, dropping his bike to walk over to her. "What are you doing here? Did you escape? Are you okay?"

Shen remained silent and only stared at Casey blankly.

Casey knew something wasn't right about this, but thoughts of how happy Miwa, Raph and the rest would be overruled his gut instinct, and pushed him closer to the woman who had never been anything but kind and motherly to him in the time he'd known her (well, aside from when she was acting like a feral snake, but he didn't hold that against her).

Figuring the Foot-Bots had been out here after her, Casey ventured closer hoping to get her to safety before more came. "It's not safe here, Mrs. H," he said, holding out a hand to her. "Come on, I'll get you somewhere safe."

Only the years of sports, video games, and his recent ninja training gave Casey the reflexes fast enough to dodge what happened next, and even then he managed just barely.

Instead of taking his hand, Shen lashed out at him with her talon-like fingernails and hissed at Casey angrily.

"The one in need of safety right now is you, boy," she snarled.

It finally clicked to Casey just what was going on, and his face paled beneath his Halloween make-up. "Oh no, Mrs. H," he said.

She was being mind-controlled, just like Leo, Slash, and Rockwell before.

As he processed that thought, Shen darted forward in a lightning-fast move that Casey barely was able to dodge.

Far from deterred she attacked again, seemingly not at all hampered by the kimono she was wearing as she tried to slash Casey with her talons.

Casey quickly switched to his roller skates and tried to get some distance between him and his friends' mother. If he could just get a second to breathe, then he might be able to talk her out of it, like Raph and the others managed to do for Leo.

Sure, Casey was nowhere near as close to Shen as Leo was to his siblings, but if he said just the right thing, then maybe-

Casey's contemplation was cut off with a yelp, as he had to roll quickly to the side.

Staring at the spot he'd been a second ago, Casey paled even further at the sight of an arrow piercing deep into the asphalt.

Maybe getting some distance between him and Shen wasn't such a good idea. He had forgotten that due to her old back injury, she had become very proficient at fighting from a distance.

Shen smirked as she watched Casey's expression, and held up the crossbow she had had hidden in the long sleeves of her kimono.

"You are quite good at running away, boy," she said. "But know that I don't miss twice."

"First time for everything," Casey said, feeling very freaked out that his maybe-girlfriend's mother was trying to kill him.

Shen only sneered and aimed with her crossbow again.

Casey tensed and dove for a nearby alley for some cover.

But out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Shen had anticipated that, and was once again aiming with her crossbow at him with practiced accuracy.

But before she could release the arrow, the whizzing sound of a shuriken pierced the air, and it sliced through the string of the bow.

Seeing this, Casey stopped short in surprise, and Shen snarled as she tossed the now useless crossbow aside.

"Mother, what are you doing?!" came a shout above, and they both looked up to see the source of the shuriken.

Standing on the roof above them was Miwa and Mikey, both staring down at their mother with stricken expressions.

Feeling relief that the cavalry had arrived, Casey quickly yelled, "Guys! It's not her fault, Shredder's got her-!"

But Casey's message was cut off abruptly when a sharp and sudden pain pierced his shoulder.

It seemed Shen had another crossbow hidden in her other sleeve because Casey now had an arrow sticking straight through his left shoulder blade.

Instantly a burning sensation started spreading out from his wounded shoulder, followed by a numbing pain that caused Casey to fall to his knees.

The last thing he heard before he blacked out completely was Miwa's scream.

"CASEY!" Miwa shrieked as she all but leaped off the rooftop to reach the downed vigilante, Mikey at her heels.

Crouching next to him, Miwa yanked off her scarf to wrap around the wound to stop the bleeding, knowing better than to try and pull the arrow out.

While she tended to their friend, Mikey stood between them and their mother with a lost expression. "Mom,  _why?"_  he asked imploringly.

Shen merely cocked her head and looked at him like the answer was obvious. "Because he's not good enough for her," she said like it was the most rational thing in the world. "Not him, or that girl. Better to get rid of them now, before they can drag you all down."

Mikey flinched back like he'd been stung, and Miwa's head jerked up to stare at the woman before them.

This was all wrong. Shen had practically just admitted attempting to murder April and Casey for them. But Shen had been thrilled when Donnie and April had started dating, and never had a bad thing to say about Casey in the time she'd known him, save for a few lectures on not being so reckless. She would  _never_  hurt either of them, much less try to kill them.

This was  _not_  their mother. Not the one they knew and loved.

Miwa snapped out of her daze as Casey groaned on the ground beside her, and she resumed trying to wake him so they could get him to a hospital.

"That won't work," said Shen in a tone that somehow sounded both sweet and venomous at the same time. "My arrows are all coated in my venom. If you want to save them, the antidote is back at home with your father." She then looked at them with an imploring expression. "Please stop this childish rebellion, and come home, my babies. My love, Saki, and I are waiting."

Her two children stared at her in horror as she melted away into the shadows of the night.

­­­­­­_____________

 

In the Lair, Donnie was moving frantically among his and Rockwell's equipment, determined to save his girlfriend's life from the venom coursing through her veins.

Rockwell and Metalhead assisted as best they could, the former putting his skills as a chemist to good use, and the latter keeping a constant scan of April going to monitor any changes in her health.

Mr. O'Neil hovered as close as he could without being in the way, biting his nails as he watched his daughter slowly grow worse.

The rest of the Hamatos and Mutanimals stood outside the door to the lab, watching the progress inside with baited breath.

Donnie paused his mixing of chemicals to glance at Metalhead's latest scan, and his face dropped dramatically. "Her condition's getting worse," he said. "None of the anti-venoms are working. If I can't come up with an antidote soon…" he trailed off, unable to finish his sentence, and merely reached over to squeeze April's hand.

Rockwell winced at the downcast expression on Donnie's face, before turning to Mr. O'Neil. "You said that the serpent that bit her was still in her room when you left?" he said.

Kirby barely managed to drag his gaze away from April to look at the monkey, and nodded as if in a daze. "Yeah… Yeah, it went somewhere else in her room, I don't know where.

Rockwell nodded and turned to his teammates. "If we get a sample of the poison, it may help us develop an antidote," he said.

Slash nodded in understanding. "Leatherhead, you're in charge," he said to his alligator friend as he began heading for the door. "I'm gonna go catch us a snake."

Leatherhead nodded in agreement, as the turtle left. "Good luck, my friend," he said.

Jason immediately jumped to his feet and hurried after them. "I'm coming too," he said.

The two reptile mutants gave him a look that the teen recognized as their, 'No, it's too dangerous' faces.

"Do you even know how to catch a snake?" Jason asked pointedly before they could tell him no.

The larger mutants exchanged glances before Slash glanced back at the boy and said, "Do you?"

"Sure I do," said Jason enthusiastically. "I used to watch this nature show about an Australian guy doing it all the time. All you need is a long stick and a pillowcase."

Malachi immediately perked up and began fluttering after them. "Oh, I too loved that show, waiteth for me."

Slash and Leatherhead exchanged skeptical looks but relented. "Will you be joining them, Pete?" Leatherhead asked the remaining bird.

Pete shuddered and shook his feathered head. "No thanks," he said in a nervous voice. "I still remember when snakes were big enough to eat me. I'm sure glad they shrunk."

"They weren't bigger, you were smaller," Rockwell pointed out in a deadpan tone.

Slash, Malachi, and Jason simply nodded in response and turned to leave.

But as they did, Miwa and Mikey bolted in carrying Casey in between them.

"Coming through!" shouted Mikey as the Mutanimals ducked to the side.

"We need another bed!" shouted Miwa as they carted the vigilante into the lab. "Casey's been shot! By an arrow coated in snake venom!"

Between them Casey groaned, the arrow still sticking out of his shoulder and his blood slowly soaking through Miwa's scarf.

Hearing the part about the snake venom, the group of Mutanimals bolted out the door, determined to find that snake, while the geniuses tended to their patients.

"What happened?" Donnie demanded as he and Rockwell prepared to remove the arrow, and not let Casey bleed out when they did.

Mikey and Miwa shared a look before their faces crumbled even more.

There was a long moment of silence before Miwa finally managed to force herself to say something. "Shredder… is controlling Mother…" she said in a voice barely above a whisper.

Yoshi's face immediately turned white, and he was forced to sit down before he fell over.

Raph swore vehemently, and the rest of those assembled looked like they agreed with him wholeheartedly.

Mr. O'Neil looked floored. "Wait, you're saying,  _Shen_ did this? She poisoned my April?"

The Hamatos all looked downcast.

"Why would she do that?" Mr. O'Neil demanded. "I know Shen, she's one of the kindest people I've ever met."

All of the ninjas flinched again at his words, and Pete and Leatherhead shuffled over to the distraught man to fill him in on Shredder's latest plot.

While he was doing that, Leo turned to Donnie. "If it's mother's venom that's doing this, does that help you cure them? You said before you were going to try to make an anti-venom."

Everyone turned to Donnie hopefully, but the teen genius shook his head regretfully. "I  _was_ trying to," he admitted. "But you remember how much I was scrambling in those weeks before the invasion, trying to make more retro-mutagen  _and_  building the Turtle Mech to fight off the Kraang. My plans to make a cure were put on the back burner in light of what I thought was more important at the time." Though the look on his face made it clear Donnie was now regretting the decision and wishing he'd made it more of a priority.

"Then you have nothing?" asked Rockwell.

Donnie ran his hand through his hair and thought hard. "I did get  _some_  preliminary research done, but all my notes on it are in my lab back home in the dojo. I wasn't able to take them with us when we left."

Rockwell nodded. "Right then, well that little bit is better than nothing," he said, turning to his remaining teammates. "Fancy a trip to the Renaissance Dojo, gentlemen?" he asked. "We'll need that research to save us time in developing a cure."

Leatherhead and Pete nodded, and they and the monkey hurried out of the Lair, Donnie shouting the location of his research after them as they left.

With them gone, Donnie hurried to finish removing Casey's arrow, and with Raph's help, stitched up the wound to avoid blood loss. With that out of the way, Donnie immediately began bustling around the lab, using what he remembered of the venom and Metalhead's help to start on a cure.

"So what do we do now?" asked Mikey pitifully.

As if on cue, Raph's cell phone rang.

Knowing it was too soon for any of the Mutanimals to be calling about their separate missions, Raph pulled out his phone and checked the caller ID.

' _April.'_

Showing this to the others, they all glanced over at the redhead, who was still unconscious on the table next to Donnie.

"Um, I don't think that's April calling," said Mikey.

"Yeah, no duh," said Raph bluntly, eyeing his phone like it was about to bite him.

Then, ever so carefully, he hit the answer button and set in on speakerphone. "Hello?" he asked.

" _Hello, Raphael,"_  said Shen's voice sounding poisonously sweet over the phone.

The entire Hamato clan exchanged a look, and Yoshi stared at the cell phone with a haunted look.

"Mother," Raph breathed in shock.

" _Speak up, sweetheart, I can't quite hear you,"_ said Shen, not even seeming to notice his distress.

Raph shuddered. His mother had never called him sweetheart in his whole life, it was always my son, my child, or my baby. To hear her call him that when he knew she was under the control of the Shredder was just  _wrong_.

" _Raphael?"_  asked Shen, sounding curious to why he didn't respond.

Leo caught Raph's eye and gestured for him to answer.

"Y-yes, Mother," the red wearing teen said in a slightly strangled voice.

" _There you are, sweetheart,"_  said Shen cheerfully.

Looking extremely uncomfortable, Raph said, "Er, Mother, why are you calling on April's phone?"

" _How else was I supposed to get in contact with you?"_  said Shen. " _You children_   _are always breaking your phones, I can't keep track of your phone numbers. So I took this phone from that wretched girl. She's quite good at keeping up with your numbers."_

Mr. O'Neil let out a muffled strangled sound at her calling his daughter wretched.

Mother or not, those words made Donnie's temper flare. Snatching the phone from Raph, he demanded into it, "You  _poisoned_  her, Mother,  _why?!_  You know how I feel about her!  _Why_ would you-?!" He broke off, unable to finish, and all around him the others gave the genius sympathetic looks.

" _Hmm, you really do love her,"_  said Shen softly.

"You know I do," said Donnie. "And Casey is our friend too. We don't want either of them to die."

" _Then come home,"_  said Shen as if the answer were that simple.  _"I'll give you the antidote, and we can all be a family again."_

"Kinda hard to do with the Foot-Bots staking out the dojo for us," said Miwa darkly.

Shen let out a small laugh. " _You know that's not what I'm talking about, silly goose,"_ she said. " _Foot Headquarters. You know full well where it is. Stop this silly rebellion and come home."_

Having had enough, Leo marched over and snatched the phone from Donnie's hand, and said, "You want us to stop, you'll have to meet us halfway, Mother," he said into it, the look on his face letting all of his siblings know that he had a plan. "We'll meet you and get the antidote there."

There was a beat of silence on the other end, and Leo remembered with a wince that the Shredder didn't actually want him, and he couldn't know for sure if that hate had translated over to his mother.

Finally, Shen said, " _That sounds like a marvelous idea, dear. All five of you meet me at the old abandoned Grenache Street Station. I'll see you soon."_

The phone then went dead, and the teens exchanged pensive looks.

"This is worse than the mutant wasp thing," Mikey whimpered.

"Leo, I can't leave. I have to work on the antidote," said Donnie, glancing down at their poisoned friends. "April needs me."

"He's right," said Mr. O'Neil, determined to save his daughter.

"Right now, our mother needs us too," said Miwa, sending a regretful glance at Casey. "All of us."

Donnie opened his mouth to protest, but Yoshi stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Go," he said firmly. "Metalhead and I will continue to care for her and Casey. Find Shen, obtain the antidote, and bring it back for them."

Donnie slowly nodded, and the teen ninjas started making their way to the exit.

"We'll do our best to bring Mother back too, Father," said Leo as they left.

Yoshi merely bowed his head as his children left, hoping desperately for their safe return.

"What now?" asked Mr. O'Neil, glancing between the remaining ninja master and robot.

Yoshi turned to look down at the poisoned teenagers, and let out a sigh. "Now," he said moving his hands into the first position for the healing technique he'd been teaching his oldest son. "Now, I focus, and purge this poison from these children."

Behind him, Mr. O'Neil and Metalhead exchanged glances and the robot shrugged, but Yoshi ignored them and got to work.

Muttering the chant under his breath as he made the matching hand signals, Yoshi waited until his hands began glowing white before placing one of each onto April and Casey's chests. He continued to speak the chant softly as he kept his hands rested there, allowing the healing energies to seep into them.

Kirby's jaw dropped, and Metalhead beeped in surprise as the glow spread from Yoshi's hands and enveloped his and the two teenagers' bodies until all three were shining in the dim light.

Curious, Metalhead took another scan of April, who had been poisoned the longest.

Only to let out an alarmed warble as April's symptoms actually seemed to grow worse rather than better.

In response to her decreasing health, April let out a pained-sounding gasp and shifted in her hospital bed.

"April! NO!" shouted Mr. O'Neil in distress.

But Yoshi kept his focus on his chant, and once again began making hand motions. Focusing most of his attention on April at the moment, he let his hands hover above the girl's body, making her begin to glow once again.

Finally, he finished his chant, and Metalhead took another scan to show that April's vitals had miraculously stabilized for the moment. The girl in question had stopped her thrashing and lay still, her breathing more peaceful than it had been all night.

Staring at the prone form of his daughter, Kirby asked, "The poison, is it still-?"

Yoshi looked up at him gravely. "I've stopped it from getting worse. But she is not out of danger yet. I will finish the process with Casey, and then work to purge it from their systems. Unless, of course, my children or the Mutanimals return with a cure first."

Exchanging another glance with the short robot beside him, Kirby sighed. "Please, do what you can," he said. He didn't really know what he'd just witnessed, but this man had protected his daughter for this long.

Metalhead also chirped supportively and gave Yoshi a thumbs-up.

The ninja master smiled at the two of them and resumed his chant over the other teenager.

Such work almost helped him bury his worry about what fate would befall his children and his wife when they confronted each other.

_Almost._

­­­­­­_____________

 

In all their adventures and missions that led them to the deepest and darkest depths of New York City, none had filled the five teenagers with more dread than the trek they were on now.

When Leo had been taken, there had been no time for troubled thoughts and anxious what ifs. It had simply been a race to reach him in time, and in failing that, snapping him out of Shredder's control as quickly as possible.

But this, this was different. This time they  _had_  time to think. To consider what had happened to their mother, and to wonder what was to come next.

It was the most nerve-wracking experience they'd ever had.

Mikey snapped first. "I can't take this!" His wail echoing through the sewers around them. "Why does this stuff always happen to us?"

"I've been asking that same question ever since we got caught up with stopping the Kraang," said Miwa in a bitter tone.

Donnie frowned as they slogged onwards. "It does seem statistically improbable that every crazy thing in the city involves us," he said.

"And yet, somehow it does," said Raph dryly, not at all happy about his friends being poisoned by their own mother.

Leo winced. Even though he was no longer wallowing in his guilt, the feeling still plagued him. If only he'd been strong enough to fight the control. If only he'd snapped out of it sooner. If only they'd managed to catch Slash and Rockwell before they could take him to the Shredder. If only they'd gone with the Mutanimals that night to stop Malachi from ever being kidnapped. What if-

He was brought out of his spiral of guilt by an elbow to the gut from Mikey.

When Leo looked at his youngest brother in surprise, Mikey jerked his thumb over his shoulder and said quickly, "Raph said to do it!"

"Knock it off, Leo," Raph said from the back of their procession. "I can practically hear you blaming yourself from back here."

"But-" Leo started to protest, only to get another elbow from Miwa.

"He's right," she said. "It wasn't your fault, and now we need you to lead us so we can fix it. Because we're  _going_  to fix it."

"We have to," said Donnie softly.

"So getcha head in the game, Bro," said Mikey with a strained but encouraging smile.

Leo sent his siblings a grateful look and took a deep breath to steady himself and slip into leader mode. With a silent hand signal, he urged them all onwards.

Only to stop as they realized they'd have to wade through waist-deep, rancid smelling, sewer water to get to their rendezvous point.

Seeing the disgusted expression on his siblings' faces, Leo pushed aside his own revulsion and made the first step into the water. "Come on guys. We're getting our mother back and saving our friends. We don't need to smell like roses to do that."

With that said, he pushed on ahead and his siblings slowly followed after.

"The things we do for family," said Miwa under her breath as she winced and slipped into the foul liquid.

"Dudes, we so shoulda stayed turtles a little longer," griped Mikey.

"Being turtles wouldn't make this smell any better, Mikey," grumbled Donnie. "Though this water smells extra nastier than usual."

"Am I the only one who realizes how screwed up our lives are that we know just what sewer water's usual smell is?" Raph said dryly.

Leo glanced back to glare at them. "Shh," he hissed. "We don't know what we're going to be up against, and it'll be better if we make a silent approach. So be  _silent._ "

Hearing that, Raph felt a small smirk work its way onto his face. "And the Fearless Leader is back," he remarked quietly.

Leo just sent him an eye-roll but moved on without comment.

Finally, the five of them reached the ladder that would take them to their meeting spot.

More than a little grateful to be getting out of the water, the siblings slipped silently into the station, not even making a sound with their waterlogged feet.

But even with their careful approach, they all still started in surprise as their mother's voice started echoing over the abandoned train station's speakers (which were miraculously working after all this time).

" _Welcome, my babies,"_  announced Shen's voice.  _"Now why did you want to come in through those icky sewers? We all knew you'd be here, and there is a perfectly clean door you could have come through."_

As she spoke, Mikey shuddered at the sound of her voice, still not used to how  _off_  his mother was sounding right now.

Hopefully, he wouldn't have to get used to it.

But then to his surprise, the shudder turned to a sway as he wobbled on his feet before falling to his knees.

His siblings glanced down at him in surprise, before Donnie started feeling weak in the knees as well, and had to slump against the wall for support, and his older siblings began feeling weaker as well.

" _Well, as punishment for sneaking in in such a way, I mixed a little something extra into the water below the station,"_ Shen continued as if talking about the weather.

That jolted the drowsiness out of the teens, and they all exchanged alarmed looks.

"You poisoned us?!" Leo shouted, searching the area wildly for his mother.

Shen's laugh rang out from the speakers, and she said, " _Of course not, silly boy. Just a numbing agent to make you come home quietly, rather than make a fuss like I know you were going too. It's slower acting since it's sinking in through your skin, but soon enough you won't have the energy to stand."_

"What about April?" Donnie shouted to the ceiling. "And Casey too? How can I get them the antidote if I can't even move?"

"Oh dearie," said Shen's voice, making them all look up to see her standing on the train tracks in front of them. "I'm afraid I lied to get you here. There is no antidote." She then gave them all a cheery smile that showed off her fangs. "But you are so clever, Donatello. I'm sure you can make one for me soon enough."

Donnie stared at her with a horrified expression, his legs giving out beneath him, and he collapsed to the ground.

This whole thing was a setup. A waste of time. And now their friends were going to…

"Why would you need an antidote if you didn't plan on using it to help our friends?!" shouted Raph angrily.

Shen cocked her head and looked at him like he should already know the answer. "Why, so I can be with my love, of course," she said. "My venom is highly toxic in any form. The smallest amount can seep through the skin in seconds. I can't even kiss Saki for fear of killing him, and my hair, well," she reached up to her bun, and a single hair serpent slid out and wrapped around her finger like a ringlet curl, "they have a mind of their own, and try to bite him if he gets too close to me."

The teens immediately felt a strange combination of relief that their mother's mutant nature had kept the Shredder from touching her, and revolted at the very  _idea_  of their mother and Shredder together in  _that_  way. Needless to say, the expressions on their faces were extremely interesting to see.

"That is, like, a gazillion times grosser than that sewer water was," groaned Mikey.

"Thank goodness for hair snakes," muttered Miwa.

Shen shot them a scolding look.

"Mother, you have to snap out of it," Leo said, taking charge. "This isn't you, this is what the Shredder wants you to be. You're married to Hamato Yoshi, not Shredder."

Shen went rigid for an instant before her face twisted into an ugly look. "LIES!" she roared, and with a wave of her hand, she summoned a squad of Foot-Bots to her side.

"You are all  _grounded!"_  she shouted. "Foot-Bots, take them home,  _now!"_

The Hamato teens quickly forced themselves to ignore the surreal image of their mother ordering Foot-Bots around, as well as their own quickly numbing limbs to meet the robots head on.

It quickly became clear that the toxins in the teenagers' systems were slowing them down considerably, but they had  _long_  since become accustomed to smashing Foot-Bots and were still managing to hold their own against them.

Still, by the time the last Foot-Bot fell, all five of them were shaking from the effort to stay upright.

And losing, as Mikey soon collapsed to the ground, with Donnie following soon after, and Leo, Miwa, and Raph looking as though they might join him at any minute.

Seeing state they were in, Shen tsked as she strode towards them, shaking her head in disappointment. "I just don't understand the point of this rebellion of yours," she said to them. "Where did I-"

"If you're asking 'Where did I go wrong,' don't," Miwa snapped. "That is so cliché, and you at least on some level know it's not true." But even as she said that she swayed and fell to the floor, followed soon by Raph.

Glancing down at his fallen siblings, Leo turned to look at his mother with a pleading expression. "Mother, please, don't do this. Help us."

But Shen gave only Leo a stern look. "It's over, Leonardo. As soon as more Foot-Bots get here we are all going home."

Leo opened his mouth to protest again, only for his body to finally succumb to the chemicals, and he fell to the ground as well, his swords clattering out of his hands.

Shaking her head, and looking every bit like a concerned parent, Shen stepped over to her fallen children and reached over to stroke Leo's head.

Only to pull back her fingers in surprise when she heard the boy whisper softly, " _Rin…"_

­­­­­­_____________

 

Within the Lair, things were tense as Kirby and Metalhead waited on baited breath (figuratively in the latter's case) for Yoshi to begin the next step of his healing technique.

"April, Casey," the ninja master said to the two of them. "The poison is still inside you. I can slow it down, but only you can defeat it."

The anxiety of the situation was reaching its breaking point with Mr. O'Neil. "What was I thinking," he groaned aloud as he started to get up from his seat. "I'm calling the hospital!"

"No," said Yoshi sternly, making the man wilt. "As my son has said, this venom has no cure. Only the mantras can save them now."

Seeing Kirby look so defeated, Yoshi managed to give the man an encouraging smile. "As soon as I have finished, Metalhead will contact the hospital, and we will take them there to ensure they are well."

Mr. O'Neil looked unconvinced but nodded to show he trusted the other man.

" _Rin, Pyō, Tō,"_ Yoshie began to chant again, the glow coming back to him as he began the healing technique.

The glow once again spread to the two teenagers, but otherwise, nothing seemed to change.

" _Retsu, Zai, Zen,"_ Yoshi finished, and the glow shined brighter than ever, before fading away.

For a moment, nobody moved, waiting hesitantly to see if it had worked.

Then, ever so slowly April opened her eyes and let out a low groan.

"April!" shouted Kirby in utter joy and relief. "You did it, Yoshi! Oh thank you!" he said to the man as he swept his daughter up into a desperate hug. "Oh, my sweet baby girl."

Meanwhile, Metalhead leaned over Casey to scan him and see if he had been cured too, only for Casey to open his eyes and jerk upwards, cracking his skull against Metalhead's metal head.

"Aw man!" Casey cried in pain, clutching his now aching noggin as he flopped back onto the table, only to jostle the arrow wound in his shoulder. "Gah! Everything hurts!"

Metalhead gave a buzz of annoyance as he reached up to touch his own head, before turning to Yoshi gave a thumbs-up. All of his scans were showing that the two teenagers had been purged of the poison, and even the wound in Casey's shoulder had changed from being a fresh wound to being more like it was days old. They should heal soon enough with no further problems.

Still, Yoshi was compelled to ask, "Are you both alright?"

"I'm okay," April said. "A bit tired, but I think that'll pass."

"Yeah," Casey agreed. "I don't feel sick anymore either. But my shoulder hurts like hell." He then glanced at the bandages and made a face. "My Dad's gonna flip when he sees this."

"It would be best if you take a break from patrols until it heals," said Yoshi sternly. "And no strenuous activity in your daily life as well."

Casey groaned as he realized that meant no more busting heads or hockey for a while, and April giggled at his predicament. The benched vigilante then brightened as he thought of something else.

"Though do not think this gets you out of training on weekends," Yoshi continued, correctly guessing what Casey was thinking of and making his face fall again. "With your body unable to train, we can instead focus on meditation. Something you both could use more training in."

April looked eager, but Casey only groaned in disappointment. So much for sleeping in on weekends.

Just then the sound of the door opening reached their ears, and they turned to see the Mutanimals all entering the lab, looking more than a little bedraggled, and carrying a writhing pillowcase and a stack of science notes.

Catching sight of April and Casey looking perfectly fine, Slash groaned, "Are you saying we just wrangled a deadly poisonous snake-"

"And beat through a guard squad of Foot-Bots at your dojo," interjected Rockwell, looking peeved.

"-For nothing?" finished Slash.

April and Casey looked sheepish at the summation, but Metalhead made a dinging sound to indicate that they were correct.

Slash let out another groan that was echoed by his teammates. Dropping the snake bag inside Mutagen Man's old tank, he stormed back out of the lab. "I'm going to bed!" he declared, a sentiment that all his team seemed to agree with.

However, Leatherhead looked around the lab with a confused expression. "But where is Donatello?" he asked. "I would think he would be here celebrating April's recovery."

That stopped the other Mutanimals in their tracks as they too registered the ninjas' absence.

"Yeah, like, where are the others?" asked Jason in concern.

Apprehension grew for them, as Yoshi's face turned grave. "They have gone to confront Shen…"

­­­­­­_____________

 

Shen stared in surprise as Leo continued to recite a chant under his breath. For the life of her, she couldn't understand why he was doing such…

… And yet, some part of her couldn't shake the feeling that the words were… familiar somehow…

But how could that be?

" _Pyō… Tō… Sha…"_  Leo continued before his eyes snapped open, and he sprang up and shoved Shen away from his siblings.

Shen stumbled back and stared at him in surprise. With the numbing agent in his system, he shouldn't even be able to move by now, much less force her away.

"Mother, I  _don't_  want to fight you," Leo insisted earnestly. "But I also can't let you take me and the other to get brainwashed by Shredder."

Shen slowly got back to her feet, shaking her head as she did so. "You always were such a stubborn boy," she said. "Just like your  _father!"_

Then in a lightning-fast move, Shen struck at Leo, hoping to incapacitate him once again.

Still sluggish, Leo barely managed to block the blow, catching Shen's hands in his. "Oh yeah, I'm my father's son alright," he said in determination.

For an instant, Shen's face twitched into a fond expression that Leo recognized as belonging purely to his mother, not to this twisted puppet Shredder had turned her into.

The brief sight of it gave him hope. If his siblings could talk him out of the mind control, maybe he could too.

He had to try.

"Father and I do have a lot in common," he continued, shoving Shen back.

Shen hissed in annoyance at this, and ran at him again, only for Leo to dodge.

"We both love ninjutsu," Leo said as he continued ducking Shen's attempts to subdue him. "But not as much as we both love our family."

The snake woman grew fed up with not being able to catch him, and her long serpent tail came flowing out from the skirt of her kimono instead of feet, allowing her more fluid motions.

"We're both, admittedly, pretty bossy," Leo said as he tensed up for whatever she was going to throw at him next. "And we both tend to shut down for a bit when we lose the people we care about."

Shen launched herself forwards and wrapped him into one of her constricting hugs. "Yesss," she said in a snake-like hiss. "Ssso much like him."

Leo struggled under her coils, but he even as he did so, he looked up so he was staring his mother straight in the eye. "Like who?" he dared her to say it.

"My Yo… shi…" Shen blurted out, her face freezing as she realized what she was saying.

Taking advantage of her shock, Leo managed to twist out of her grip and grabbed Shen by the shoulders. "You know that's the truth!" he said, shaking her slightly. "Mother, Wake!  _Up!"_

For a moment, Shen seemed to be completely petrified, her eyes staring blankly ahead.

Then with a piercing shriek, she grabbed her head like she was in pain. Hissing and howling, she fell to the floor thrashing, various parts of her body shifting between serpent and woman like a holographic picture.

Leo had to stand back to avoid being hit by her tail, and could only stand and stare helplessly at the sight before him.

Finally, she reared up in full serpent form, hands still clutching her head as she howled in pain. Then, before Leo could stop her, Shen bolted back down the station's tunnels and out of sight.

"Wait, Mother!" shouted Leo running after her.

Only to freeze as he heard Mikey groan behind, and he turned back to look at his downed siblings.

Immediately Leo realized his ultimatum. On one hand, he could chase after his mother and hope to try and get through to her, but in doing so he'd leave his siblings undefended from the new Foot patrol that she had said would be coming for them. Or he could get his brothers and sister to safety, but lose track of his mother once again.

Leo clenched his fist as he made his choice. "I'm sorry, Mother," he whispered to the darkened tunnels as he hurried back to his siblings. "We will save you, I promise."

­­­­­­_____________

 

Fortunately, the Mighty Mutanimals arrived a few moments later to help Leo load his siblings into their transport. But by the time they had gotten them to safety, Shen had already long vanished from the tunnels.

With a heavy heart, Leo and the Mighty Mutanimals returned to the Lair, where the teen leader was delighted to see April and Casey had recovered from the poison, and all that was left was to wait until the sedative Shen had used was out of his siblings' systems, a task helped along by his and his father's use of the Healing Hands.

Once everyone was recovered from the ordeal, Donnie, Metalhead, and Rockwell secluded themselves into the lab to continue creating an antidote to Shen's poison should they need it again. As miraculous as the Healing Hands were, it would be better not to be solely reliant on them.

While the geniuses got to work, the rest of the ninjas and mutants banded together to try to make plans to save Tang Shen, but they were going about as well their plans had been before, and the entire ordeal left both the Hamato Clan and the Mighty Mutanimals disheartened.

Or at least they were until Donnie came rushing out of his lab with a shout of, "Guys!"

They all turned to look and were surprised to see Donnie looking like Christmas had come early this year. Metalhead and Rockwell weren't far behind him, also looking pleased.

"What? What is it?" asked Leo.

"Something happen, Doc?" asked Slash.

"Well, I believe Donatello is bursting to tell you the news, so I'll leave the floor to him," said Rockwell with a mock bow to said teen.

Donnie didn't even seem to notice. "Doc, Metalhead, and I made an amazing discovery about Mother's venom!" he said enthusiastically. "You're never going to believe it!"

The siblings exchanged glances in surprise, and April and Casey both rubbed their wounds at the reminder.

Donnie paid no heed to this and plowed on ahead. "So me and Rockwell decided to study the long-term effects of the poison, and found that despite being a venom it's symptoms are similar to that of a minor dose of Atropa Belladonna!"

Everyone stared at him blankly.

"English, Donnie," Mikey said. "Use it!"

"I'm saying it wasn't  _deadly!"_  Donnie said gleefully. "At least not in the doses April and Casey had. Instead, it would have caused a coma-like sleep that they would have woken up from a few hours later!"

 _That_  got everyone's attention. Though Mikey and Jason still looked confused.

Seeing this, Malachi said, "Thou remember reading the play,  _Romeo and Juliet_  in school?" he asked.

Mikey and Jason nodded. "Yeah dude, that Shakespeare guy sounded a lot like you," said Jason.

"Doeseth thou recall the poison Juliet used to falsify her death?" Malachi continued. "Sir Donatello is saying thy Mother's poison bears semblance to that."

"Dude!" Mikey breathed, his eyes wide as he realized that.

"Then we were never in any danger?" asked April.

"No," said Donnie. "Not with the amount of venom you two received. You would have had to be bitten about ten more times for it to reach lethal levels."

"Yeah, no thanks," said Casey wryly. "Getting shot with one arrow was enough for me."

Miwa's eyes widened as the full implications of this sunk in. "Do you guys realize what this means?" she asked the others, gaining all of their attention.

Raph frowned before he caught on to what she was saying. "Mother had to know this!" he said in realization. "After all these months, she has to know!"

"Exactly," Miwa said. "She knows, and she's lying to Shredder to keep him from touching her. She's still fighting him, even now!"

"And even if April and Casey recovered after she supposedly poisoned them, she could always claim Rockwell or I made an antidote," added Donnie ecstatically.

They all fell silent as the news sank in for all of them, and they all exchanged wide grins.

"Well if Mother is still fighting, then we'll keep fighting for her too," said Leo, taking charge.

And with that, the planning began anew with rejuvenated energy.

They would save Shen, it was only a matter of time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N And that's Deadly Venom… ish… Shen is not acting like herself right now. She's acting like Shredder thinks she should act, rather than how she really is. Shredder spent years fanaticizing about Shen and has painted this perfect image of her in his head that the real Shen could never live up to, but with her under his control she's forced to act the part of his perfect wife. But as you can see, she's still fighting.


	60. Terror and Traps Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A daring rescue attempt doesn't quite go as planned.

For the first time in years, the Shredder wondered if he had made a mistake.

It was not a thought that crossed his mind often. In fact, it hadn't really crossed his mind since the day he'd confronted Chung I years ago, and discovered the voice in the mirror's treachery. But the thought had quickly faded once the mystic revealed his true colors, and spat on Saki's name.

Now though, he was thinking about it long and hard, and the reason for such rare thoughts lay right before his eyes.

Tang Shen lay chained to one of Stockman's lab tables within one of the glass cages that lined the wall of his lab. Her ragged breathing could be heard even through the glass as she lay still on the table, her face covered by a helmet fashioned out of one of the heads of one of Stockman's Mouser robots. The helmet was attached to a pipe connecting to a glass bowl filled with more of the mind control worms, slowly feeding more of the slimy creatures into Shen's head.

"Tang Shen, forgive me," said Shredder as he reached out to rest his hand on the glass. "I should have never allowed it to go this far."

Shen's only reply was to twitch as another worm made its way down the pipe to her head.

"I will destroy Yoshi, his son, and his allies for causing you such suffering, and return your four children you," Shredder vowed, ignoring the fact that Shen had five children, still determined to be rid of Leonardo. "Sleep now, my love. Your revenge is soon at hand."

Shen merely lay silently on the table, oblivious to the world.

It shouldn't have come to this. By controlling Shen he should have freed her from Yoshi's manipulations. To open her eyes to the fact that he was the only one who could truly ever love her, and allow her to be the woman he knew her to be. It had taken some orders from him to fully shake off the behavior patterns he knew Yoshi had forced Shen to take on, and now she was once again the woman of his dreams. His perfect wife, who looked and acted just the way he had always imagined she would, and loved him with all her heart.

Even so, it was still far from perfect.

But it seemed the Brain Worms took more of a toll on Shen's body than they had anticipated. She had to be given more nightly in order for him to retain control of her. Otherwise, her brainwashed self from her time with Yoshi would break through, and he had come too far to lose her again.

However, even with his control, she still remained so close, but so far away.

Due to her poisonous nature, he could not fully enjoy having her as his bride, and Stockman's incompetence seemed to be growing by the day with his failure to produce a retro-mutagen.

Which was all the more reason to have Shen's children under his command as soon as possible, for even with the worms in her head, Shen maternal love for her children remained as strong as ever. Even for the wretched Leonardo, no matter how Shredder despised him and tried to subtly tell her he was better off dead.

But that was of little consequence to Saki. He knew once he had them in his grasp he could quietly dispose of the leader of the Hamato teens, and once they had been under his control long enough they would eventually forget the blue masked ninja had even existed. And then there would be no more need for the worms.

He would have his perfect family. It was only a matter of time.

His contemplation was interrupted by a voice stammering, "Ah, uh, Mr. uh, Shredder?"

Shredder rounded on the fool who dared interrupt him, and Bebop and Rocksteady immediately quailed under the force of his gaze.

"What is it?" he snapped angrily.

Gulping audibly, Bebop plowed on ahead, "You, uh, called for us, sir?"

Knowing he was correct, the Shredder turned back to gaze upon Shen once again. "I sense that the Hamatos and their mutant allies are soon to make another move. But I must leave shortly for a business venture, and cannot be here to protect her. You are to double security. Watch Tang Shen at all times." The last thing he needed was for them to steal Shen away from him again while she was in this fragile state.

Bebop immediately snapped into a salute and said, "We are on it."

"Da," agreed Rocksteady. "Kid freak ninjas vho vere once turtles and mutant friends never get past ze Bebop and Rocksteady."

Bebop winced at the mention of their hated nicknames but had since become resigned to the title. Besides, he knew better than to start an argument about it with Shredder present. That was like asking for a knife in the gut simply for being annoying.

Shredder turned to look at them again, and his expression was even more terrifying than his previous one. "Do  _not_  fail me," he ordered in a voice that promised immense pain if they did otherwise.

The two mutants exchanged a quick frightened glance, before bowing respectfully to the Shredder to show they understood, before turning tail and fleeing to follow his commands.

With them gone, Shredder turned to take one last look at Shen, before leaving himself.

"Soon," he promised once again.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­_____________

In the Lair (which had pretty much become command central for the Hamato/Mutanimal team with the Renaissance Dojo no longer accessible) the planning to free Shen and take out the Foot once and for all was underway.

Or at least it would be if they could ever agree on anything.

"I say full frontal assault," Raph said determinedly. "We bash our way in. Take no prisoners."

"Seconded, all in favor say aye," agreed Slash, raising his hand.

"Aye!" called both Casey (who had recovered enough from his arrow wound to fight again) and Leatherhead.

But the rest of the group looked skeptical, and Leo shook his head. "Remember last time? We couldn't even get through the front door."

"Plus, fighting outside the building might draw unwanted attention," said Miwa. "The last thing we want is the police swooping in and carting all the mutants away to science labs."

Jason nodded in agreement. "Yeah, dudes. Even though the city's mostly cool with us Mutanimals now, Kurtzman said not to do anything that could change their minds."

"He said we'll be fried wings if we do," said Pete with a frightened warble in his voice. "Not to mention that Officer Howard guy says we give him enough headaches as it is."

"And nothing draws torches and pitchforks like the act of storming a church, abandoned or not," pointed out Malachi. "We may knoweth that the stronghold is being used for evil, but the fair public will not see it that way. Thou were lucky none saw thy attempts to rescue before."

That deflated the more battle eager of the group.

Donnie decided to pipe up his own plan. "All we need is better stealth," he said stepping forward. "Which-"

"If you are talking about that abysmal dumpster you turned into a slow and disgusting vehicle, then I strongly suggest you stop right there, Donatello," said Rockwell dryly.

The teen genius' face fell, and Leo turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "What's he talking about, Donnie?"

"The Mark X1Experimental All Terrain Urban Stealth Vehicle," said Donnie proudly.

Before anyone got impressed by the name, Rockwell quickly added, "It's a putrid smelling dumpster which he equipped with pedals."

"And defensive projectiles!" Donnie protested, glaring at Rockwell.

April turned slightly green at the description. "Sorry, Donnie, but I vote to  _not_ use that."

"Aye," agreed several other members of the group, even Metalhead gave a beep in agreement, and gave his creator a thumbs-down, making Donnie groan in disappointment.

"What about the Turtle Mech?" said Raph. "Since we got a power source in Dimension X it should be operational, right?"

Jason immediately perked up. "Oh yeah!" he cheered. "That would be so gnarly!"

However, Donnie sighed and shook his head. "It is. But it's also really slow, loud and eye-catching, and the Foot would see us coming a mile away. Not to mention the rest of the city."

"What about the blimp?" suggested April. "I know you finished rebuilding that yesterday."

"Wouldn't they see that coming too?" asked Slash.

"Not if Malachi cast an illusion to make it look like a big cloud or something," said April, waving her hand in the direction of the sparrow.

Malachi perked up. "I could doeth that!" he said, holding his staff up valiantly.

The others shared thoughtful looks, and Leo felt a smile start to grow on his face. "Yeah, yeah that might actually work!" he said, growing excited. We fly over Foot HQ and ninja down from above. They won't see us coming."

"Or fly down!" said Pete cheerfully, clapping an arm around Rockwell's shoulders to gesture to the two of them.

"Or perhaps not. At first at least," said Rockwell pointedly. " _Some_  of us aren't the most inconspicuous."

"Aw, come on Doc, you're plenty incon-er-whatever you just said," said Pete, completely missing Rockwell's point, and causing the monkey to facepalm.

"But what of us who can't fly, or are too big to ride on the blimp?" asked Leatherhead. "Myself and Slash would be too large to fit on it?"

"Plus, Rockwell's right, a lot of us aren't too great at the whole 'silent but deadly' thing," added Jason, making Miwa glare and Mikey snicker at his word choice.

Slash frowned thoughtfully at those flaws in the plan. "We could be backup," he finally said with a sigh. "As much as I hate to sit on the sidelines, this mission calls for stealth more than strength, so just the ninjas should go in first. But if things go south, and you make enough noise inside to draw outside attention, like say a few Boom Star explosions, then it wouldn't be too out there if the ‘heroic’ Mighty Mutanimals went busting in to save the day."

"Oh, no problem there," said Miwa as she held up the pouch she kept her Boom Stars in. "Given the chance, I’ll blow that entire building off the map."

Casey shot her a cheesy grin. "That is so hot," he blurted out, only to wince as he was glared at by her protective brothers.

Miwa, however, merely looked flattered at the compliment.

"Then we have our plan," said Leo.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­_____________

 

The next few hours were spent hammering out the details, and that night the graffiti-covered blimp once again took flight over New York City. Though, for anyone who happened to look up at it (as those in New York so rarely do), it simply looked like a regular cloud on a smoggy night thanks to the sparrow wizard's illusions.

Below it, the Shellraiser and Casey's hotrod drove through the streets carrying the Mighty Mutanimals minus Malachi but plus Casey and Metalhead (who had been ruled 'not stealthy enough' much to both of their disappointment), trying to be as subtle as two cobbled together, armed-to-the-teeth vehicles could be.

When they were a few blocks away from Foot HQ, the two ground vehicles pulled to a stop, and their occupants got out and made their way to the rooftops adjacent to the old church on foot. Once there, they positioned themselves in the shadows to wait for their signal.

In the sky above the church, Donnie stepped aside to allow April to take the helm, as he and his siblings prepared to propel down.

Malachi fluttered down as the five Hamato siblings began securing themselves to ropes for the task, and asked, "Art thou certain thou doesn't want Fair April and myself to accompany you on this quest?"

"We're sure," said Leo apologetically. "Sorry, Malachi, but you said yourself Tiger Claw could break through your illusions using his enhanced senses, and there's no saying the other hench-mutants can't do the same. And April's doing great in her kunoichi training, but she's not quite at this level just yet."

"Sorry," Donnie added to his girlfriend, who was gripping the steering wheel of the blimp tightly.

"I get it," she said, clearly not happy about it. "Just make sure you save Shen and give Shredder a kick where it hurts for me.'

"Oh, with pleasure," said Miwa with a smirk.

"He'll definitely be hurting when we're done with him," agreed Raph.

"Don't forget," said Leo. "Our main priority is trying to free Mother, or at least get a brain worm so that Donnie and Rockwell can create an antidote. We're not here to pick a fight unless absolutely necessary."

"With our luck, dude?" Mikey asked.

Leo grimaced at the reminder. "Okay, so we'll most definitely get in a fight, but let's not be the ones to start one."

"No promises," said all four of his siblings in unison, and even though he didn't say anything out loud to save face, internally Leo agreed wholeheartedly.

Without another word, the five ninjas propelled down onto the roof of Foot Headquarters, Malachi's illusions covering them to mask their decent.

Slipping past the Foot-Bot guards undetected, the teenagers slipped in through a window and began making their way through the building undetected.

They managed to make it to the room with the giant angry statues before getting caught, all things considered, it was a new record.

"Almost to the lab," Leo whispered to the others, gesturing them forward after a patrol of guards passed them.

"We're gonna make it this time," Mikey said in a gleeful murmer.

" _Please_ tell me you did not just jinx it," Miwa hissed as they hurried to the door.

As if on cue, a purple laser burst hit Raph and sent him flying into a wall.

"He jinxed it," Donnie confirmed, knowing their cover had been blown.

"Aw dang," said a familiar voice as Bebop stepped into view. "We got some trespassin' brats up in here."

Behind him, Rocksteady also stepped out of hiding and smirked at the teens. "Surprise, ninja brats. You finally decide to join Shredder's little family, da?"

"The five of us verses two complete morons?" Leo asked confidentially as he drew his swords. "We got this."

Miwa scowled and reached over to punch Leo in the side. "And you jinxed us again," she snapped as she drew her tantō. "You're as bad as Mikey."

"Well, well, well," said a voice behind them, and they turned to see Tiger Claw stepping towards them, swinging his sword casually. "I see the gathering has just begun."

Knowing that more could be coming at any second, the five teenagers split up to rush the hench-mutants to take them out as quickly as possible. Leo and Miwa went blade to blade with Tiger Claw, Donnie and Mikey double teamed against Rocksteady, and Raph charged at Bebop with the force of an angry bull.

As Leo locked blades against the feline mutant, Tiger Claw glowered down at him with his one good eye and said, "Leonardo, I am going to savor tearing your spine out of your back!"

"You can try Catman!" Leo snapped back as he tried to overpower the mutant.

Tiger Claw snarled in reply, before quickly jumping backward to avoid a strike from Miwa.

"Really, Catman?" she scoffed at her brother. "We seriously need to get you some better trash talk."

Leo spared her a dirty look and they both went after Tiger Claw again.

Meanwhile, Raph was quickly getting  _very_  irritated with Bebop's battle antics. "When I get my hands on you I am going to make you  _eat_  that Mohawk!" he snarled as he tried to slash the warthog with his sai.

"Mista',  _please_ ," Bebop scoffed, before knocking Raph back once again with his hip lasers.

On the other side of the room, Rocksteady was going wild with a massive machine gun, trying his best to blast Mikey and Donnie. Fortunately for them, the two ninjas were able to dodge every bullet.

As he hung next to Donnie from one of the statues, Mikey called down, "Is that all you got, Rocksteady? Dude, you couldn't hit a barn if you were  _in_  one!"

That only served to infuriate the rhino even more, and the two youngest ninjas had to duck for cover to avoid the hail of bullets he sent their way.

"You just  _had_ to tick him off!" Donnie shouted over the gunfire as both he and Mikey huddled behind a statue's head.

"I know, right?" said Mikey brightly. "He's got an even shorter fuse than Raph!"

"That's not a good thing!" Donnie said in exasperation.

But Mikey was no longer listening. "Hold that thought, D. It's throwin' star time," he said as there was a brief lull in the gunfire.

The youngest then swung around the statue's head and tossed a series of shuriken at Rocksteady, and the stars quickly embedded themselves in the side of the machine gun.

Furious, Rocksteady threw the now useless gun to the floor and glowered at the two teens as they jumped back down to take him on.

Just then a series of growling sounds reached their ears, and they weren't coming from Tiger Claw.

All four teens glance into the darkened doorways around the room and saw the Crab Shredder clone from before crawl sideways into view. In another doorway the Lobster Shredder stepped out of the shadows, snapping his claws threateningly. Not far behind them was the small Shrimp Shredder, who let out a tiny screech at the sight of the teenagers before rushing forwards.

"Oh not these freaks again," Raph groaned as they found themselves outnumbered.

Jumping away from Tiger Claw to avoid a blow from Lobster Shredder, Leo yelled, "Guys, there's too many! Mi, you know what to do!"

Miwa grinned wickedly, and reached for her Boom Stars.

Recognizing the exploding stars and the girl's intentions, Tiger Claw roared, "No! Stop her!" And he dove at the kunoichi to keep her from using them.

But Miwa managed to dodge him and use his head as a springboard to leap high into the air. As she reached the peak of her jump she activated her Boom Stars and threw them at the feet of each of the statues in the room.

As she landed she immediately took off for the walls, and yelled to her brothers, "Get to the doors!"

The boys needed no further prompting and quickly broke off from their fights to bolt for the doorways in the four sides of the room.

Realizing what Miwa had planned, the hench-mutants paled and also ran for cover, but the three shellfish clones were not sentient enough to understand what was happening, and merely tried to continue chasing after the teens.

A second later the Boom Stars exploded, shattering the supports of the statues, making them all begin tumbling to the ground in an earthshaking ' _CRASH!'_

"Timber!" shouted Mikey gleefully from his alcove.

The shellfish clones only had time to look up in alarm as the statues fell down on top of them and buried them under rubble.

"Think that was loud enough?" Miwa asked Leo as the two of them huddled in the relative safety of one of the doorways as the dust settled.

Leo let out an amused snort. "Sis, I wouldn't be surprised if they heard that all the way in Dimension X."

However, they were far from out of the woods as the three hench-mutants began to recover from the fright of nearly being crushed, and the rubble shifted showing the shellfish clones hadn't been squashed by the rocks.

"Okay, time for round two," said Leo as he and his siblings got ready once again.

To say Tiger Claw did not look happy was a serious understatement. The feline mutant was growling under his breath as he fixed the five of them with a seething glare that could likely melt concrete. "Lock the doors!" he bellowed at Bebop and Rocksteady. "Do  _not_  let them escape!"

"Good thing we ain't trying to escape!" Raph snarled as he rushed at the tiger, his sais out to draw blood.

The tiger dodged the blow, and the battle started once again. Though, this time movement was hindered by the treacherous shifting of the rock piles that were once statues now littered the floor with shifting terrain. One wrong step and a one's foot could slide right out from under them due to one wobbly stone.

Still, neither side was giving an edge, as both teenager and mutant clashed against each other.

Then, the shellfish clones finally managed to burst out of their rocky prison like daisies, the Crab Shredder giving a roar of victory as they did so.

Only for an answering roar to echo throughout the room, and it did not come from Tiger Claw.

The combatants all wheeled around in time to see the Mighty Mutanimals as well as Metalhead, Casey, and April come rushing in.

"The cavalry has arriveth!" crowed Malachi as he flew into the room, and swung his staff like a baseball bat at Shrimp Shredder.

The tiny crustacean went flying across the room and smacked into a wall, before sliding down it pathetically.

With that, the tables quickly turned, and with the newly arrived mutant heroes distracting the hench-mutants, the siblings managed to slip away from the fight to reach Buzzkill's lab. Fortunately for them, the fly scientist who owned it seemed to be away.

"We're in," said Leo. "Donnie, find a brain worm! Mikey, you go with him! Miwa, Raph, we'll start looking for any sign of Mother!"

"Why would Mother be down here?" Raph had to ask as the five of them split up. "You'd think Shredder would give her her own suite rather than have to put up with Buzzkill more than she has to."

Miwa landed on the ledge of one of the glass cages and peered inside, only to immediately pale at the sight that met her eyes. "Guess again," she said in a hoarse whisper, looking like she was going to be sick.

Wondering the cause of such a reaction. Her two immediate younger brothers hurried to her side, only to quickly adopt horrified expressions of their own.

In the cage, Tang Shen was still strapped to the table, and gave no indication of even being aware of her children's presence, only twitching slightly with a pained gasp when another brain worm dropped to her head.

"MOTHER!" Raph shouted, rushing up to the glass and beating his fists against it in an attempt to break it down. It didn't even register to him that the glass was no doubt reinforced enough to withstand a hurricane, but in his panic, he didn't even care, and Leo and Miwa looked like they wanted to join him despite that fact.

"Donnie, get up here,  _now!"_  ordered Leo in a tone that left no room for argument.

Not that either of the younger two looked likely to voice such things, as they had been staring in alarm at their older siblings at their display of distress, and hurried to rejoin them.

But before they could do so another loud ' _CRASH!'_ shook the building as the fight between the Foot and the Mutanimals broke through the door to the lab, sending the fight spilling into the room, and cutting the younger two Hamatos off from their older siblings.

"Aw man, just where we didn't want the cavalry," said Mikey when he saw the skirmish.

"You said it," agreed Donnie.

Seeing no way past the brawl, Mikey and Donnie didn't hesitate to dive right into the fray. On the other side, Leo and Raph both hurried to help as well, leaving Miwa to stand guard over Shen's cage, pelting shuriken into the battle whenever she got a clear shot.

Despite being vastly outnumbered, the hench-mutants and clones were putting up a valiant fight, determined not to allow any of them to escape. There was also the steady stream of Foot-Bots that would come to back them up.

Soon enough the combatants were spread out across the many layers of Buzzkill's lab, duking it out against their opponents for all they were worth.

During the scuffle, none of the fighters noticed that a hit on Buzzkill's mutagen controls poured some unknown substance into the glowing green vat hanging in the middle of the lab.

Then it happened…

Donnie and Mikey had been double-teaming against Crab Shredder when the crustacean Hulk-Smashed the platform they were on, causing the floor to crumble beneath their feet.

Both teens yelped as they started to fall down through the lab.

Slash, being a few floors below them, saw what happened, and shoved Rocksteady aside to reach out and try to grab them as they came falling past.

He just managed to catch hold of Donnie's hand in a tenuous grip, and the genius barely managed to catch Mikey by the hood of his shirt to stop their decent.

"Rockwell!" bellowed Slash as he tried to keep Donnie from slipping through his fingers. "Lift them up!"

The psychic monkey wheeled around to try and do just that, but before he could do so, a Foot-Bot tackled him from behind and drew him back into a skirmish.

"I'll save them!" Pigeon Pete declared as he dove through the air towards them, but then the Shrimp Shredder jumped out and kicked the pigeon into a wall.

All the rest of their team saw the three in distress, but were unable to break away from their fights to help, and could only hope Slash would be able to keep his grip.

But where the heroes were trying to help, the villains saw an opportunity.

Sharing a nasty grin, Bebop and Rocksteady came to a silent agreement.

With his signature laugh, the warthog shot one of his hip lasers at Slash, hitting his hand and making him lose his grip on Donnie and Mikey.

"NO!" shouted Slash as the two teens slipped out his now burnt hand, and plunged into the darkened depths of the lab.

The entire fight froze as they watched horrified as Mikey and Donnie fell screaming out of sight in the seemingly bottomless portion of the lab.

But the bad guys weren't done, as Rocksteady held up a new gun and shot through the supports to keep the giant vat of mutagen suspended in the middle of the lab, and sent the entire thing crashing down after the two teens, and shaking the building when it finally hit bottom.

"Whoops," said Bebop coyly. "Did we do that?"

That snapped everyone out of their stupor, and most of the Hamato Clan and Mighty Mutanimals let out bellows of rage and made to rush the duo of mutants, but Tiger Claw reached them first.

"YOU FOOLS!" Tiger Claw bellowed as he grabbed both the warthog and the rhino by their necks and slammed them against the wall. "Master Shredder wanted them  _alive!"_

Both mutants paled as they realized what they'd just done, but before they could ponder on it too long, the battle started anew, with the heroes fighting harder than ever.

Fury was an excellent motivator.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­_____________

 

Mikey groaned as he slowly came too. His whole body hurt, and he was having difficulty remembering where he was. From the way he was wet and floating, he'd apparently landed in some fairly deep water, and from the smell of it he was in the sewers, but why would he be there? What woke him up anyway?

Oh yeah, Donnie screaming…

DONNIE  _SCREAMING?_

The second what he was hearing registered in Mikey's head he bolted upright despite the soreness, floundered his way out of the basin of water and onto solid ground, and searched for his big brother.

The sight that met his eyes had him freezing in horror.

Not far away from him was a massive broken vat of mutagen.

And writing among the broken glass and spilled contents was none other than Donatello.

Donatello, who was covered from head to toe in mutagen and slowly turning green.

"DONNIE!" Mikey shouted, stumbling towards his brother, only to freeze in his tracks as he noticed the mutagen spreading around his feet, creeping closer to him as if intent on mutating him again as well.

The youngest ninja quickly jumped to the top of a pile of rubble and watched helplessly as his brother underwent his mutation.

And given it had been Slash he'd touched last, it was no mystery what he was going to be…

"Donnie!" he yelled desperately to his brother. "You gotta get out of the mutagen, Bro! These threads aren't your mutagen proof ones!"

Donnie let out a pathetic sounding whimper, but ever so slowly began crawling along the mutagen covered ground to get away from it, made even more difficult by his body changing on him all the way through.

"Yes! That's it D! You can do it!" Mikey continued to shout encouragements until Donnie finally reached mutagen free ground, and then hurried to his side.

By the time he reached him, the mutation was practically complete. Donnie now looked very much like how Leo, Raph, and Mikey himself had looked during their mutations. The only difference was that he was much taller than they had been as turtles, much like he was as human. His tooth gap was still there, and his eyes were the same color, but other than that he looked like a big, olive green, mutant turtle…

… Just like he looked in their shared dream!  _Exactly_  like he had there!

_Too Freaky!_

Ignoring the possible dangers and mental instability that mutants could obtain, especially when freshly mutated, Mikey dropped to his knees next to his big brother and looked at him imploringly. "Donnie! Speak to me!"

Donnie let out a pain filled groan. "Did you get the license plate on the meteor?" he asked woozily.

Mikey let out a half-crazed laugh of relief, glad to hear his brother seemed sane despite the mutation. "Yeah," he said, "It was M-U-T-A-G-I-N."

His concern quickly returned as Donnie frowned, looking like figuring out the spelling was a difficult job. But it quickly evaporated when Donnie said dryly, "Mutagen has an E, not an I."

His eyes then widened as the implications of that finally sank in, and he sat bolt upright.

Only to immediately wince as the pain from their fall hit him like a ton of bricks.

Mikey grimaced too and rubbed his new bruises. The only reason the youngest wasn't still on the ground groaning from pain was the adrenalin in his system at the sight of Donnie's distress. But that was quickly fading, and he slowly began feeling it again.

However, despite the pain, Donnie forced his eyes open so he could look down at himself in the dim light of the sewers and the remaining glow of the mutagen.

"So it happened after all," he said in a resigned tone.

Mikey wilted at the sound, knowing the whole mutation thing had been bugging Donnie since Miwa had returned from her dimension hopping trip during the worm fiasco.

He immediately tried to help brighten the situation. "Cheer up, D," he said. "So you're a turtle now. For all of, what, an  _hour?_  We got  _tons_  of retro-mutagen waitin' for us back at the Lair, yo! Let's go get you some!"

Donnie looked at him with a frown. "But the others-"

Mikey winced at the reminder but remained steadfast to his idea. "I don't know about you, dude, but right now I couldn't even ninja my way out of a paper bag. I'm sore in places I didn't even know I had, and you're in a body you don't know jack about moving in. We can let them know we're okay, but I don't think we'll be much help."

Donnie tried to move again and winced. "Affirmative," he agreed reluctantly. "The Shelter seems to be the place to go right now."

Mikey frowned. "Shelter? You mean the Lair?"

"Yes that," said Donnie as he slowly tried to climb to his feet, dragging his bō staff with him intending to use it as a walking stick.

And to both of their shock, he found he could stand perfectly.

"Dude?" shouted Mikey in surprise as he saw his brother standing wobble free, a stark contrast to his brothers' and his own mutations.

Donnie stared down at his steady feet in surprise as well. "I-" he said, trying to think of an explanation. "I dreamed of being like this when those beavers- And during the spirit quest I ended up like this again, so maybe I learned movement in this form, er, subconsciously or something like that?"

Then, as if to test it, he attempted to perform a few basic tricks with his bō, only to be startled to see that he was able to do every motion perfectly despite suddenly being short two fingers on each hand.

"Though, I am inclined to give the theory merit," Donnie said in a slightly awed voice.

"I have no clue, Donnie, but this sure makes things easier," said Mikey, bouncing to his feet, only to grimace in pain at the action. "Right, Lair, let's go," he said, taking the lead, and pulling out his cell phone to let the others know they were alive.

Donnie slowly followed after him, still pondering why his movement was nowhere near as shaky as the others.

They were so caught up in this that they failed to see the scales on Donnie's arm momentarily bulged and writhed like there were snakes under his skin for a moment before fading back down.

Nor did they notice Donnie's eyes had the start of a reddish glow in their depths.

They were too focused on Mikey's phone, and the fact that despite the message going through, none of their older siblings or friends ever sent a reply.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­_____________

 

A few minutes and twelve tunnels later, Mikey was forced to admit they were hopelessly lost.

Well, he'd admit it to himself anyway, he wasn't  _quite_  ready to admit it to Donnie yet.

"Alright, I know this," said the younger ninja as they stood at an intersection. He then pointed down the left tunnel and declared, "The Lair has gotta be that way."

He turned to march onwards, only to pause a second later and glanced back down the right-hand tunnel. "Or, maybe it's that way… No, it is this way… But wait, maybe…"

Okay, maybe he was ready to admit it to Donnie-

"Feeling lost?" Donnie asked, sounding amused.

-But that didn't mean his brother had to be a jerk about it.

"Aw come on, dude," Mikey groaned. "They all look the  _same!_  And not all of us memorized the entire map of the sewers."

Donnie chuckled. "Well, after the incident with the Chimera I thought it'd come in handy."

Mikey opened his mouth to retaliate, only to pause as Donnie's words registered in his brain. "Wait,  _huh?_ Dude, the Turducken was out at the farmhouse, not the sewers. _"_

Donnie blinked before smacking himself on the forehead. "I meant the Rat King, sorry, slip of the tongue."

Privately, Mikey wondered just how the egotistical, chatty and scrawny Rat King could be mixed up with the screechy, freaky and mammoth Chimera. Instead, he said, "Okay, D, so which way do we go?"

Donnie stepped forward confidently and gazed at the two tunnels.

But a second later the confident smirk dropped off, and he looked just as confused and unsure as Mikey had been. "It's, uh, it's," he said, looking between the two tunnels.

"You don't know?" Mikey asked, sounding worried.

" _NO!"_ snapped Donnie, looking irritated. "Of course I know which way we're going. It's this way!"

With that he began marching down a tunnel, only to realize that Mikey wasn't following him, and was staring at his big brother with a confused expression.

"What?!" Donnie demanded.

"Donnie, uh, that's the way we just came from," Mikey pointed out.

Donnie jolted as he realized that Mikey was right, but did not want to lose face. "I know," he said grumpily. "We've been going the wrong way from the start."

Mikey's eyes widened in surprise. "WHAT! Dude, why didn't you tell me?" he shouted as he hurried back after Donnie. "We gotta get to the Lair to turn you back, and find out what happened to the others! Why would you waste time like that?"

"It was amusing to see you lead us in the completely wrong direction," Donnie said harshly.

Mikey wilted at those words.

Seeing that, Donnie winced and looked apologetic. "Sorry Mikey, I shouldn't have said that. I don't know where that came from."

Mikey nodded slowly but didn't look convinced.

Suddenly feeling awkward, Donnie just continued silently forwards, and Mikey followed his lead silently.

They proceeded quietly through the sewers, neither brother feeling up to talking, and the only words exchanged between them was when Donnie mentioned when they needed to take a turn.

They likely would have continued on in silence until they reached the Lair if not for one problem.

"Uh, Donnie, I don't think this is the way to the Lair," Mikey said nervously as the latest turn they'd taken had led them straight to a sudden drop with a basin of raw sewage swirling several stories below them.

"I  _know_  that," Donnie snapped, only to immediately regret it as Mikey once again winced at his tone.

"Sorry," he said quickly while reaching up to rub his head. "Gah, I don't know what's wrong with me, Raph. I keep getting angry at the smallest things, and it's getting so bad that it's hard to think."

Mikey hesitated to give his input lest he gets his head bitten off once again, but he couldn't resist saying, "Uh, you just called me Raph, dude. I'm Mikey."

Donnie blinked at him like it was the first time he was seeing him. "I did?" he asked, before frowning again and storming back through the tunnels away from the drop. "I- Whatever, just-just keep moving,  _Mikey!"_  he said angrily, making sure to enunciate his brother's name.

Now outside of Dimension X or any Kraang Technology Mikey would never claim to be a super genius (well, he would, but mostly just to annoy his siblings), but he knew even someone as dumb as a rock would be able to tell something was seriously wrong Donnie, and the orange wearing ninja was willing to bet a lifetime supply of pizza that it had something to do with Donnie's mutation.

And was it Mikey's imagination, or did Donnie now look bigger than he had when he first mutated?

With all that in mind, he began silently planning on the chance his suspicion was correct. He'd read more than enough horror comics to know exactly what to do in these kinds of situations. And with Donnie always being an avid lover of science, he had a fully laid out plan already prepared in case his brother ever underwent a Jekyll and Hyde scenario.

Even so, he  _really_  hoped they'd get back to the Lair to give Donnie the cure before he ever had to use it.

A little voice inside his head that sounded a lot like Miwa scoffed and made a snarky comment about how likely that was with their luck. Another voice sounding similar to Raph grumpily agreed. before his inner Leo scolded them both and warned them to be quiet.

The thoughts depressed him and left him wondering once again what happened to his siblings, who still had not replied to his messages, despite his phone having a good signal (which, given the fact they were who knows how far underground was quite a feat).

"Donnie?" he said softly drawing his brother's attention.

Donnie glanced moodily over his shoulder to look at him.

"Do you think Sis, Leo, Raph, and the others are okay?" Mikey asked.

The question made the irritation on Donnie's face evaporate, and he, in turn, looked worried as well. "I- I don't know, Mikey," he said. "We just have to hope that no news is good news."

Despite expecting a reply like that, Mikey's face still fell at the turtle's words. "Doesn't feel like good news to me," he grumbled, and he could tell that Donnie agreed.

Their sullen musings were cut off as a low growling sound echoed through the tunnels.

Frightened, Mikey instinctively jumped into Donnie's arms so his brother was holding him bridal style. "What was that?" he whimpered.

Donnie looked tempted to drop him, and seeing the expression, Mikey quickly vacated his arms. Once his arms were free again, Donnie admitted, "I don't know, and I'd rather not find out."

Just then the growl came again, this time closer to them than before. As they watched, a large and warped-looking shadow appeared on the wall of a turn ahead of them, creeping closer by the minute.

The two brothers traded a quick glance. "Run!" they both said in unison and took off down a random tunnel to get away from the noise and shadows.

"What is that thing!?" Donnie asked as they ran.

"You're asking me?" Mikey shouted back.

"Well, I sure as heck don't know what it is!" Donnie snapped angrily.

Ignoring the return of Donnie's uncharacteristic anger, Mikey frowned thoughtfully. "Do ya think one of the Fishy Shredder Freaks followed us down here?" he asked. "Or the mutagen that got you could slimed something else after we left."

"Both are possible," Donnie shouted back. He then frowned and looked confused. "Wait, what were we talking about?"

Mikey frowned at that. Things seemed to be getting worse and worse and worse. First their plan to bust their Mother out went south, then he and Donnie got stuck away from the others in a dark sewer with Donnie having mutated into the turtle version of Raph on the way, now the two of them were being chased by who knows what kind of monster, and to top things off, Donnie didn't seem to be able to show off his mad genius skills like he usually could.

In other words, this whole situation stank worse than the sewer they were running through.

Way worse.

And he didn't know how to make things better.

At the sound of thundering footsteps coming from behind them, both ninjas picked up the pace. If nothing else, one way to make things better was to lose that  _thing._

The two began turning down tunnels completely at random to try and evade whatever was behind them in the confusion, but whatever it was was hard to fool, and stuck behind them like a malicious and persistent duckling.

"Donnie, how do we ditch this thing?" Mikey wailed as they once again were unsuccessful at eluding their chaser.

"I don't  _know!"_  Donnie shouted back. "Stop asking!"

"That's the first time I asked!" Mikey said back.

Behind them, the creature growled louder and seemed to speed up even more.

Starting to panic, Mikey caught sight of a ladder coming up on their left, and pointed it out to Donnie.

The turtle nodded, and both brothers dove for the ladder as soon as they were within reach of it, scaling up the bars at record speed, praying the narrow tunnel it went up was too small for the creature chasing them to reach.

As they reached the top, they peered down below to see if they could spot their attacker.

Unfortunately, the light in the sewers was too dim to make out what came to a halt at the bottom of the ladder. But fortunately, it seemed to be too big to follow them up, as the teens heard the sounds of it trying to follow them up, only to be too heavy for the ladder, and make it pry loose from the wall in a shriek of metal.

The brothers winced and huddled together as they heard whatever was chasing them give a bellow of rage that echoed throughout the tunnels, followed by a loud crash as it seemed to thrash against the sewer walls below, shaking the ground below them.

Then, what it did next caused both of their jaws to drop.

It started to  _speak!_

The voice was too low for them to make out what was being said, and whatever he (as the voice sounded masculine) was saying seemed to be all over the place in terms of tone, but those were definitely words being spoken down below them.

"Dude is that thing that was chasing us  _talking!"_ Mikey squeaked as he hugged Donnie with a freaked out expression.

"No, he's dancing the tango. Of  _course_ , he's talking!" Donnie said sarcastically. He then shoved Mikey off and added, "And don't touch me!"

Mikey fell in a puddle of sewer water with a whimper and gave Donnie an alarmed look.

Seriously, had there been another brain switching machine in Buzzkill's lab. Because Donnie was seriously acting just like Raph right now.

Donnie paid no attention to Mikey's expression, and instead got to his feet and began storming down another tunnel, looking more like he was trying to get away from Mikey rather than find their way to the Lair.

And as Mikey stared at the back of his shell, he could tell that no, it hadn't been his imagination earlier, Donnie was definitely bigger now than he'd been when he mutated. At first, he'd been about the same height as his human self, but now he was towering over Mikey even more than usual and was looking to be closer to their Father's height instead.

Something told him he was running out of time, and Mikey hurried after his brother in hopes they wouldn't be too late.

But just as they were on their way again something else went wrong (and in the back of his mind, Mikey wondered why he was even surprised anymore).

With a strangled cry, Donnie suddenly hunched forwards and clutched his stomach like he was going to be sick.

In alarm, Mikey hurried to his side to try and help, but Donnie batted his brother's anxious hands away with a grumble. The younger of the two ignored it, and tried again, only to jump away with a frightened squeak at the sight before him.

Donnie's scales was  _moving!_ Squirming and bulging in places like there were a swarm of snakes beneath his skin.

The whole thing caused Donnie to fall to his knees, yelling in pain as he did so.

Worry for his big brother overrode Mikey's need for caution, and he tried to dart back to Donnie's side, only to be shoved away again, this time by hands the size of his head, and twice as forceful.

"Stay… Stay back… Something's… wrong… with… the mutagen…" Donnie gasped to him, before collapsing into the shallow sewer water, and writhing in pain as his whole body seemed to spasm once again.

Mikey could only watch horrified as his brother seemed to inflate before his eyes, growing until he was equal in size to Slash, but without the spikes. The olive green scales Donnie had sported since his mutation darkened until they were a deep forest green. His shell seemed to shrink and fit more tightly onto his skin as he grew too big for it. A long tail sprouted out of the back of the shell, and thrashed in the air as the mutation continued.

But most terrifying of all was the change that occurred to Donnie's face. His nose and mouth seemed to elongate farther out of his skull, and his teeth grew in size and seemed to turn razor sharp, hiding his gap between their pointed edges.

The last thing to change was Donnie's eyes. His usually brown eyes started glowing vibrant red and stared at Mikey with an expression that could only be described as  _hungry._

"Holy Chalupa!" Mikey squeaked. "My brother just turned into  _Godzilla!_ " And to be fair, the description wasn't too off.

The creature that used to be Donnie's only response to that statement was to growl menacingly at the young ninja and attempt to pounce on him.

But Mikey was too fast for him, and for the second time that night was taking off down the sewer tunnels with a monster in hot pursuit.

Only this time the monster was his brother.

This night was officially one of the worst  _ever_.

They seemed to be having a lot of those lately.

Forgoing stealth completely, Mikey screamed his head off as he rushed through tunnel after tunnel with Donnie snapping at his heels all the way. Only this time there was no handy ladder for him to climb up and hide himself.

Just when he thought he'd be turtle chow, Mikey caught sight of a hole in the floor in front of him.

Desperate to get away, he didn't hesitate to dive through the hole back into the lower level of the sewers, rolled along the wet ground as he landed, and was back on his feet again and running without even a backward glance.

As he heard the loud thud of something landing behind him, he knew Donnie had followed him once again, but the knowledge only pushed him to run faster.

He had to find the Lair.

He  _had_ to get Donnie some retro-mutagen.

If he didn't, Donnie would stay a Godzilla turtle for the rest of his life with a temperament to match. And who knows what would happen to the others (who had  _still_  not replied to his messages).

The ninja scanned the tunnels desperately as he ran, hoping to find some clue to point him in the right direction. As it was now, he was completely lost, and if that didn't change soon he was monster chow.

 _Finally_ , he saw something he could use.

A large pipe was jutting out of the wall, just big enough for Mikey to squeeze through, but far too small for Donnie's now mammoth form.

The orange wearing ninja dove down the pipe like he was sliding for a home run (trying hard not to think about what he was probably  _actually_ sliding in). Once he slowed down he immediately began crawling along the pipe, hoping that wherever he ended up on the other side was better than here.

Outside the pipe, he could hear Donnie growling angrily at the sight of him getting away. He crouched by the entrance and stuck his arm in as far as it could go, trying to pull Mikey back out.

And he managed to reach just far enough to snag Mikey's ankle, much to his horror.

Mikey yelped as he was suddenly dragged back down the pipe towards Donnie, his hands grabbing desperately at the slick surface for something to grab onto.

But there was nothing, and Mikey was soon dangling upside-down by his ankle as his mutated brother glared at him with glowing red eyes.

Donnie opened his mouth like he was going to chomp down on Mikey's leg before he froze and took a deep sniff at the teenager in his hand.

Apparently whatever he smelled didn't agree with him, and he promptly dropped Mikey head first to the cold sewer floor and began trudging away.

Mikey lay flat on his back, staring up at the rounded ceiling above him. "Saved by raw sewage," he said to himself with a wheeze, unable to believe it. "Sewer stank for the win."

Gingerly, Mikey climbed back to his feet and looked around. Now that he was  _finally_ not being chased by something that wanted to eat him, he took it as an opportunity to look around and see if he could find where he was.

His expression immediately brightened as he recognized the tunnel he was in. He was about a few blocks away from where the Shelter was. If he could reach that, then he'd know exactly where to go to reach the Lair. From then it was just a matter of grabbing some retro-mutagen and finding Donnie again.

Things were finally looking up.

About time.

With renewed energy, Mikey took off through the tunnels until he reached the door to the Shelter, and triggered the opening mechanism just to be sure he was right.

The grinding sound the hidden door made when it opened was music to Mikey's ears.

He paused only long enough to grab a bucket of fresh water from within the shelter and dumping it over his head in a vain attempt to wash away whatever muck he had accumulated in his trek through the sewer that night (not that it did much, he was going to need a serious bath after this). After that, the once again soaking wet Michelangelo hurried back out into the tunnels in the direction of the Lair.

And he  _almost_  made it.

But as he rushed through a particularly dark portion of the abandoned subway tunnels, his stomach dropped as he heard the approaching sound of familiar thunderous footsteps.

The first monster. The one that talked. The one that had chased him and Donnie before.

It was coming back.

Mikey quickly ducked into a crevice to hide. Not wanting to be chased for a third time that night.

After all, the third time's the charm.

As he crouched in the tight space, he forced himself not to move as the footsteps grew closer.

And this time, he could hear what whatever-it-was was saying.

"Must find… Mutators… the beacon… must be lit…" he heard a gruff voice ramble in the darkness before it was cut off by a fit of violent coughs.

Not understanding what it-he-the creature was saying, Mikey risked a peek out of his hiding place to see if he could get a better look.

But even as his eyes strained in the darkness, he could not make out any discernable features. All he could tell was that it was big, it was heavy, and it had a pair of blue eyes that glinted dimly in the darkness.

Blue eyes that suddenly snapped into his direction, and met his dead on.

"Mutators!" the thing yelled and began charging towards Mikey's hiding spot.

With a yelp, Mikey dove out of the way and made a break for the Lair once again.

Only to screech to a halt when another pair of eyes appeared in the darkness. These ones glowing bright red and accompanied by a familiar growl.

Donnie.

Trapped between two mammoth monsters, Mikey could only give a loud gulp and try to find some escape route.

There wasn't one.

Then, before he could dodge, Donnie leaped right over Mikey's head and barreled into the blue-eyed monster.

Mikey stood frozen in surprise as he heard the two beasts begin to brawl right behind him, snarls and growls filling the tunnel as they tore at each other in fury.

But he quickly regained the use of his legs and bolted the last few turns until the turnstiles of the Lair were in sight.

Vaulting over them, he made a beeline for the lab and yanked open the cabinet where they had been keeping their supply of retro-mutagen. He grabbed a spray bottle of the substance, and tore back out of the Lair to where the monsters were still brawling (though in the back of his mind, his concern for his family and team increased at the sight of the empty Lair, showing they had not returned from the mission yet).

Running back into the darkened tunnel, Mikey quickly realized that maybe running into a pitch black area with two giant man-eating creatures while carrying a bottle of glowing orange ooze probably wasn't the best idea. The light it gave off was like a beacon saying 'Here I am, come eat me'.

As it was, both sets of angry eyes snapped towards him, and Mikey had to duck as the talking monster broke off from the fight to rush him.

When the monster missed, he continued barreling past Mikey like a charging bull, and until he crashed into a wall.

Mikey could only hope that the crash had knocked him out, and squinted in the dim light of the retro-mutagen, holding the spray bottle out in front of him like a pistol and trying to make out his brother in the darkness.

But even with his glowing red eyes, it was hard to pin down where he should aim the mutagen, and he knew if he wasted this bottle he might not get the chance to go back to the Lair for another one.

"MUTATORS!" bellowed the talking monster, and Mikey had to dodge again to avoid being trampled by him.

Looks like the crash didn't knock him out after all.

Donnie let out a snarling growl at this and seemed to glare at the rambling monster as if annoyed at him.

Then with a roar, he slammed into the talking monster again.

Despite the terror he was feeling, Mikey couldn't help but moan as he squinted in the darkness, "Aw man, I just know one heck of a monster fight is happening right in front of me, and I can't see a darn thing."

And with how much Mikey liked kaiju movies, this was a legitimate disappointment.

However, his annoyance was short lived as the sound of a pained whimper reached his ears.

_Donnie!_

"Death to the mutators!" snarled the talking monster triumphantly in the shadows, doing something that made Donnie let out another pained sound.

Then, despite the darkness, Mikey saw red.

"NO FREAKY MONSTER HURTS MY BROTHER!" he shouted as he charged in the direction he'd heard the sounds.

He slammed into something with scales with all his might.

And bounced off it a moment later, as not even his weight was enough to move the behemoth.

Said behemoth started laughing at his futile attempt.

But apparently, Mikey's distraction was enough to give Donnie the opportunity to gain the upper hand in his fight if the talking monster's cry of pain was anything to go by.

Finally, the talking monster began making a retreat. "Must get away…" he rambled as he ran away. "The Beacon… Death to the mutators… Glory to the Trice-" he broke off into another coughing fit as his voice faded away into the darkness.

Seeing him gone, Mikey let out a whoop of, "YEAH! Eat that freak! Hamato Ninjas in the house!"

He immediately fell silent again as he noticed Donnie had yet to stop growling, and, without the other monster to fight, was now focusing his entire attention onto the orange wearing ninja.

Gulping audibly, Mikey began backing away slowly, the retro-mutagen still clenched in a death grip in his hand, and careful not to make any sudden moves that would startle Donnie into attacking him… again.

He could hear the footsteps of Donnie following after him, matching him step for step, his red eyes locked on the orange glow in his hands.

Eventually, Mikey stepped out of the shadowed portion of the tunnel and back into the light.

Seeing this, Donnie's growling seemed to increase, and he took the opportunity to launch himself at Mikey with his sharp teeth ready to bite his head off.

But Mikey was ready for him, and as Donnie soared through the air towards him, Mikey aimed his bottle, and sprayed its contents at his brother, catching him right in the face.

Donnie faltered in his attack, and fell to the side growling and scraping at his face desperately as if trying to rub the orange goo off.

His attempts soon were replaced with howls of pain as the retro-mutagen began working its magic, and his body began to change and shrink.

Mikey winced at the sight of his brother in pain but refused to look away until Donnie lay shivering and naked on the ground before him.

Realizing his brother's nude state, Mikey snapped his fingers and muttered, "Oh yeah, I knew I'd forgotten something."

He promptly shed his shirt and offered it to Donnie to provide some protection until they could run to the Lair and get him some new clothes (never mind that Donnie's superior height would mean the shirt wouldn't help much).

Donnie accepted the clothing and stared at his little brother woozily. "Mikey, wha-what happened?"

"You turned into a giant monster, dude," Mikey said with a shrug.

Donnie's eyes widened in shock. "I  _what?_ " he asked.

"And you tried to eat my leg," Mikey added indignantly.

It was clear that Donnie remembered nothing of what happened, and they didn't have time for him to process. So Mikey grabbed his arm and started dragging him onwards.

"I'll explain on the way," he said shortly. "But we gotta get you geared up, and get going. The others  _still_  haven't messaged me back, and something tells me we're gonna hafta rescue them ASAP. We'll probably need Father's help to get them too."

Despite his confusion, Donnie recognized the urgency of the situation and nodded. "Lead the way," he said.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Donnie finally mutated... for one whole chapter, but who knows. I couldn't decide if I should keep or skim Attack of the Mega Shredder, Creeping Doom, and Fourfold Trap. My solution was to combine them all in this two-parter. What do you think? Is it good, or too cluttered. This chapter mostly focused on Creeping Doom and Attack of the Mega Shredder. We'll do more Fourfold Trap next.


	61. Terror and Traps Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Mikey and Donnie are wandering below, the rest of our heroes find themselves stuck in their own traps.

The entire fight froze as they watched horrified as Mikey and Donnie fell screaming out of sight in the seemingly bottomless portion of the lab.

But the bad guys weren't done, as Rocksteady held up a new gun and shot through the supports to keep the giant vat of mutagen suspended in the middle of the lab, and sent the entire thing crashing down after the two teens, and shaking the building when it finally hit bottom.

"Whoops," said Bebop coyly. "Did we do that?"

That snapped everyone out of their stupor, and most of the Hamato Clan and Mighty Mutanimals let out bellows of rage and made to rush the duo of mutants, but Tiger Claw reached them first.

"YOU FOOLS!" Tiger Claw bellowed as he grabbed both the warthog and the rhino by their necks and slammed them against the wall. "Master Shredder wanted them  _alive!"_

Both mutants paled as they realized what they'd just done, but before they could ponder on it too long, the battle started anew, with the heroes fighting harder than ever.

Fury was an excellent motivator.

As evidenced by the fact that despite having the Hamatos and Mutanimals outnumbered (though only through the use of Foot-Bots), the Foot were losing, hard.

Bebop and Rocksteady were taking the brunt of the blows due to the good guys' rage, and Tiger Claw refusing to aid them for their foolish actions.

But despite the fact that they were getting pummeled, the Foot refused to back down, and the pile of scrapped Foot-Bots seemed to grow and grow.

Unnoticed over the sounds of battle, a new mutant fluttered into the lab, only to freeze in midair as he took in the sight before him.

"My  _lab!_ " Buzzkill said in horror as he saw the destruction being wrought in his haven of science.

Then the fly mutant saw red, and quickly turned around and fluttered back out of the lab, buzzing angrily as he went, and the combatants being none the wiser of his presence.

Once outside his laboratory, Buzzkill hurried over to a control panel set into the wall and pressed a series of buttons with his smaller hand.

Back inside the lab, all the fighters froze as the entire room flashed red as an alarm pulsed through the sound system, and emergency doors slammed shut blocking them in, including a large sheet of metal that slammed down over the hole the Mutanimals had made towards the start of the fight.

"That's not good," said Leo with a deadpan.

Then a hissing sound filled their ears as gas began spraying out of fixtures set all over the lab, causing all the organic occupants to begin coughing as it filled their lungs.

"That's even worse!" said Raph when he saw it.

"Knock out gas!" shouted Rockwell, recognizing the substance. "Get out now!"

But there was no way out, and soon everyone both good and bad was lying unconscious on the floor.

The only ones unaffected were Metalhead and the few remaining Foot-Bots. The short robot quickly shot down the ninja androids to keep them from killing his teammates while they were down, before scanning for an escape route for the others.

However, his attention was drawn to a machine that began beeping once the gas cleared, and focused his optics on it. He then beeped in alarm as he recognized it.

It was an Electromagnetic Pulse Generator, and it was charging up to blast.

Knowing if he was nearby when that machine went off it would shut him down, Metalhead quickly tried to aim and destroy it before it could.

But just as he locked on his target, the machine finished charging and let lose an electromagnetic pulse that shorted out the robot's systems, making him fall lifeless to the ground.

With everyone down for the count, Buzzkill vented the remaining gas out of the lab and entered to see them all scattered across the floors.

Rubbing his misshapen hands together, the fly cackled gleefully at the sight. "Excellent! At last, Baxter Ssstockman ssshall have hisss revenge!"

He broke out into maniacal laughter as enemy and ally alike slept on oblivious.

___________________

Spike woke up slowly, not really wanting to wake up at all. He could feel the heat of a sunlamp overhead, and the warmth on his scales made him feel sleepy and relaxed, like he could lay there all day and be perfectly content.

For a moment he forgot the entire last year had ever existed. He was just a regular turtle in his aquarium in Raph's room at the Renaissance Dojo. Slash, the Kraang, the Foot, and everything else didn't exist in his mind, and all that mattered was for him to be a listening ear for Raphael to vent his troubles too, and nip at the fingers of his annoying siblings for upsetting him so.

It was a good life. Peaceful, but with just enough of an unpredictable element to never be boring.

Such was the daily life of a ninja's pet turtle, and he couldn't be happier.

But then an unpleasant sound reached his ears. Someone was chuckling sinisterly under their breath as they bustled around outside his tank.

Irritated, he briefly thought that it might be Michelangelo, as the young prankster tended to giggle to himself as he put together one of his jokes, and Spike resigned himself to listening to another rant from Raph soon in the future because of it. Perhaps the youngest ninja would come close enough to get bitten, that would teach him.

However, as Spike roused himself to give the troublemaker a well-deserved chomp, it occurred to him that the chuckling he was hearing didn't sound a thing like the boy's mischievous giggles. Nor did it sound anything like any of the other members of the Hamato family.

Reality washed over him like a bucket of ice cold water, and Slash snapped his eyes open, and looked around for the source of the noise.

It quickly occurred to him that he  _was_  in an aquarium fit for keeping a turtle. But it was definitely not his familiar tank that he'd lived in at the dojo. This was one set into the wall of Buzzkill's lab, and gave the mutant a front row seat to watching the owner of the lab buzz around, chuckling as he went.

Taking a moment to glance at the other cages lining the walls, Slash was enraged to see all of his fellow Mighty Mutanimals similarly trapped within the glass walls, though it seemed he was the only one awake so far. Metalhead was also sitting in the corner, deactivated and not looking like he was going to be powering up any time soon. On an upper level, he could see the prone form of Tang Shen still sleeping in the cage her children had found her in.

Oddly enough, he also caught sight of Bebop, Rocksteady, and Tiger Claw sprawled in cages as well, just as unconscious as the rest of them. The three Shredder clones were also pacing in their own cage, but didn't look like they'd be going anywhere anytime soon.

But more alarming than the sight of them all caged, was the fact that none of the remaining Hamato Ninjas, Casey and April included, were anywhere in sight.

Snarling under his breath, Slash reached for his mace, only to find it absent, and another search of the lab revealed it along with the rest of his teammate's weapons strewn across a lab table next to where Buzzkill was fiddling with some electronics.

Despite the lack of a weapon, Slash was still determined to escape, and backed as far away from the glass as he could.

Then, he turned and rushed at the glass with all his strength, his shell angled so that the force of the blow would be aided by the spikes along his carapace.

He hit the glass with a mighty crash, but for all his strength it did nothing. All he managed to accomplish was draw Buzzkill's attention onto him.

"Oh, you're awake," the fly said in a tone that sounded like he was trying to fake disinterest, but was far to smug to properly do it.

Slash's only response was to try and break the glass again, but it held firm.

Buzzkill snickered at his attempts. "Asss much asss I would enjoy watching you turn yourssself into a sssmear on the glassss, don't bother. Thossse panelsss are built to withssstand hurricane force windsss. Not even your bulk isss enough to sssmash that."

Slash growled under his breath, but stopped beating his shell against the glass, and turned his glare onto his captor. "Where are the Hamatos?" he demanded.

"Oh, you'll sssee sssoon enough," said Buzzkill smugly holding up the electronics he'd been working on.

Slash frowned as he saw what it was. The fly mutant seemed to be setting up a large projector to show some sort of video throughout the lab.

Feeling he needed to know more, Slash taunted, "So what now, Bug Boy? Gonna do the cliché villain thing and brag about your 'evil scheme'?"

Far from being insulted, Buzzkill seemed to grow even more smug at the question. "It'sss a cliché for a reassson," he said with a nasty smirk. "You sssee, I've been building a little trap for thossse pesssky bratsss. And now I  _finally_  have the opportunity to ssset it on them. With Massster Ssshredder gone away, and thossse three imbecilesss-" (he waved his claw at the three sleeping hench-mutants) "-unconsciousss until I wake them up, I have free reign to do asss I pleassse."

Slash's eyes narrowed at those words. He really didn't like the sound of that. "And how exactly do you plan on getting away with it?" he demanded, trying to stall for time. As long as Buzzkill was talking, he wasn't setting off whatever trap he had planned. "You know as well as I do Shredder wants my friends as his freaky evil family."

Buzzkill laughed at that. "Oh, no blame will fall on me," he bragged. "During the fight, the sssurveillance camerasss were ssshot out and Tiger Claw wasss knocked out, and then that idiot warthog and the meat-headed rhino killed them dessspite the Ssshredder's ordersss. After ssseeing the footage of them killing the younger two bratsss, they'll believe it in a heartbeat."

Slash winced as the memory Mikey and Donnie's fall resurfaced in his mind. He had been hoping that part had just been a nightmare.

They had to be okay. They  _had_  to. The mutagen had fallen after them, and Donnie had told them all it had healing properties, which could help with whatever injuries they got in the fall. Maybe they got a mutated by the ooze, but mutation was something they could reverse… Death was not.

At least that's what Slash tried to tell himself.

"You'll never get away with this," Slash said with confidence he didn't really feel. "My friends will beat any trap you throw at them."

"We'll sssee about that," said Buzzkill sinisterly. "Ressst assssured that my trap will not ssstart until your little friendsss are awake to sssee it. It'sss going to be more fun to have a captive audience."

Slash couldn't help but gulp nervously at his words, and hoped his teammates continued sleeping for a good long while.

In the meantime, he needed to find a way out of here.

He glanced around the cage to find some type of escape route, and an idea struck him.

Buzzkill had said the glass could stand up to a hurricane, but were the walls as sturdy as the glass?

Slash flexed his claws, and subtly made his way over to the wall, and began digging them into the hard surface, trying to quietly scrape away the surface without Buzzkill realizing what he was doing.

Time to see if turtles really did know how to burrow.

___________________

Raph groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. Above his head a light bulb burned his eyes, and he squeezed them back shut to block it out.

"Where am I?" he muttered to himself as slowly forced himself to sit up. Trying to think of what he'd been doing before losing consciousness yielded nothing but a blank. "Fuzzy," he mumbled, summing up the state of his thoughts in the single word.

Still, whatever it was had to have been painful, as his entire body ached as he pushed himself to his feet.

Reaching up to rub his pounding head, he once again tried to come up with some answers as to how he'd gotten into this situation, whatever it was. "I can't remember," he said to himself, clutching one hand over his right eye, which was throbbing as though someone had recently punched it.

With no answers coming from inside his own head, Raph blearily glanced around his immediate area to see if there was something or someone who could give him some.

Only for his eyes to widen, and all drowsiness to be forgotten as he got a better look at the room he was in.

It was a nondescript grey brick room only a few feet wide, with nothing on all four sides to indicate anything about how he'd gotten there.

And by nothing, that included no doors or windows to show how he could have even entered the room.

"How did I get here?" he asked with a gasp.

His only answer was a brick one each of the four walls to slide out of sight with a loud scraping sound.

Not liking where this was going, Raph questioned aloud, "What?"

Still no answer was forthcoming, and the sounds of something mechanical whirred beyond the dark holes that had once housed bricks.

And something told him that it was not Metalhead or any of Donnie's toys making those sounds.

Cautiously, he crept closer to the hole, trying to peer into the darkness to see what was going on. "Hello?" he called into the blackness.

As if in answer, the hole suddenly filled with a burning orange glow, and out of it burst a wave of heat so intense that he threw himself back across the tiny room to get away from it.

Only for the holes in the other three walls to ignite as well, leaving Raph huddled in the center of the room, as that was the only area where he could be equally away from the holes.

The initial heat only seemed to increase as the seconds ticked on, and Raph gasped, "It's just getting hotter… There's no… way… out…"

Then the heat overwhelmed his senses on top of his original injuries, and he almost passed out once again.

But in the wave of vertigo, his memories of what had happened before finally came back. The plan, the attack on the Foot, seeing their mother strapped down in a cage, Mikey and Donnie's fall, before some gas caused him and the others to pass out.

With a groan he forced himself up again. Now was not the time to be laying around. Not when he didn't know where his family and the rest of his team were. Not when they had to get out of here, save Shen, and find Donnie and Mikey.

But that still begged the question, where was here?

As he rubbed his head once again, he took another look around the small room, and caught sight of something he hadn't noticed before. In a corner of the room a high tech looking security camera hung, angled so that it would show the whole room. It also had a speaker attached that screeched to life as he stared at it.

"Greetingsss bratsss," came Buzzkill's nasally buzz through the speaker. "You thought you essscaped my Maze of Doom lassst time! But thisss time your demissse will be long and agonizing!"

"Still too scared to fight us one on one, you bug-eyed freak," Raph growled up at the camera. "Gotta come up with your own freaky machines to do the work for you."

"Oh, I can't claim all the credit thisss time," Buzzkill said smugly. "Each of thessse trapsss were thought of during usss mutantsss' 'We hate the Hamato bratsss' group meetingsss."

"You hate them enough to have a whole group meeting about it?" came Casey's voice from somewhere above him.

"Of courssse!" snapped Buzzkill angrily, before reclaiming is cool. "Every one of usss contributed waysss we would like to sssee you sssuffer, but couldn't with the Ssshredder being ssso determined to make you hisss."

"Yeah, that's not creepy at all," came Miwa's dry tone from behind the wall to Raph's left.

"So what?" shouted Leo's voice, seeming to come from the room above Raph's head. "You' re just going to off us all, and hope he doesn't find out?"

"Oh, I've got that covered," snickered Buzzkill sinisterly. "Besidesss, he hasss that woman now. Sssoon enough he'll be able to make hisss own family if he ssso wantsss to."

All three of the present Hamato siblings let out cries of rage and disgust at the fly's words. Swearing vehemently that it would never happen.

Buzzkill ignored them, and continued to brag about his traps "Ssso welcome to my Trapsss of-"

"Of  _Doom!"_  deadpanned Miwa, Raph, and Leo in unison, remembering his maze of a similar name. Some things never changed.

"Ssspoil sportsss," Buzzkill grumbled, before continuing on. "You're inssside the firssst trap, Raphael, desssinged by Fissshface. He wanted to name it the 'Hot Head', and watch you slowly become baked turtle."

"I'm not a turtle anymore, ya lousy-!" shouted Raph at the ceiling, but was cut off as Buzzkill moved his attention to Leo.

"Leonardo isss in the Courage Ssslayer. Ninja bladesss asss sharp asss your own, but with the ssspeed cranked up to one hundred, courtesssy of Tiger Claw."

Inside the room he was trapped in, Leo looked upwards in alarm to see a red and silver ball with katana blades sticking out of it slowly lowering towards him, the blades spinning in rapid circles, slicing the walls around it to ribbons.

"The trap that hockey brat isss in wasss supposssed to be for Donatello, but sssince he isss no longer here-"

That prompted another cry of outrage from not just the siblings but the other two teens as well.

In the trap Buzzkill was talking about, Casey strained against his restraints, wanting to find the fly and rip his wings off. But he remained securely strapped down with a mouser robot helmet strapped to his head that was wired with hundreds of cables.

He then twitched as, before his covered eyes, the world around him lit up like a virtual reality game, and he found himself standing on a tower of brightly colored blocks.

"-Isss called the Brain Boggler (sssurprisingly, Rahzar'sss idea)," Buzzkill continued. "Connect the piecesss asss they fall down, make a missstake and face the consssequences."

Casey looked up to see the blocks he'd mention falling towards him at great speeds, and didn't dodge fast enough. One of the blocks crashed down on top of him, and his entire body jolted as electricity coursed through him.

"This is cause I tazed the Shredder isn't it," Casey groaned once the shock stopped.

"Yess," said Buzzkill simply. "He wasss very displeasssed with all of usss that night."

The mutant fly then turned his attention to the two remaining kunoichis. "Little Missss Miwa is in a trap of my own desssign," he said proudly. "I call it Creeping Doom."

Miwa, who had awoken tied up in a rope, and dangling upside-down from the ceiling of her dark cell, blinked her eyes as light suddenly filled the room.

Only to freeze in horror as she saw what was on the ground beneath her.

_Worms!_

The entire floor of the cell was writhing with little green brain worms, that seemed to be looking up at her with malicious intent.

"I'm sssure you can easssily cut that rope," Buzzkill continued, flicking a switch in front of him, making the rope holding Miwa start to slowly lower. "The quessstion isss, do you want to? I mussst warn you that too many wormsss at once can have very sssevere consequencesss. And besidesss that, they're  _hungry."_ "

Miwa's only response was to let loose a piercing shriek, and struggled to get  _away_  from the slimy little nightmares.

"And lassstly, for April O'Neil," sneered Buzzkill, looking over at the last of the teens. "You are in the trap that wasss supposssed to be for Michelangelo. The Flusssh-O-Matic wasss the brain child of Bebop and Rocksssteady. Once the tanksss fill, the mutagen will rain down upon you."

April, who was strapped down beneath a contraption consisting of tanks of mutagen and a toilet, made a disgusted face. "First,  _gross!_ " she shouted at Buzzkill. "Second, I'm sure Mikey would have had something to say about that name. And third, you don't remember much about what happened the day you mutated, do you Stockman?"

"I remember you kicking me in the face, and ssstealing my retro-mutagen!" Buzzkill screeched through the speakers. Then in a more mollified tone, he added, "But other than that, it'sss a bit of a haze. Why?"

"No reason," said April quickly, grateful that in Buzzkill's post-mutation hysteria had caused him to forget that she was in fact immune to mutagen. Now she just needed to focus on trying to get out of here, and help free the others.

The rest of the teens were similarly relieved to hear that at least one of them was in no danger aside from the gross factor, but that didn't change the fact the rest of them were in serious trouble.

Back in the lab, Buzzkill snickered in his best evil villain voice as he watched the five teenagers struggle against their traps.

The entire thing was being projected for the recently awakened Mighty Mutanimals to see, and they had no qualms with shouting their anger and frustrations down at the fly as they tried to bust their way out.

"Let my friends go!" snarled Leatherhead loudly as he continually rammed himself against the glass of his cage, despite it making no difference. The sight of the teenagers in danger and his teammates locked up had his eyes showing their feral slits, and he was almost unreasonable from rage.

Pete was also beating against the glass. But it wasn't doing too well, as if Leatherhead's strength couldn't break through, there was no hope for Pete's peckings.

Malachi more composed, and was trying to send Buzzkill some illusions through the glass to freak him out, but it seemed that the fly had anticipated that since the last time he had been captured and rigged the cages to block his powers. The same could unfortunately be said for Rockwell's cage, much to the monkey's ire.

Metalhead was still slumped like a ragdoll in the corner, and it was seeming less and less likely he would reactivate on his own. They would need someone to fix him if they wanted any help from the short robot. Rockwell made a mental note to himself to talk to Donatello about getting an automatic restart feature added to him, before remembering what had happened to the teen genius, and resumed attacking his prison with fervor.

Jason was well aware that he didn't have any sort of strength or special abilities to bust himself out, and instead did his best to make a nuisance of himself to Buzzkill by shouting every crude thing he could think of, and using a sharpie he'd kept in his pocket to write very rude messages (taking great care to write them backwards so Buzzkill could read them easily) and pictures onto the glass of his cage. From the way Buzzkill had buzzed angrily, and then stubbornly tried to avoid looking in Jason's direction, they could tell it was working.

This turned out to be a big help, as Slash was in the cage next to the sole human of the Mutanimals. He was still trying to subtly break his way through the concrete, and with the fly refusing to look in their direction it was that much easier to do so without attracting attention. He's managed to take a sizable chunk out of the wall, but was still a long way from breaking free. He just hoped the others would hold out that long.

All of this was making a rather loud racket, and it was honestly surprising that the three hench-mutants were still asleep, drugged or not.

Finally, Buzzkill had enough. "WILL YOU ALL BE SSSILENT!" he shouted rounding on them all, and glaring with his bulbous eyes.

Slash quickly leaned over to hide his handiwork with his bulk, and the prisoners all glared down at their captor.

"You'll never get away with this, foul villain," shouted Malachi, never one to shy away from a much loved cliché.

"Oh, I will," Buzzkill buzzed. "And once thossse five are  _dead_  I'll ssstick all of  _you_  in the trapsss in their place, and enjoy the ssshow all over again!"

With that he rounded back towards the video projections, and steadfast ignored the stunned silence he left behind.

That lasted only five seconds before the Mighty Mutanimals resumed their noisemaking even louder than before.

"I hate you all," Buzzkill muttered bitterly.

"The feeling's mutual, Fugly Face!" Jason called back.

___________________

Yoshi had become accustomed to seeing his children come back in all sorts of states from their nightly patrols against their enemies. He had seen them come home busied, singed, windswept, wearing ridiculous costumes, bringing along some odd new friend, and many times covered in some foul smelling substance that he did not really want to identify. On separate occasions his some of his children and his wife had come home as a mutant, bringing with the change several more complications, which had not fully gone away with his three boys returning to their human forms.

But no matter what state they came home it, he never complained (out loud) due to his sheer relief that each time his children returned home to him together and alive.

Which is why when he saw his two youngest come bursting into their apartment looking worse for the wear, with Michelangelo missing his shirt, only to see it was being worn by Donatello paired with an ill-fitting pair of shorts he suspected belonged to Jason, he was understandably concerned.

That concern only grew when the rest of their siblings failed to follow them, and the two starting off their explanation with Mikey saying, "Hi Dad, Donnie's a fashion disaster because he finally mutated and tried to eat my leg, but I fixed it," did little to set his mind at ease.

Nor did Donnie's glaring at his brother and saying, "I said I was sorry, let it go," before hurrying away to get a change of clothes.

Despite his worry, Yoshi had long become accustomed to the strangeness that their family seemed to attract like magnets, and instead focused his attention to treating his youngest's injuries as he coaxed the full story out of him.

"And then the whatever it was ran off into the sewers, and I blasted Donnie with the retro-mutagen, and we ran back here to see if you'd heard anything and regroup," Mikey said as he finished recounting his slightly jumbled rendition of his tale.

In that time, Donatello had returned from their shared bedroom in a new set of clothes, and nodded solemnly to show the story was true (and giving Mikey his shirt back).

Yoshi closed his eyes and breathed a deep sigh at his sons' words. This was not good. But the worst of it was that there was too much that they did not know. Whatever fate had befallen their family and friends had occurred after their fall, and they would not know more without going to find answers themselves. No matter what, they could not leave the others at the mercy of the Foot.

He would  _not_ lose more of his family to the Shredder.

Turning to the boys, Yoshi asked, "Are you still able to fight, my sons?"

Donnie nodded firmly. "I am. Whatever injuries I got in the fall were healed by the mutagen and retro-mutagen. It's Mikey I'm worried about."

Mikey shook his head and scoffed. "No way I'm sitting out," he said. "Sure I'm tired and sore, but it's nothing an aspirin and some Red Bull won't fix. I'm going! Plus, Father's hand tricks really helped."

"Then we must save the others immediately," said Yoshi as he pushed himself to his feet, and began reaching for his cane.

That got both of his boys' attention. "What?" Donnie squawked. "Father, you're still recovering from your coma! You're still not back at full strength!"

"I have strength enough for this," said Yoshi in a tone that left no room for argument.

"Yeah, D," agreed Mikey seeing nothing wrong with the idea. "And if anything gets sore, he can just Healing Hands it better." He waved jazz hands in Donnie's direction for emphasis.

Donnie rolled his eyes at Mikey's words. "The Healing Hands don't work like that, Mikey!" he snapped.

But Mikey wasn't listening. Instead, he had a look on his face that Donnie recognized as the one where he had gotten some new crazy idea.

"Hey, Dad?" Mikey said slowly as he voiced the thought. "Do you think the Healing Hands would be able to help Mom snap out of Shredder's control?"

Both Donnie and Yoshi stared at Mikey in surprise, but then Yoshi turned away and looked thoughtful. "It is possible," he muttered, moving over to fetch the scroll on which the mantras were written. Gazing at it with a look of contemplation, he admitted, "But I am not certain that even I have the ability…"

He rolled the scroll back closed swiftly, and put it away. "Regardless," he said. "We must still rescue the others. Let us go." And with that he swept out of the apartment with his sons at his heels.

No matter what, they would save their team.

___________________

Leo squeezed himself as tightly into a corner as he could as he watched the spinning ball of blades and death slowly lower themselves towards him.

"Buzzkill, you better let us out, or else!" the lead teen shouted in the direction of the video camera, which looked like it would be cut to shreds any second. "I mean it!"

"Yeah, Leo, that's gonna scare him," came Raph's muffled voice through the walls.

Leo jolted upon hearing his brother over the blades, and turned to press his palms against the wall. "Raph!" he shouted. "You can hear me?"

"Sounds like you're above me!" Raph shouted back from below Leo's feet.

In a room next to Leo's, he heard a yelp of pain from Casey.

"Nightwatcher, are you okay?" Leo asked, hoping that the vigilante's identity hadn't finally been compromised.

"Yeah, Boss," Casey shouted back. "Don't worry about me! I'm a gaming champ! I think I'm getting the hang of thi-!" He was then cut off by another cry of pain, before croaking out, "-Or not!"

More muffled shouting began coming up from the floor, and Raph called up again. "April and Mi are next to me, I think, but uh-!"

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!" screamed Miwa's voice, sounding clear through the stone despite the distance.

"-Sis isn't doing too hot!" Raph finished worriedly.

"Yeah, no kidding!" shouted April from below as well.

"THERE ARE FREAKING BRAIN-WORMS CRAWLING AROUND ME! OF  _COURSE_  I'M NOT 'DOING HOT'!" Miwa bellowed, her trademark sarcasm leeching through despite her evident fear.

"We'll get you out, Nee-chan," Leo called back. "What about you, April?" he added to get an idea of his entire team.

"Oh, you know, just strapped to a table with a disgusting toilet about to dump mutagen on my face!" April called back dryly. "Other than that, I'm peachy!"

Now having a gist of where his team was, and what they were going through, Leo began racking his brain to come up with a plan despite the blades growing closer by the second. "We gotta help each other! Work together!" he shouted.

Below him, Raph shed his shirt, and much of his padding and protection in an attempt to fight the overwhelming heat surrounding him. Only for his heart to sink as another set of blocks slid out of sight, causing the heated holes to grow and the temperature to rise even more.

"Oh that's not good," he groaned, moping his sweating brow with his discarded shirt, and tried to use one of his elbow pads as a fan.

Similarly the other's traps were getting worse as well. The bladed ball was nearly level with Leo's head, and Miwa was growing ever closer to the worms by the second. The blocks seemed to be falling faster around Casey by the minute, and April could only watch as the tanks above her got fuller and fuller.

Whatever they needed to do to escape, they needed to do it fast.

___________________

Three shadows darted through the sewers silently and swiftly.

As they neared the sewer entrance to Foot headquarters, they encountered a few Foot-Bots patrolling the tunnels, but they were disposed of in the blink of an eye.

They paused at the hatch sealing the entrance, allowing Donnie to hack into the security and force the door open.

Once the way was cleared, the three darted inside with none the wiser, leaving only the trashed Foot-Bots as evidence they were there.

Creeping past the few patrols between them and the lab, they were startled to see the room sealed tight by large cast iron doors.

"It wasn't like this earlier," Donnie whispered to his father and brother.

"Something must have happened after your impromptu exit," Yoshi said in reply. His concern for his other children growing even more pronounced.

"I'm not liking this, dudes," Mikey whimpered.

Donnie nodded in agreement but hurried over to a control panel to hack through this door as well.

Seeing this, Yoshi said, "When this door opens, we will give up any opportunity for stealth. Be ready for anything."

Donnie and Mikey exchanged a brief glance, and the younger of the two gulped loudly.

They just hoped 'anything' didn't include seeing more of their family mind controlled again.

With a loud beep, Donnie finished hacking, and the door slid open with a hiss.

The sound drew the attention of all those in the lab, and several cheers of joy sounded from the cages.

"YOU!" screeched Buzzkill in outrage.

"You're okay!" whooped Pete from his cage, flying in a loop out of joy.

But Slash was more for business. "Stop him!" he shouted. "He's got the others trapped somewhere! They don't have much time!"

Hearing that, the others turned their attention to the mutant fly, who growled angrily. "You won't ssstop me ssso easssily!" Buzzkill snarled as he pressed a button on his control panel.

Immediately the cage housing the three clones slid open, and the three shellfish mutants began charging towards the three intruders.

"Donatello, get to that machine!" Yoshi ordered. "Michelangelo, protect him as he works. I will deal with these monstrosities."

His sons didn't hesitate to obey and took off in Buzzkill's direction.

"Protect me!" Buzzkill ordered the crustaceans, and the Shrimp and Lobster Shredders jumped to do so, while the Crab Shredder ran at Yoshi with the force of a charging bull.

"Try to draw them away from the computer," Donnie hissed to Mikey as they got closer.

"Can do," said Mikey cheerfully. "Bad guys love chasing me."

With that, the younger of the ninjas pulled ahead, and bounced in front of the two Shredder clones, making a silly face in at them, and calling "Nana-nana boo-boo!"

He then danced out of the way of the clones' swipes at them, before practically skipping backward away from Buzzkill and the computers, prompting the enraged mutants to give chase.

As he watched his brother do so, Donnie wondered briefly if they'd over done it on the Red Bull on the way here. Mikey seemed even bouncier than usual.

Seeing his minions leave him at the mercy of the teen genius, Buzzkill shook with rage, knowing he couldn't win in a fight against the ninja.

Donnie, seeing that the fly was getting desperate, stood a safe distance away, and tried to reason with him. "Just back off, Stockman," he said, making sure to get the name right. "I don't have to hurt you."

"But  _I_  want to hurt  _you!"_  snarled Buzzkill. Then his ugly face split into a nasty grin. "And I know just how to do it."

The fly mutant turned quickly to face the computer controlling his traps and spat as much acid as he could upon them, melting through the controls, and rendering them useless.

"NO!" shouted Donnie as he rushed forwards to try and salvage the controls, but it was too late. The computer melted in on itself, with no way to stop the traps.

As the computer fizzled and died, the last thing any of them were able to see was their five teammates struggling against seemingly impossible traps before the projector went dark, inciting cries of dismay from the Mighty Mutanimals.

Buzzkill laughed at their looks of despair, though his glee quickly died at the look Donatello was giving him.

The genius was glowering at the fly with a murderous red gleam in his eyes. "You're going to regret that!" he roared and threw himself at the fly with a series of blows that packed enough brutality to have made Raph proud if he'd been there to see them.

Buzzkill went flying from the hit and slammed into another part of his control panel.

Knowing he needed more help, he quickly mashed some buttons before Donnie could attack him again.

Everyone in the lab froze as one of the cage doors hissed open, and they looked around wildly to see which one it was.

Their answer came soon enough as more hissing filled the silence, and a feminine shape appeared on one of the upper levels.

"Shen!" Yoshi gasped, feeling like all the air had been stolen from his lungs.

Taking advantage of the distraction her appearance had made, Buzzkill hurried to fly up to stand beside her.

"Ssshen," he said in an urgent voice. "Yossshi hasss broken in, and isss terrorizing your sonsss with fake Ssshredders to turn them againssst him. Ssstop him!"

Hearing this, Shen looked down at Yoshi with a look of pure poison, before launching herself towards him with a shriek of rage.

Yoshi dodged her attack and went on the defensive, but Shen had no such qualms and continued to attack him without mercy.

"Oh,  _sewer apples!"_  Donnie cursed at the sight of it before the Crab Shredder turned its attention to him with Yoshi now distracted.

The sounds of the fight quickly began filling the lab once again, with Buzzkill watching from above with a look of malicious glee.

This fight was far from over.

___________________

Raph's fists were bloody and blistering from the heat as he beat them against the brick walls, trying to bust out of his trap.

But it did no good. He doubted even as a turtle he'd have the strength necessary to punch through the wall, and his sais were too short to stab into the furnaces to shut off the heating.

To top things off, more bricks had fallen away, and he was now surrounded on all sides by the flames, and the heat was more intense than anything he'd ever felt before. He felt he could barely breath anymore because every puff of air that filled his lungs made his insides feel like they were on fire.

Unable to stand anymore, he fell to his knees and called, "Leo, what do we do?"

In the room above him, Leo was ducking under the blade ball, which had now lowered enough to slice through his head were he to stand up straight. "We need some serious sciency stuff!" he shouted back as he stared up at the blades worriedly.

"Dude, Donnie's not here!" shouted Casey back. "How do you expect us to figure it out." He then yelped as his distraction by talking caused him to get zapped once again.

Miwa, who was now in spitting distance from the worms, was really starting to lose her patience. "Donnie's not the only one with a brain in his head, idiots!" she shouted at them all. "Someone think of something!  _Fast!_ "

April, who was by far the calmest of them all, frowned as she watched the lights in her cell blink in time to Casey's cries of pain. Slowly an idea began to form in her mind. Though the thought was distracted as a single drop of mutagen slid out of the hatch above her, and plopped onto her forehead. "Oh gross," she mumbled under her breath.

Below, a sweat-drenched Raph collapsed to the ground, no longer having the strength to even stand. "I'm finished guys!" he said breathlessly. "Stick a fork in me, I'm done."

In Miwa's room, the kunoichi managed to cut herself free of the ropes without falling, and climbed back up the rope to the top of the room, and kept climbing as it continued to lower down. In the dim light she could make out a pulley system that was feeding the rope, and saw that she had only a matter of time until the rope ran out and she fell to the ground. "If we don't do something soon, I'm worm food!" she called to the others.

Casey cried out once again as electricity jolted through him after another mistake. "Guys!" He shouted. "I can't take much more of this! I'm starting to go numb and tingly, and I  _know_  that's not a good sign!"

Meanwhile, April finally managed to grasp the idea growing in her head. "Guys! I figured it out!" she shouted. "I think all the mechanics in these traps are connected. If we beak one, we'll have a better chance of breaking more!"

Hearing that, Leo stared up at the spinning blades from where he was now crouched in his cell. "Got it!" he called back, finally spotting a weak spot in the mechanics. Glancing at the floor, he shouted, "Raph! Get into a corner, things are about to get rough!"

Briefly wishing he still had his shell for this, Leo waited until he had a clear shot, before rolling under the spinning ball to the exact center of it, where the blades couldn't reach.

He then winced as the ball continued to press down on him, squeezing him between its metal surface and the floor until the blade finally cut into the floor too much, and the ground below him gave way.

He landed flat on his back in a baking hot room, surrounded by rubble and broken pieces of the blade ball.

Looking around frantically, he spotted Raph slumped in a corner, looking at him with bleary and unfocused eyes.

"Raph!" he shouted at the sight and hurried to his brother's side. "Are you okay?" he asked, knowing it was a stupid question even as it left his lips.

Raph's only reply was to groan and slowly raise his hand up into a thumbs up before dropping back to the floor.

"You're on the same level as me and Miwa!" shouted April's voice through the wall on the right. "Save her first, but hurry! From the amount of mutagen in this thing, even if it doesn't affect me, I can still drown in it!"

"Got it!" called Leo back. "Sis, where are you!"

"At the end of my rope!" Miwa shouted from the left. " _Literally!_ "

Leo nodded and grabbed his swords, making his way over to the wall Miwa's voice had come from.

They were getting out of here.

___________________

In the lab things seemed to be going from bad to worse.

Nothing Donnie or Mikey threw at the Shredder clones was having any effect, and Shen was going after their father like a homing missile, and nothing anyone said to her seemed to be having any effect.

The Mutanimals were only able to watch helplessly from their cages, as their friends fought for their lives, and who even knew what was happening to their trapped teammates elsewhere.

Well, most of the Mutanimals.

Slash's claws were now ragged and bloody from his digging through the concrete of his wall, but he finally felt he had weakened it enough to break through. Stepping as far back as he could go, Slash once again angled his shell to take the brunt of the blow and charged at the wall with all his might.

The concrete shattered upon impact and Slash found himself stumbling into the cage next door.

A cage that was  _unlocked_.

With a victorious grin, Slash charged out of the cage and jumped down just in time to block the Crab Shredder from crushing Donnie under its claws.

"Slash!" Donnie yelled in surprise at the rescue.

The turtle nodded to the teen and shoved Crab Shredder back a few feet. "Get the others out and wake up Metalhead, I've got this guy," he said, before moving to tangle with the crab clone again, grabbing his mace off the weapons table as he did so.

Donnie stared in surprise for a full minute, before turning to bolt towards his robot.

Mikey let out a whoop at seeing one of their teammates free and moved over to join up with the turtle, and the two tackled the three clones together.

Seeing this, Buzzkill let out an angry cry and started to dive for the genius, before remembering that Shen would go after him if she saw him hurt any of her children.

Changing directions, he dove for the security system, and opened the lab back up, and summoning more of the remaining Foot-Bots in the building.

In the meantime, Donnie skidded to a stop in front of Metalhead, and worked with swift nimble fingers to reboot him. Such a thing had happened so many times now, he was long used to doing so, and would have the robot up in no time. Then with his blasting power, freeing the others would be a piece of cake.

Meanwhile, Yoshi was not having an easy time against his wife. With his muscles still weak from his coma, and his unwillingness to truly fight against her had him at a disadvantage, and it was all he could do to simply block or dodge her blows.

Tang Shen seemed to have no such qualms, and seemed to be coming at Yoshi with everything she had, and shot at him with arrows whenever he tried to get some distance from her.

After a narrowly dodged blow, Yoshi managed to grab Shen's wrist and twisted her crossbow out of her hands. "Please!" he begged as he tried to hold her still. "Do not make me fight you!"

Shen's only response was to snarl in his face, her fangs flashing dangerously in the dim light of the lab.

She then wrenched herself away and her entire form began to warp as she twisted herself into her more Medusa-like form. "You have no  _choice!_ " she hissed at him angrily, before diving at him once again.

___________________

Leo's hands were slick with sweat as he used his sword to stab through one of the furnaces in hopes of shutting it off. He hadn't even been in here for five minutes, and he already felt hotter than he'd ever had in his life, and he couldn't imagine how Raph must be feeling now, having been trapped in here the entire time.

 _Finally_ , he managed to shove his blade through the brick wall and stab through some cables and a pipe, shutting off the furnace.

Immediately the orange glow died, and while the heat was lingering, it was nowhere near as bad as it had been, and was cooling by the second.

Leo hurried to shove more bricks aside to reach Miwa, and with a great push, managed to cause the wall to collapse inwards.

Miwa heard the sound of bricks moving and looked over in time to see the wall of her cell come falling down, the bricks crushing the brain worms beneath them.

And just in time too, as the rope she was clinging too finally gave way, and she fell to land on the bricks.

Fearful some of the worms may have survived, Miwa ran over to the remains of Raph's cell and saw Leo was already jabbing his sword at the opposite wall.

"Thanks," she said in relief as she reached him.

Leo nodded to accept it but continued beating at the wall. "Now for April," he said firmly, and Miwa didn't hesitate to draw her own sword to help him.

With the two of them together, they managed to break through the other wall at record speed, before helping a sunburned and woozy Raph through with them.

Just in time to see the contraption April was trapped in activate.

"April!" shouted Leo in alarm, but Miwa was faster. She threw four throwing stars to slice through the bonds holding April to the table, and that was all they had time to do before the three siblings had to jump to higher ground to avoid the mutagen flying out of the toilet.

As they clung to the pipes above the green ooze, they searched for April.

To their relief, the redhead popped out of the ooze, looking grossed out, but still herself.

"Did I ever mention that I hate mutagen?" she asked as she climbed up to join the others, shaking mutagen out of her hair as she went.

"No, but it's been implied," said Leo.

Above their heads, they heard another cry of pain as the lights flickered.

"Casey," groaned a slowly recovering Raph, who was still weak from the heat and dehydration. "Gotta get him…"

Leo stabbed his sword into the ceiling to carve a hole for them to climb through, and the four teenagers quickly climbed up to see Casey strapped to what looked like an electric chair on steroids.

"Hockey Boy!" shouted Miwa, as she rushed towards him, only for Leo to stop her.

"Wait!" he said. "We don't know anything about this. If you just take it off, you might fry his brain!"

"What brain?" Miwa asked as she looked around desperately.

"Where's Donnie when you need him," Raph grumbled.

"Just get me out of here!" shouted Casey impatiently.

Then they all froze as the chair seemed to suddenly power down, and looked around for the cause.

April popped out from behind the chair holding a cord in her hand. "I found the plug," she said simply.

With that out of the way, it was easy for the ninjas to cut their friend loose, and Casey yanked off the helmet and took great pleasure in chucking it across the cell. "I finally get it," he said, glaring daggers at the machine. "Video games  _are_  bad for you."

"Let's just get out of here," said Raph, who was looking better by the minute. "We gotta find the others."

Leo nodded and examined the four walls of the cell. "Time to make one more door."

___________________

Buzzkill wondered when things had gone so wrong.

This wasn't supposed to happen. This should have been his crowning achievement. The day he finally got revenge on the group of brats who had been a major cause of all of his misery. The younger two were supposed to be dead! The rest were supposed to be at  _his_  mercy! This was supposed to be his  _triumph!_

But it wasn't.

Instead, the younger two ninja brats had somehow, inconceivably survived their plummet to certain doom (if not mutation, not that that even seemed to have happened). Instead, they had brought their wretched father with them in an attempt to free the rest of the mutant freaks they called friends.

An attempt that seemed to be working.

Donatello had managed to reboot his robot, and with Metalhead's fire power, the two had made short work of the cages holding the rest of the Mutanimals, and with all of them together, the three Shredder Clones and remaining Foot-Bots were being beaten back in droves.

The only possible silver lining was that Shredder's hated enemy Yoshi may actually die tonight, and at the hands (or fangs) of his own wife too.

The Mutanimals and his sons had all attempted to aid the ninja master in his fight against the serpent woman, but Yoshi had ordered all of them back, saying that he would be the one to free Shen. A statement that left the woman hissing and spitting in anger, before attacking him with even more rage.

But as they all battled below him, Buzzkill had to begin thinking of contingency plans to salvage this and avoid certain death by the Shredder's hands.

On one of the platforms of the lab, the fight between Yoshi and Shen was one of the most intense he had ever been in.

Though he knew Shen's venom was not deadly, being poisoned by her would slow him down in a way he could not afford at this time. Not when he was so close. Not when he could save her.

And he would save her.

He would  _not_  fail again.

Seeing the rest of the Foot around them on the verge of being taken out, Yoshi said to his wife, "Surrender, my love. You are defeated."

"I'll never surrender to you!" Shen snarled as she launched herself at him with her fangs bared. " _NEVER!"_

She struck at Yoshi, but he managed to dodge, and catch her around the stomach, and throw her across the platform.

"Shen," he said in a heartbroken tone. It felt as though it was literally killing him to see her like this.

But Shen merely righted herself and rounded on him again, her snake hair writhing around her face like an angry cloud.

She dove at him, and once again Yoshi had to dodge. But this time Shen took the opportunity to vanish into the shadows before striking again.

Seeing there was no reasoning with her, Yoshi looked down at his hands and made a decision.

Clasping his hands together in the first position, Yoshi began to chant, " _Rin, Pyō, Tō, Sha-"_

The shadows around him flickered, and he knew his beloved wife was just waiting for her chance to strike, but he continued his chant regardless.

" _Rin, Pyō, Tō, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen!"_  he recited, making each of the corresponding hand motions, putting every ounce of his energy and skill into them.

As he focused, a shadow rose up above him, and Shen descended upon him, hissing in fury.

Yoshi seamlessly dodged to the left to avoid her strike and began jabbing his fingers at her pressure points, continuing to chant as he did so, and attempting to block out Shen's cries of pain as he did so.

Shen fell coiled in a ball to the floor before him, her head bowed and her snake hair hanging limply around her face.

Yoshi pulled back as he prepared for the final strike. "I love you, Tang Shen," he whispered hoarsely. He then thrust his fingers forwards and pressed them to her temple.

For a moment, it seemed as if the world had frozen in an eerie calm.

Then Shen jolted forwards with a burst of speed and had Yoshi wrapped in her coils before he could react. She reared back to deal a deadly blow, and then stiffened, her eyes going impossibly wide.

She then screamed in pain and released Yoshi as she began writhing on the floor of their platform, hissing and screaming as if she were being tortured.

Yoshi recovered quickly, and could only stare in numb shock at the sight of her in such pain, and the horrifying realization that he was the one who had caused it echoed in his brain.

Then, Shen suddenly went limp as she lost consciousness, and started to fall off the platform.

Seeing this, Yoshi rushed forwards and managed to catch her wrist before she could slip away, leaving her dangling over the sheer drop their two sons had fallen down earlier that night.

Then to Yoshi's horror, he realized his grip on her hand was starting to slip. "Shen!" he shouted desperately, hoping to rouse her so she could save herself.

But Shen continued to hang like dead weight, before finally sliding right through Yoshi's fingers.

" _NOOOO!"_ Yoshi shouted as he watched her start to fall.

"Booyakasha!" came an answering shout.

Before Shen could fall to far, a black and orange blur leaped below them, and snatched her out of the air, before landing on the grate that hung under where the mutagen vat had once been.

Yoshi went limp with relief as he saw Mikey cradling his wife.

"Yeah, we're not doing that again tonight," said Mikey brightly as he struggled to hold up his mother's long form. "Once was enough, thank  _you!_ "

"Mikey! You're  _AWESOME!_ " shouted Donnie from the sidelines as he and the Mutanimals burst out cheering at the sight, the Foot-Bots and Shredder clones laying in a heap behind them.

Mikey shot them all a wide grin. "Yeah, I was born with a naturally rare awesomeness."

Then, in his arms, Shen gave a violent twitch and flopped out of Mikey's hands onto the grate.

She rolled over, shifting back into her human form as she did, and began retching violently on all fours.

Then an ugly green head appeared in her mouth, and with a final gag, Shen spat the brain worm out completely, and it fell through the grate and vanished into the sewers below, soon followed by a three more.

The entire lab froze as they saw this, realization slowly sinking in at what they just saw.

Donnie and Yoshi both jumped down to join Mikey on the grate, staring at the woman before them with hopeful eyes.

"Mother?" asked Donnie cautiously.

" _Shen!"_  Yoshi breathed, his eyes desperate as he reached down to cradle her in his arms.

Slowly, Shen opened her eyes and looked at the three of them with a woozy expression. Then her mouth twitched into a soft smile. "My sons," she said hoarsely. She then turned to look at her husband, and reached up to cup his face, "My Yoshi…"

She then slumped in a dead faint, but this time it was simply from exhaustion.

The cheering roar coming from the Mighty Mutanimals was so deafening that Donnie almost didn't hear his cell phone going off over them.

But when he saw Leo's familiar caller id on the screen, he quickly shouted for quiet, and answered, "LEO!" he said, which immediately shut everyone else up.

"Hey, Donnie," said his older brother's voice on the other end. "We finally got you and Mikey's messages. You two okay? Are the others?"

Donnie didn't think he'd ever smiled so much in his life. "We're better than okay!" he practically shouted into the phone. "Are you?"

"We're fine. Nothing too bad," Leo replied.

"Speak for yourself, I've got a sunburn from hell," Raph's voice grumbled in the background.

"We're at the site where Buzzkill's old Maze of Doom was. Apparently, he recycled the space for his traps. Meet up back at the Lair to compare notes?" Leo continued, ignoring Raph.

Donnie sent a beaming glance at the rest of their group as he said, "Sure thing. Have we got a surprise for you!"

He then hung up with a whoop, and the Hamatos and Mutanimals quickly made their way towards the exit.

Once they were gone, Buzzkill crept out of hiding, and pressed some buttons on his control panel to stop the knock out gas from venting into Tiger Claw, Bebop, and Rocksteady's cages. As far as he was concerned he was never here, and the Hamatos were the ones who knocked them out and locked the three of them up before taking off with the Shredder's snake woman. All he needed to do was destroy any and all evidence to the contrary. The Shredder would never know of this…

He hoped…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And done. No snake women getting flushed this time, thank you. Shen's going home, and Shredder's going to be pissed. Hopefully, for Buzzkill's sake, he never finds out who did it.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I am the same SunnyLighter as on Fanfiction.net, this is my story, and I thought it'd be nice to post this fic on this site as well, as it's my favorite of all I've written. For those who've never seen this fic before, welcome I hope you enjoy my fic, and for those here from Fanfic.net, welcome back. Maybe posting this again will give me more inspiration for the sequel. You never know what might happen.


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